{"id":4816,"date":"2013-10-16T10:13:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T09:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=4816"},"modified":"2013-10-16T10:13:55","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T09:13:55","slug":"unesco-uneps-environmentally-educated-teachers-the-priority-of-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/10\/16\/unesco-uneps-environmentally-educated-teachers-the-priority-of-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"UNESCO-UNEP&#039;s Environmentally Educated Teachers \u2013 once the priority of priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1987, as part of its <em>International Environmental Education Programme<\/em>,\u00a0UNESCO-UNEP published: <em>Strategies for the Training of Teachers in Environmental Education<\/em> [<a href=\"http:\/\/unesdoc.unesco.org\/images\/0007\/000732\/073252e.pdf\">Vol 25<\/a> of the programme], a summary of whose recommendations was subsequently made available in\u00a0<em>'<a href=\"http:\/\/unesdoc.unesco.org\/images\/0015\/001535\/153574eo.pdf\">Connect<\/a><\/em> XV(1) pp.1-3,\u00a0'<em>Environmentally Educated Teachers \u2013 the priority of priorities'.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The <em>Connect<\/em> article began with sentiments that we all might agree with, more or less, ...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\"<span style=\"color: #333399\">The role of environmental education in the care of the environment is crucial. \u00a0What of the role of the teacher in environmental education [EE] \u2014 rather, of the <em>environmentally educated teacher in <\/em>the vital process of education, before and after, in and out of school? \u00a0Is it not, arguably, the priority of educational and, certainly, environmental priorities, as experience increasingly instructs us? \u00a0For in this connection, <em>environment must <\/em>be conceived in its entirety \u2013 natural and built, personal and collective, economic, social and cultural, technological, ecological and esthetic.\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It continued:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\"<span style=\"color: #333399\">Ministers at the [1977] Tbilisi Conference logically concluded that EE should be an obligatory part of pre- and in-service teacher education and pertinent to the area \u2014 urban or rural \u2014 where the teacher was going to practise. \u00a0This is still to be universally applied.\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\"> <\/span>35 years on, it still is, of course. \u00a0The original UNESCO-UNEP paper said this (p.28) in relation to the competencies required of an effective environmental educator:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">\"The initial steps in designing training programmes at either pre or inservice levels must include a definition of the desired teacher product. \u00a0The most functional way to define the product is in the form of expected behavioral competencies \u2013 associated knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are necessary in order to effectively teach environmental education (E.E.) programmes. \u00a0The descriptions of E.E. competencies found herein have been selected on the basis of two criteria: (1) they represent unique applications of knowledge, attitudes, behavior and\/or skills to E.E.; or, (2) they are general education competencies pertinent to E.E. as well as other disciplines, but are not adequately developed by most existing teacher education programmes. \u00a0Therefore, the competencies proposed here are in addition to the general knowledge, attitudes, and skills expected of an effective educator.\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The authors of the <em>Connect<\/em> summary could not bring themselves to use the notion of a \"desired teacher product\". \u00a0Rather, they talked about 'results' ...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\"<span style=\"color: #333399\">Practical initial steps in designing EE training programmes for teachers include definition of the desired result. \u00a0This in turn involves the most functional way of defining the desired result, namely, in terms of desired teacher competencies, which may be divided into two linked categories: (1) foundational competencies in professional education and (2) competencies in EE content.\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The rest of the <em>Connect <\/em>paper was taken up with a summary of what UNESCO-UNEP thought that these competencies should be:<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\">A Foundational competencies in professional education<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\">The effective environmentally educated teacher should be able to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">apply a knowledge of educational philosophy to the selection or development of curricular programmes and strategies to achieve both general education and EE goals. (General education materials and methods may sometimes need merely to be \"environmentalized\" to achieve both objectives); <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">utilize current theories of moral reasoning in selecting, developing and implementing E \u00cb curricula which will effectively achieve EE goals. (Teachers should be competent to use appropriate strategies to allow learners to recognize the role of values in environmental decision making, clarify value positions and understand the valuing process); <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">utilize current theories of knowledge\/attitude\/ behavior relationships in selecting, developing and implementing a balanced curriculum which maximizes the probability of desired environmentally aware behavior changes in learners. (A balanced curriculum takes into account such aspects as ecological factors vs. trade-off costs, etc.); <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">utilize current theories of learning in selecting, developing and implementing curricular strategies to effectively achieve EE goals. (The methodology of EE as well as the nature of many EE goals is problem solving. A pragmatic approach on the part of teachers to theories of learning development, such as Piaget's, can do much to increase EE effectiveness in such methodologies and goals as environmental problem solving); <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">apply the theory of transfer of learning in selecting, developing and implementing curricular materials and strategies to insure that learned knowledge, attitudes and cognitive skills will be transferred to the learner's choices and decision making concerning lifestyle and behavior. (The ultimate goal of EE is to produce environmentally literate citizens who are willing and capable of taking positive environmental actions in their lifetime); <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">effectively implement the following methodologies to achieve EE goals: interdisciplinarity, outdoor education, values clarification, games and simulation, case-study approaches, community resource use, autonomous student and\/or group investigation, evaluation and action in environmental problem solving, and appropriate teacher behaviors when handling controversial environmental issues; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">develop and use effective means of planning for instruction; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">effectively infuse appropriate EE curricula and methods into all disciplines to which the teacher is assigned; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">effectively evaluate the results of EE curricula and methods in both cognitive and affective domains. