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Environmental Education is History: The Extent to Which Modern History Education Adopts Characteristics of Socially Critical Environmental Education1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Clayton Barry
Clayton Barry*
Affiliation:
Yeppoon State High School
*
†Yeppoon State High School, PO Box 296, Yeppoon, QLD 4703, Australia. Email: cbarr38@eq.edu.au
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Abstract

This paper reports on a research study that investigated the extent to which the Queensland secondary school subject Modern History adopts characteristics of socially critical environmental education. The study found that while the Modern History syllabus gives ample opportunities for students to focus their inquiries on environment, Modern History teachers had overlooked this aspect of the syllabus. More positive findings of this research are that both the syllabus and teachers adopt many characteristics of socially critical environmental education. In particular, the values, political and emancipatory characteristics feature strongly in both policy and practice. To a lesser extent, both the holistic and issues-based characteristics are represented. Finally, this research study shows that the action characteristic, as defined in socially critical environmental education, is clearly neglected. Despite this, there is a case to be made for Modern History to be used as a vehicle for socially critical environmental education in Queensland schools.

Keywords

socially critical environmental educationcharacteristics of socially critical environmental educationmodern history educationQueensland environmental educationformal school environmental education
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , 2006 , pp. 3 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006 

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Footnotes

1.

This research study employs the term socially critical environmental education rather than the terms education for the environment or education for sustainability. There has been exhaustive debate about the use of the terms above (see, for instance, Jickling, 1992; Van Rossen, 1995; Jickling & Spork, 1998). In brief, I share the concern that educating for anything has a potentially deterministic, even inculcating tone that jeopardises its educational potential in the school system (Holsman, 2001, p. 4; Jickling & Spork, 1998, p. 314; Sauvé, 1999, p. 23). For the purposes of this research there are no characteristic differences between education for the environment and socially critical environmental education. However, adopting the term socially critical environmental education helps foreground the social and critical nature of this approach to environmental education.

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