Borderless Environmental Education
Global, Local, and Limitations
Principles of Environmental Education
Introduction: What is Environmental Education?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), environmental education teaches students how to explore environmental problems, how to engage in problem-solving, and ways in which people can take action to improve the environment that they live in. The goal of environmental education is to allow students to have a better understanding of environmental issues and obtain skills so that they could be better informed and make responsible decisions. Environmental Education should also boost public awareness and knowledge of environmental issues, teach how to think critically, improve student’s ability to solve problems so that they could make the right decisions, and should not enforce a particular view on a certain issue. There are five important components that are included within the environmental education. Students first have to develop appreciation and responsiveness to the environment and its challenges, then they must gain knowledge and comprehend the environment and challenges associated with it. They should also have an interest in the environment and be motivated in improving environmental quality. Students also need to have skills to identify and bring a solution to environmental challenges and later participate in activities that can later solve environmental challenges.
Environmental Education at a Global Scale
This is a picture , taken by Yutaka Nagata, of United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden.
Environmental education was first addressed in The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration), in June 1972. The Declaration asked nations "to inspire and guide the people of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment” and the declaration adopts broad environmental policy goals and objectives. Stockholm Declaration is significant as it is the first convention that addresses how human impact on the environment globally.
Organizations and Programs
UNEP has divided nations into six regions; North America, Asia and the Pacific, West Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean; with seven subdivision underneath it; Headquarters, Country Office, Sub-regional Office, Executive Office, Regional Office, Liaison Office, and Program Office. The headquarters of UNEP is located in Nairobi and UNEP has currently expanded its presence to New Deli, India on May 16, 2016.
United Nations environment programme (UNEP) is another UN organization that aims to educate the population about environmental issues worldwide. UNEP seeks to work with sectors of education and training in all countries and regions to promote the advancement of environmental education. Some goals of UNEP's environmental education are: implementing and supporting flagship programs worldwide, provide education for leadership and advocacy on environmental education, train people that are currently working in environmental education sectors, and support ongoing research into environmental education and training.
Environmental Education at a Local Level
United States
History of Environmental Education in the US
In 1990, the 101st Congress acknowledges that human health is deeply related to environmental quality and that these problems have a global effect. Therefore, the 101st Congress believes there must be a response to these environmental changes. The legislation also acknowledges that the federal government's environmental education program is not adequate enough to support the development and training of professionals in environmental fields and in informing the public. Hence the 101st Congress enacted the National Environmental Education Act of 1990 which requires the Federal Government to organize its agencies, with the leadership of EPA, so that they could work with local institutions, state education agencies, non-for-profit educational and environmental organizations, noncommercial educational broadcasting entities, and private sectors that are interested in environmental issues. As a result of this legislation, EPA created the Office of Environmental Education to implement this program.
How Politics Effect Environmental Education
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is a new teaching style that focuses more on thinking, experiencing, and deep understanding rather than regurgitating information. NGSS is important for environmental education as the teaching style emphasizes humans' impact on Earth and shows how human and living creatures interact with their surrounding environment. The curriculum also puts importance in real-life experience and environmental education can be comprehended more easily by students as they interact with their surrounding environment.
Map Analysis
This map shows how politics in the US is connected to environmental education. The map on the left shows the political identification of states and the map on the right shows states that have implemented NGSS which are colored in orange and states that have a curriculum that is similar to NGSS which are colored in blue and states that did not implement NGSS or curriculum similar to NGSS which are colored in gray. There is a correlation between the political identification map and NGSS implementation map. It is interesting to see that states that are somewhat conservative are less likely to implement the NGSS curriculum than states that are somewhat liberal.
Environmental Education Near Boston College
Harvard Museum of Natural History has an exhibit on Climate Change. The exhibit brings attention to the latest scientific information which allows people to understand the environmental issue and show how people are responsible for these environmental issues. It then shows how people could engage in both reducing the fossil fuel emissions that cause climate change and ways in which people can prepare for climate change allowing people to be aware of the issues that climate change has, both globally and locally.
Environmental Education Outside the US
Finland
Finland has shown its commitment to environmental education and education for sustainable development by implementing programs both locally and nationally with a number of universities and non-profit participating in these programs. Finland also has a national policy on environmental education. Finland's national core curriculum requires a cross-curricular education in sustainable development which includes a local curriculum as well. The Finnish Government also oversees the objective for education through Basic Education Act, General Upper Secondary Schools Act, and Vocational Education and Training Decree. K-12 Students in Finland are required to understand the significance of protecting the environment through a personal relationship with nature, understand how their choice has a significant impact on the environment, and develop skills that allow them to find local and community environmental problems so that they could fix these environmental problems.
Ghana
Most of Ghana's environmental education is done by environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which are supported by Ghana's EPA. However, there is not yet a national environmental education association and one is being created in collaboration with the Ghana EPA. There is also a lack of legislation on Environmental Education. Still, the Environmental Protection Agency Act of 1994 asks the EPA of Ghana to create both formal and non-formal education that will bring public awareness to the environment and how the environment is important to the economy and social life of the country. Ghana's environmental education is provided to K-12 students through the integrated science curriculum in school. However, Ghana still lacks professional development programs for environmental education.
