Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Pllanning education to care for the earthInfluences on pro-environmental practicesJoy A. PalmerAbstractCertain experiences are shown to have influenced pro-environmentalbehaviours in a study of UK environmental educators. The results arecompared with a similar study in the USA. Have schools beeninfluential? What is the role of family and outdoor activities? Theimplications of the study to policies and practices in the UK aredescribed.Those responsible for organising and implementing education andcommunication programmes which are intended to help people learn aboutand care for the environment should certainly know something aboutlearning experiences that produce active and informed minds. This chapterwill attempt to give some understanding of the influences and experienceswhich develop pro-environmental behaviours.A research study in the United States by Tanner (1980) highlighted lifeexperiences that produce adults who are informed about and activelypromote environmentally positive behaviour. Conservationists were asked toidentify the formative influences that led them to choose conservation work.Youthful experiences of the outdoors and of pristine environments emergedas the most dominant influence, supporting Tanner’s hypothesis (1974a,1974b) that children must first come to know and love the natural worldbefore they can become concerned with its care.Following on from this work, Palmer (1993) generated data about formativeexperiences and environmental concern from a larger sample of adults.This study focused on environmental educators - a group of active andinformed citizens who know about and care for the environment in theiradult lives. An outline of the study was sent to members of the NationalAssociation for Environmental Education in the United Kingdom. Theywere asked to provide their age, gender, details of their demonstration ofpractical concern for the environment, and an autobiographical statementidentifying the experiences which had led to that concern. They were alsoasked to recount what they considered to be their most significant lifeexperience and to write a statement indicating which, if any, of the years oftheir lives were particularly memorable in the development of positiveattitudes towards the environment. Only the aims and purposes of theresearch were notified to participants so that they were able to providecompletely original responses that had not been biased by suppliedexamples.3