Volume: 13  Number: 2  Page: 115–127

Lend Them An Ear: The Significance of Listening to Children’s Experiences of Environmental Education

Michael C. Nagel Centre for Innovation in Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Over the last four decades, research in environmental education (EE) has offered valuable theoretical insights spanning a number of pedagogical and philosophical arenas. EE literature offers expansive accounts of projects looking at a multiplicity of factors involved in bringing EE to the forefront of educational endeavour. Within all this activity, however, a ‘gap’ between the field of EE and the recipients of such endeavour appears requiring some consideration and exploration. This paper discusses this ‘gap’ and suggests the need for future research initiatives utilising student voice as a mechanism for reflecting on and informing EE philosophy and pedagogy. Premised on an ongoing international doctoral study examining children’s experiences of EE, this paper discusses an approach that builds on emerging EE research nodes and assists in addressing this ‘gap’. It argues that understanding EE conceptions as described by schoolchildren offers environmental educators important considerations for future learning experiences and researchers important insights into factors influencing those experiences.

Keywords: children’s experience, children’s perspective, environmental education

© 2004 M.C.Nagel

Full text PDF