Sweden
Outdoor Environmental Education at Linköping University
Schools in Sweden, the place where the United Nations addressed environmental education for the first time, developed a curriculum to meet Sweden’s environmental policy. Compulsory schools teach environmental education through science and sometimes through social sciences. Secondary schools have incorporated classes that help students to develop awareness about environmental issues and ways to address these issues. Higher education programs have brought in interdisciplinary environmental education teaching to their education system. Higher education schools such as Chalmers University of Technology and KTH are well known for their environmental programs and they have research facilities that look for ways in which people could live a more sustainable lifestyle.
Comparison of Growth Domestic Product per Capita to Adult Literacy Rate
This is a map that shows 2017's Growth Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Ghana and Finland have been highlighted in blue. Ghana and Finland were chosen as both countries try to implement an environmental education program. However, Ghana is unable to create a national curriculum and lacks help from higher education, unlike Finland, and this is probably due to Ghana having fewer resources compared to Finland. The goal of this comparison is to show how GDP per capita and colonization history effects education. As seen on the map, most of the countries that have been former colonies in recent decades, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Ghana, and Nigeria, have lower GDP per capita, compared to countries that were the colonizers, such as Britain, France, Germany, and the US.
Ghana was part of Britain's Gold Coast colony. Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa that tries to have environmental education in place. Even though Ghana has a higher GDP per capita compared to its surrounding country, it is lower compared with European nations. When compared to Finland's GDP per capita, Ghana's GDP per capita is relatively low as people in Ghana make around 1738 dollars a year.
Finland is known for its education and also known to have an excellent environmental education programs. Finland's GDP per capita is one of the highest in the world. People in Finland makes about 47,558 dollars a year.
This map shows the adult literacy rate, which is often connected with the education level of the people. Like before, former colonies are shown to have lower adult literacy rates compared to those who were the colonizers. Finland and Ghana have been colored in blue again to show how GDP per capita has an effect on education.
Ghana has a relatively high adult literacy rate of 71.5 percent compared to its surrounding countries. However, Ghana's adult literacy rate is low compared to Finland, and other European countries, showing that there is an educational gap between Finland and Ghana. Hence, there is a correlation between the educational gap and GDP per capita.
Finland has one of the highest adult literacy rates in the world as Finland's adult literacy rate is currently 100 percent. Finland is also known to have one of the best education, if not the best education, system in the world. This shows that GDP has an effect on the education of the country and hence there are limitations in environmental education as environmental education is usually provided through schools.
How Borders Create Limitations to Environmental Education
Even though Environmental Education is very promising as it provides people skills to identify, look for solution, and work towards environmental problems, and that is why United Nations is targeting environmental education to people from all countries and regions so that it can have a massive effect, there is limitation on having mass effect on people around the world. As shown on the maps above there are wealth disparities across borders which further leads to educational gaps. Finland and other European countries have enough resources to provide high-quality environmental education and thus have a lot of environmental programs such as the national core curriculum and support from higher education institution as shown above. However, Ghana lacks resources compared to Finland to provide environmental education and currently does not have a higher education institution that could support environmental education or a national curriculum to be put in place.
Limitation of UN Trying to Target Everyone at the Same Time
The countries that were the former colonizers a couple decades ago have been able to collect wealth and power to create infrastructure to provide environmental education while those who have been colonized are just about to create stable governments and they lack the resources to create environmental education. Also, most environmental education is put in place by adding environmental education to the already existing school curriculum. "Global North" countries already have school infrastructure in place and have the ability to hire environmental education experts to create curriculum and train teachers hence this solution seems possible. However, the "Global South" still struggles to create enough schools for its population and does not even have the basic infrastructure to even start an environmental education curriculum. Since Global South does not have enough schools for students to attend and their literacy rate is still lower than their counterparts, it is impossible to target environmental education to people in “all countries and region."
Conclusion
Why Environmental Education should be Borderless
Read Jones in his book Violent Borders talks about how "while climate change is global, its solutions are bounded by state borders and limited by the concept of private property" (148). The solutions for environmental education is also bounded by the state border as each country have their own ways of implementing environmental education. Environmental education policies that each country has might be a good way to start, however, environmental problems are a global issue. For environmental education to truly be effective it must take place worldwide targeting people from all regions. Global society, especially the ones that have the resources and wealth, should be willing to take action and support building infrastructures that are necessary for education to take place. After all, as Amitav Ghosh says in his book The Great Derangement, it was the colonizers who have caused these environmental problems such as flooding by building port cities near the ocean, are the ones to cause climate change during industrial revolution, and are still the leading producers of carbon emission, and these countries should also take responsibility in maintaining environment. There should be a global organization that can collect resources globally and distributes these resources accordingly. Also, politicians around the world should take environmental education seriously and support the global organization so that environmental education can reach different people.
Who Should Environmental Education Target First
Targeting environmental education everyone at the same time might not be efficient enough as there are too many things that these programs have to be put into consideration. Rather than trying to target everyone at the same time, environmental education should first target young children and later expand to other age groups. Early childhood education is known to have longterm cognitive and social effects. Research, such as one done by Gormley et al. (2005), shows that students who attend early childhood education are more likely to retain and use the information that they have learned as a young child in the future. Hence, creating an environmental education curriculum for early childhood education could have a bigger effect on making a more sustainable globe compared to other age groups.
References
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“What Is Environmental Education?” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 5 Nov. 2018, https://www.epa.gov/education/what-environmental-education.
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