Essays on Nature and the Philosophy of Environmental Education

This volume identifies and debates important elements of what would be involved in an education that is truly adequate for the environmental situation that currently confronts us. The chapters in the book present a wide variety of perspectives and raise questions about much mainstream environmental education, particularly the heavy emphasis given to science in understanding environmental problems and to technology for solving them. Contributions argue that there are other equally - if not more - important aspects to be considered: notably our underlying attitudes towards nature and the quality of our underlying relationship with it. They raise questions about what we mean by nature and how we come to know it most authentically in its many facets. The overweening anthropocentrism and desire for mastery that informs much of current Western engagement with nature is revealed as stymying our ability properly to recognise nature’s intrinsic value and moral standing. Consideration is given to the need for a curriculum in which morality, poetry and myth, art and the humanities have key roles to play and where our understandings of the qualities of time and space that frame the curriculum are refreshed. The majority of the chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Environmental Education Research.

Michael Bonnett is an independent scholar who has held senior research and teaching positions in the UK universities of Cambridge, London and Bath. His work in the field of philosophy of education has been widely published.

Justin Dillon is Professor of Science and Environmental Education in University College London’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education. He taught in London schools for nine years before working at King’s College London, the University of Bristol and the University of Exeter.

Alan Reid is Professor of Education at Monash University in Australia. He contributes to a range of environmental and sustainability education research networks, locally and internationally. Key activities include editing the research journal, Environmental Education Research, and supporting the Global Environmental Education Partnership, an international stakeholder network.