NAAEE

Establishing a sense of interdependence with one's natural surroundings is a critical element of environmental education. Those aspects of interaction have a significant influence on the way individuals behave and view their natural world, known as Nature Relatedness (NR). A person with strong NR feels connected with nature, a sense of agency to care for nature, and is comfortable and desires to be in nature. NR is theorized to reflect character strengths (CS).

As the world faces more energy emissions and more frequent bouts of water scarcity, energy and water conservation messages by agencies and educators are important to inspire conservation-minded actions in people. However, people tend to be driven by their own motivation, or vested interest, to act. Many conservation messages typically do not consider the need of an individual's vested interest, and therefore may fall flat in inspiring action.

Partnerships between universities and communities can benefit environmental education through the engagement, collaboration, and participation of demographically and ideologically diverse communities to address relevant and local environmental issues. However, institutions of higher education face challenges that affect their ability to develop such meaningful partnerships.

Intergenerational learning is the process in which knowledge, behaviors, and cultural traditions are passed between generations. This type of learning is important because while children are regarded as the future, some environmental issues require immediate action from adults. Research surrounding intergenerational learning is limited and is primarily focused on how parents or grandparents share knowledge with children. Additionally, research has not significantly addressed how formal learning influence attitudes towards food animals.

In this paper, an Australian researcher considers what place different types of research should have in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) policy. The researcher defines policy as the application of values through the mechanisms of government. Policies are typically devised at the state or national level, but implementation depends on local context. The researcher argues that emotional affect, more than evidence, drives policy and is necessary to enact ESE policy.

Though science education and environmental education (EE) have been considered as separate disciplines, their missions and teaching methods are complementary. Therefore, there is an opportunity to integrate the two disciplines in light of the recent educational shifts in the United States to prioritizing systems-thinking and adaptability in K-12 settings based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). For example, the foundation of science education has moved from learning about science principles to solving problems and making decisions based on science.

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.

Changing an adult's mind about climate change is difficult. Studies have found that adults' political ideologies strongly influence their views on climate change – and that individuals tend to seek out information that fits their preconceptions. The complexity of climate change science and the availability of misinformation have added challenges to the process of building a strong collective response.

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.