In what will be my last piece of writing for Environmental Education Research I have just written an editorial which was published on-line yesterday. You can access it here.
Titled, 25 years on: looking back at environmental education research, it is a personal reflection on the first 25 years of the journal. The paper begins in the 1990s with the ideas behind the need for a new journal and explores the journal’s early years as it established itself with Chris Oulton and myself as editors.
It then looks at two quite different papers from Volume 1 of the journal that identified issues that remain pertinent today, albeit in the very changed social context that we now experience where rapid climate change demands national and international responses from governments and educators.
The paper then draws on three recent studies published in Environmental Education Research to examine what research might now focus on. It ends with a personal reflection on how all those involved in the journal are bound together by more than the professional imperative to publish; that is, by a need to address great questions of our time that are now much more urgent than they were when Environmental Education Research was started, or when the modern environmental movement and environmental education as we know it today began.
The papers examined are:
- Smyth, John C. 1995. “Environment and Education: A View of a Changing Scene.” Environmental Education Research 1 (1): 3–20. doi:10.1080/1350462950010101. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Google Scholar]
- Bak, Nelleke. 1995. “Green Doesn't Always Mean ‘Go’: possible Tensions in the Desirability and Implementation of Environmental Education.” Environmental Education Research 1 (3): 345–352. doi:10.1080/1350462950010309. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Google Scholar]
- Monroe, Martha C. , Richard R. Plate, Annie Oxarart, Alison Bowers, and Willandia A. Chaves . 2019. “Identifying Effective Climate Change Education Strategies: A Systematic Review of the Research.” Environmental Education Research 25 (6): 791–812. doi:10.1080/13504622.2017.1360842. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]
- Reid, Alan. 2019. “Blank, Blind, Bald and Bright Spots in Environmental Education Research.” Environmental Education Research 25 (2): 157–171. doi:10.1080/13504622.2019.1615735. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]
- Rickinson, Mark , and Marcia McKenzie . 2020. “Understanding the Research-Policy Relationship in ESE: Insights from the Critical Policy and Evidence Use Literatures.” Environmental Education Research . doi:10.1080/13504622.2020.1804531. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]
It is so good to see how Environmental Education Research has grown in stature and influence – especially since Alan Reid became editor in my stead. The journal is needed now much more than ever. I continue to be pleased what it is achieving, and wish it well.
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