Incorporating environmental activism into environmental education

Environmental activism has increased saliency of environmental issues in many education systems. Activists are defined as individuals who work together to form a community that advocates for a solution to a problem or develops new ideas to solve a problem. This research explored how activism plays a role in EE by investigating how pre-service teachers experienced and handled activism within their field.

In 1998, environmental studies courses were removed from school curricula in Ontario, Canada. Consequently, there was a dramatic decrease in environmental education among secondary schools throughout the province. Instead of implementing EE in K-12 schools, the Ministry of Education encouraged schools to incorporate environmental topics into other subjects and to provide real-world experiences to students. However, there has been a lack of resources to educate pre-service teachers how to incorporate EE across the curriculum, and thus, the transition has been largely unsuccessful. Through this research, the authors propose that a democratic approach—where an institution allows open communication and autonomy among its teachers—could empower teachers to feel comfortable expressing their environmental beliefs.

The researchers recruited pre-service teachers with a background or passion for the environment. Participants were recruited via email, social media, or class visits. The study included 13 participants, ages 19 to 43, one of which was male. The teacher candidates had various certification levels (Grades 7-12, K-6, etc.) and had diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including expertise in History, English, French, and Drama. Each participant completed a demographics questionnaire and then participated in two interviews with the researchers. During the interviews, the participants discussed environmental activism and reflected upon their experiences in EE. The researchers analyzed the interviews for themes among the responses.

Overall findings demonstrated that participants felt activism required a formal action that led to an impactful change. Therefore, many did not feel that their daily actions in the classroom constituted activism, but they identified as activists in other ways. In addition, most respondents felt that activism had a negative connotation and that identifying as an activist teacher would be frowned upon within schools and among parents.

The authors identified three key themes: 1) identifying as an environmental activist; 2) incorporating activism into teaching; and 3) implementing activism in pre-service teaching curriculum. When asked to define activism, respondents indicated that an activist was someone who felt passionate about the environment, engaged in the environmental community, and spread environmental awareness. Of the 13 participants, eight (62%) identified as either environmental or food activists. Many felt that activism required a grand action or gesture, not something that a person can achieve during a given day. For instance, one participant did not feel like small daily actions (i.e., recycling) constituted environmental activism. However, throughout the conversations with the researchers, participants realized that these daily actions were forms of advocacy.

In terms of incorporating activism into teaching, many participants felt that integrating environmental issues into school curricula was a good approach and aligned with what they were taught in their pre-service teacher programs. However, they did not believe that teaching environmental topics counted as activism. Many participants felt hesitant to include environmental advocacy in their curricula for fear of being perceived as political or inappropriate. Many stated that institutions can be restrictive in terms of developing curricula, preventing teachers from incorporating EE into their education plans. Specifically, some felt that subjects already included enough material, so adding environmental topics would be difficult and time consuming.

When asked what prepared the teacher candidates for environmental education, the most common answer was past work experiences and their family members or community. Many felt the university did not prepare them to teach EE and cited previous life experiences as their primary source for educational material. For example, one student stated that environmental adventures, such as camping, had a greater effect on her ability to adopt pro-environmental behaviors than what she learned from a professor.

This study includes limitations. The number of participants was very small and therefore the results should not be generalized to other pre-service teachers across Canada or other countries. The study did not specify whether the participants attended the same educational program or different ones.

The participants indicated that university programs should include more experiential learning rather than relying solely on classroom training. They felt that EE curricula should suggest how teachers can incorporate environmental advocacy into their teaching. These avenues include art, written assignments, reflection, and group discussions. The researchers recommend that institutions encourage their educators to reflect upon their previous life experiences and use these lessons to develop EE curricula. Particularly, education programs should prepare teachers how to draw connections between their experiences and activism through activities or coursework. Lastly, teacher education should include how to handle and discuss controversial environmental issues in the classroom so that teachers feel autonomous and comfortable expressing their environmental beliefs.