Influences on and Obstacles to K-12 Administrators’ Support for Environment-Based Education

Urban environmental education helps students to recognize ecological features and practices of cities. To understand the value and practice of developing such ecological place meaning, we conducted narrative research with educators and students in urban environmental education programs in the Bronx, New York City. Narratives showed that educators are cultivating ecological place meaning to help students appreciate ecological aspects of cities, and develop their imagination of how their environment could be improved. Such ecological place meaning is nurtured through direct experiences with the urban environment, social interactions within educational programs and communities, and development of students’ ecological identity.     

Connecting brawn,brains, and people: an exploration of non-traditional outcomes of youth stewardship programs

Programs in which youth work collectively on an environmental stewardship project may provide social learning opportunities that support social-ecological system resilience and the development of social ties. However, few empirical investigations document the social learning processes that actually occur in these programs. This paper presents a multi-case study ethnography of six summer youth civic ecology education programs. Methods included participant observation, interviews, and group mind-mapping. The results suggest that programs offered moderate social learning contexts, with participants having little say over the direction and design of the program’s environmental stewardship goals. Nevertheless, participants worked together and collaborated on projects led by program leaders, with whom they developed strong ties. In programs focused on a single issue in one place, participants shifted their conceptual frames to include locally relevant concepts. While participants did not form strong ties with other program participants or with individuals from outside programs, they valued experiences where they led volunteers or were observed by others doing stewardship work. These results suggest that environmental stewardship programs can be designed to enhance social learning opportunities, which could incorporate strategies to increase youth developing ties with each other and with outside organizations.     

Measuring social capital among youth: applications in environmental education

Although critiqued for circular reasoning and lack of definitional and analytic clarity, social capital has garnered widespread interest in two areas relevant to environmental education (EE): the impact of family and community-level social capital on positive youth development and of community-level social capital in fostering collective action to manage natural resources. Although EE is normally considered for its value relative to environmental outcomes or natural capital, intergenerational, community, and other approaches to EE may also foster social capital. Drawing on Putnam’s definition of social capital, which emphasizes civic engagement, we developed and tested for reliability a survey to measure cognitive and structural attributes of social capital among youth. We conclude that although several attributes of our instrument are useful for use with youth aged 10–18 years in EE contexts, much more work needs to be done on conceptualizing and developing measures of social capital that are relevant to EE. Further, we suggest that social capital presents a framework for how EE programs can bring youth and adults together to create the conditions that enable collective action, as a complement to ongoing work in EE focusing on individual behaviors.     

A community of inquiry-based framework for civic education at Universitas Terbuka,Indonesia

This study focused on the civic education course at Universitas Terbuka (UT). Its purpose was to design a new approach for the online tutorial for the course by analyzing the literature related to online and distance education and investigating participant feedback on the current offering of the course and tutorial, which is a compulsory course in all programs at UT. The study draws from the community of inquiry framework, which promotes a social constructivist approach as well as teaching about democracy by example. This model is intended to create meaningful learning experiences for students in a reformulated civic education course, in which they would learn to think critically through interacting with classmates, experiencing collaborative learning, and supporting fellow students in learning activities and processes. In this model, learning is seen as occurring within the community through the interaction of social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence where, students are able to develop civic competences, namely civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions, as well as experience a democratic interaction that forms the core of civic interactions in a democratic society.     

教育与自然生态环境的关系问题论析

本运用教育人类学的基本理论观点,结合当今人类面临的种种危机状况,通过对人与自然、人与社会关系问题的理性思考,提出了教育作为培养人的社会实践与生态环境这一新的课题,进而论述了它们二之间相互影响的辩证统一关系。认为正确处理人与自然生态环境和谐、协调发展问题,最根本的就在于改革的发展教育,全面提高人的素质及对人类所处的现实生存环境的整体关怀能力,才能有效促进经济社会的持续发展,以满足现代人代人物质生     

Examining the literature to reveal the nature of community EE/ESD programs and research

Interest in community environmental education (EE) and community education for sustainable development (ESD) is increasing, as evidenced by the increase in studies examining community EE/ESD approaches and NAAEE’s current development of the Community EE Guidelines for Excellence. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to: (1) provide a review of research which identifies as examining community EE/ESD issues from 1994 to 2013, (2) examine themes specific to community-oriented program implementation and outcomes, and (3) examine theoretical trends within this work. While no single framework emerged from the diverse studies on community EE/ESD, themes suggested greater success for programs that were rooted in community issues, involved multiple community partners, were oriented towards collaborative and civic action, and incorporated reflection on social institutions and power dynamics. These characteristics reflect an emancipatory approach to education which seeks to enhance human development through public participation and engagement. To this end, future researchers and practitioners should consider: (1) the resources needed to understand community values and concerns, (2) skills and knowledge required to build relationships and attend to community culture, values and democratic processes, (3) theories that account for the socio-historical contexts of participants and their pathways for transformation and empowerment, and (4) a process of action that continually reflects on power structures and dynamics.     

