Book Description

Raising the environmental awareness of the population is a central element for developing a sustainable environment. This report is intended to highlight how schools, teachers, and students in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries are attempting to meet the challenge of building a sustainable society through environmental education. The main pedagogical and research issues discussed in this report reflect intense work that was carried out in the participating countries at the grass-roots or school level. Chapter I addresses the challenges of international environmental education. Chapter II deals with the pedagogical, curricular, and teacher development questions that resulted from an analysis of national reports. Chapter III concentrates on action-research as it was implemented in the countries that used it as a tool in developing school initiatives. Policy issues are addressed in Chapter IV from an analysis of the outcomes of the five in-depth studies on environmental education policy that were carried out in Australia, Austria, Finland, Germany, and Norway. Chapter V concludes with some basic dilemmas concerning present developments in environmental education and makes recommendations for the future. Contains 57 references. (JRH)