Government employees have immense power to influence policies that have environmental consequences, which can either support or detract from a sustainable future. Environmental pre-service training programs have proven to be effective in increasing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, but they have rarely been used or studied in governmental institutions.
When teaching environmental education and developing sustainably oriented students, an environmental communication teaching approach can effectively instill collaboration and problem-solving skills in students and communities. Complex environmental issues like climate change, water resources, and poverty require partnership and problem-solving in the decision-making process. Research has proven that communication training improves interdisciplinary thinking during collaboration and can lead to applying said interdisciplinarity in community and policy decisions.
Despite the increasing awareness that climate change poses a serious threat to human and planetary wellbeing, local communities may have limited ability to mitigate or adapt. Educational programs are essential to improve communities' preparedness for the consequences of climate change and reduce the severity of damage. In the US, Cooperative Extensions Masters Volunteering (CEMV) programs have been effective in combating other environmental challenges in the past.
Fostering pro-environmental behaviors within individuals and the community is increasingly important as the world faces the growing effects of climate change, resource depletion, and waste mismanagement. However, this effort is inherently challenging due to the complexity of various factors, some of which are still not fully understood by researchers. One of these factors is the role of partnerships between schools and other entities, the participants in these partnerships, and the role partnerships play in creating change in a community.
While traditional schools are often thought of us the main way that children receive education today, there are many other informal forms of education that influence how children perceive the world. In Israel, one of the most popular forms of informal education is youth movements (YMs). These programs foster community engagement both politically and socially, and focus on many social justice issues, including environmental ones.
Environmental education (EE) is a powerful tool for improving human-environment relationships by cultivating environmentally responsible citizens. Environmental education programs often follow one of two methodologies to accomplish these goals: the instrumental perspective, which aims to change irresponsible environmental behaviors, and the emancipatory perspective, which provides participants with opportunities for positive development and encourages autonomous thinking.
Service-learning (SL), a technique that combines learning objectives and community service, has become popular in the environmental education field as a tool to garner environmental awareness. Students who participate in SL experiences gain communication, team building, critical thinking, and decision-making skills, and have positive feelings about being engaged in these experiences.
Individuals develop commitments to social and environmental action through their unique paths, which is shaped by their identities. Understanding what fosters and sustains this development is important for the field of environmental education. This study looked at adults' development of and motivations for action that promotes social and environmental change. To address a lack of research with multiple views in this domain, diverse perspectives were incorporated into this study. The researchers sought to understand three questions:
How do participants view their own activism?
To further environmental education, it is helpful to have insight into the process of environmental learning and how it influences how people act in their communities. This study looked at environmental learning through concientización, which is one's ability to take pro-environmental action at a community-wide level. The researchers explored how two theories of learning, affinity spaces and Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), to support the path towards concientización.
Climate change (CC) education has become more prevalent in schools throughout the United States. Currently, the majority of CC education is conducted in a science classroom setting, typically with middle-school to college aged students. While it is important to provide young adults and adolescents with CC education, it is essential that it is integrated into programming for all ages.