Leadership skills/development

Environmental education (EE) incorporates place-based learning for students to adequately understand and create better solutions for social and ecological issues. Civic ecology specifically looks at the role of individuals, their community, the way they solve community-based environmental challenges, and how these solutions impact overall community function. Research has shown using civic ecology principles such as community engagement, environmental stewardship, and environmental management can help grow social-ecological resilience.

Motivation is essential for all teachers and specifically for environmental educators. Research has concluded that motivation affects teaching quality and student outcomes in environmental education (EE). Research has also proved that organizational practices can affect an employee's motivation and subsequent performance across sectors. Though many studies have been conducted on EE and professional development for environmental educators, not much is known about the organizational influences on a teacher's motivation to perform at their peak level.

Professional development for educators is important in order to better teach about various current events involving the environment and society. In many cases, professional development programs assume that teachers will take the learned knowledge and skills and apply it to their students with ease. However, with rising issues such as climate change, educators may require more tailored content and teaching strategies to build confidence to teach these complex issues and solutions to students.

Climate change is a social and environmental issue impacting many communities around the world. Understanding ways to mitigate and adapt to these impacts of climate change are important for the continued strength of local communities. In particular, younger generations can be crucial in spreading the lessons learned from climate change education with their use of social media and their increased motivation to act.

When attempting to understand global ecology, there is a significant amount of political bias. Environmental education (EE) is inseparable from political ecology as climate change and sustainable living practices conversations grow within and between many countries around the world. In the United States and throughout European countries, environmental science and political science are popular topics for undergraduate students. However, there are deficits in the connection between the two.

A proven method to increase student engagement and promote learning objectives is to take students out of the traditional classroom setting, and on field trips. Field trips are well suited for environmental education (EE) because educators can bring students into natural settings where there are many direct links between the theory and content taught in EE classrooms and hands-on learning can occur. However, studies have shown educators lack confidence to organize or lead field trips.

Outdoor environmental education programs (OEEPs) can help students connect with nature and learn pro-environmental behaviors as well as develop a sense of autonomy through empowerment in place-based experiences. Empowerment could mean that the students have more control in prescribed activities, or that they are included in the planning process of the OEEP. This concept is often referred to as an emancipatory approach.

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?

The consequences of climate change are already visible in communities across the globe, and despite the rapidly increasing impacts, widespread social and governmental changes have not occurred. While the majority of decision-makers are members of socially dominant groups in the United States (e.g., white, middle-to-upper class, male), climate change most affects often-underrepresented groups, such as youth and low-income communities of color. Research indicates that storytelling can help link young people's experiences at home, in school, and in their community.

Environmental education (EE) continues to grapple with how best to develop youth leaders in sustainability. Previous research indicates that assumptions around a direct relationship between attitudes and behavior change is too simplistic. Instead, more recent literature finds that learning is complex and social. This study explored whether and how a program for high school students promoted transformational learning and action competence through a participatory evaluation process.