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\">B Competencies in environmental education content<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\">Level I : Ecological foundations <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\">The effective environmentally educated teacher should be able to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">apply a knowledge of ecological foundations to the analysis of environmental issues and identify key ecological principles involved; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">apply a knowledge of ecological foundations to predict the ecological consequences of alternative solutions to environmental problems; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">be sufficiently literate in ecology to identify, select and interpret appropriate sources of scientific information in a continuing effort to investigate, evaluate and find solutions for environmental problems; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">communicate and apply in an educational context the major concepts in ecology.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\">Level II: Conceptual awareness<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\">The effective environmentally educated teacher should be able to select, develop and implement curricular materials which will make learners aware of:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">how people's cultural or vocational activities (economic, religious, industrial, etc.) affect the environment from an ecological perspective; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">how individual behaviors impact on the environment from the same perspective; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">a wide variety of local, regional, national and international environmental issues and the ecological and cultural implications of these issues; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the viable alternative solutions available for remediating discrete environmental issues and the ecological and cultural implications of these alternative solutions; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the need for environmental issue investigation and evaluation as a prerequisite to sound decision making; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the roles played by differing human values clarification as an integral part of environmental decision making; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the need for responsible citizenship action (persuasion, consumerism, legal action, political action, ecomanagement, etc.) in the remediation of environmental concerns. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\">Level III : Investigation and evaluation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\">The effective environmentally educated teacher should be competent to investigate environmental issues and evaluate alternative solutions and to develop, select and implement curricular materials and strategies which will develop similar competencies in learners, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the knowledge and skills needed to identify and investigate issues (using both primary and secondary sources of information and to synthesize the data gathered); <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the ability to analyze environmental issues and the associated value perspectives with respect to their ecological and cultural implications; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the ability to identify alternative solutions for discrete issues and the value perspectives associated with these solutions; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the ability to autonomously evaluate alternative solutions and associated value perspectives for discrete environmental issues with respect to their cultural and ecological implications; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the ability to identify and clarify their own value positions related to discrete environmental issues and their associated solutions; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #333399\">the ability to evaluate, clarify and change their own value positions in the light of new information.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\"><strong>Level IV <\/strong>: <strong>Environmental action skills<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333399\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\">The effective environmentally educated teacher should be competent to take positive environmental action for the purpose of achieving and maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between the quality of life and the quality of the environment (if indeed one can be separated from the other) and develop similar competencies in learners to take individual or group action when appropriate, such as persuasion, consumerism, political action, legal action, eco-management or combinations of these categories of action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399\">............................................<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">This was all rather demanding \u2013 and somewhat daunting \u2013 as Chris Oulton and I commented on in a paper in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com.ezp2.bath.ac.uk\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/1350462950010207#.UlkmWRaRAmE\">EER<\/a> in 1995. \u00a0It remains so, even when you take this caveat into account from the <\/span>original UNESCO-UNEP paper ...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">\"It may well be impossible for a single educational programme to effectively complete the training of teachers in all competency areas. \u00a0The need for continued development of these competencies will undoubtedly exist throughout the individual educator\u2019s career. \u00a0Accordingly, these competency statements [ma]y be used to develope preservice programmes or continuing inservice programmes in E.E. teacher training.\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chris Oulton and I were particularly critical of the demands being made on teachers in relation to ecological knowledge and understanding. \u00a0We wondered, to cut a long story short, how all this could ever be developed, given the typical educational backgrounds of teachers, and the short time available for teacher education programmes (pre- or in-service). \u00a0We though it an impossible demand, akin to taking an ecology degree. \u00a0Further, we thought it an unnecessary one. \u00a0Speaking only for myself, I still do. \u00a0Unsurprisingly, nothing came of this, despite the eminence of the academics writing those long lists of what their teacher products needed to know.<\/p>\n<p>Such fundamentalist ideas and urges have not gone away, as I shall illustrate in a follow-up post.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1987, as part of its International Environmental Education Programme,\u00a0UNESCO-UNEP published: Strategies for the Training of Teachers in Environmental Education [Vol 25 of the programme], a summary of whose recommendations was subsequently made available in\u00a0'Connect XV(1) pp.1-3,\u00a0'Environmentally Educated Teachers \u2013...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}