Changes in Social Capital and Networks: A Study of Community-Based Environmental Management Through a School-Centered Research Program

Social network analysis (SNA) is a social science research tool that has not been applied to educational programs. This analysis is critical to documenting the changes in social capital and networks that result from community based K-12 educational collaborations. We review SNA and show an application of this technique in a school-centered, community based environmental monitoring research (CBEMR) program. This CBEMR employs K-12 students, state and local government employees, environmental organization representatives, local businesses, colleges, and community volunteers. As citizen scientists and researchers, collaborators create a database of local groundwater quality to use as a baseline for long-term environmental health management and public education. Past studies have evaluated the reliability of data generated by students acting as scientists, but there have been few studies relating to power dynamics, social capital, and resilience in school-centered CBEMR programs. We use qualitative and quantitative data gathered from a science education program conducted in five states in the northeastern United States. SPSS and NVivo data were derived from semi-structured interviews with thirty-nine participants before and after their participation in the CBEMR. Pajek software was used to determine participant centralities and power brokers within networks. Results indicate that there were statistically significant increases in social capital and resilience in social networks after participation in the school-centered CBEMR program leading to an increased community involvement in environmental health management. Limiting factors to the CBMER were based on the educator/administration relationship.     

地理学研究生教育的空间性及其生产机制

比较中国高校地理学研究生培养方案,识别高校地理学研究生教育的空间性及其生产机制。研究发现:（1）研究生培养单位分布区域不平衡显著,隶属关系与区位差异直接影响培养方向、目标、创新能力等方面育成途径差异,地理学研究生培养日益重视学科内部交叉,以及与生态环境、测绘、海洋、经济、城乡规划与资源环境管理等外部学科交叉衍生;（2）中央政府直属高校自然地理人才培养面向全球变化、资源利用与自然灾害,人文地理人才培养集中在经济、城市、旅游等三级分支理论研究及其服务国家发展规划,地理信息系统人才养集中在资源环境遥感原理与应用、生态环境监测;省属高校地理学研究生培养更加注重地方发展、资源环境利用与中学师资等方向。     

An Exploration of “Hyper-Local” Community-University Engagement in the Development of Smart Cities

The use of big data in smart cities poses new questions about higher education and community-university engagement practices in addressing longstanding social and economic exclusion in urban communities. Drawing on transdisciplinary ideas in higher education, cultural theory, and science and technology studies, primary concerns in the era of big data are considered with current conceptualizations of higher education engagement and anchor institution purposes. Tensions in the narratives of civic engagement and democratic practice for community well-being are juxtaposed with tensions in the smart citizen narrative implied by the idealized smart city design. A new framing of community-university relations under what I term “hyper-local” engagement is suggested for more justice-oriented and democratic practices when universities interact with their surrounding communities given the impending and sweeping changes occurring from the use of big data in social policy.     

Towards new learning environments—Collective civic actions as learning interventions in post-Communist Belgrade

This article focuses on the social dimension of well-being, based on a critical analysis of the way it is conceptualised in late capitalism: As the dimensions of individual state of mind and body, something that evolves in the individual realm, stressing personal responsibility and achievement of well-being as a solitary act. Then, the contemporary conceptualisation and approaches to policy making for well-being are compared with the policy of adult and youth education and learning. The perspective of a strong individual orientation, detachment from the social, community and collective aspects and efforts seem to be a common denominator. Agency is considered not only as a possibility for individuals to create and change the environment, but also as a process of active co-construction of social reality. This includes (re)connection with a community, very often through new ways of community learning, civic actions and civic activities. An analysis of how these perspectives converge in civic interventions in urban areas of Belgrade places togetherness at the core of the broader approach to well-being and learning. This article presents several examples of civic activities in urban spaces whose learning character is interpreted within the concept of public pedagogy. The examples presented prevail in the post-Communist countries because public spaces as zones of civic interventions can oppose the controlling authority and through the fight for human and civil rights represent the bottom line of togetherness and collective agency. Learning through collective civic actions thus provides new ways of understanding well-being.     

Teaching Ecosystem Management and Sustainability

At first glance, a refuge proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) appeared to be an effective approach for protecting the habitat of migratory waterfowl. Under careful scrutiny, the proposal was predicated on false assumptions about development pressure and affected landowners exhibited a lifestyle reflecting environmental values. Residents promoted wildlife and utilized renewable resources on their land; they practiced ecological sustainability through private stewardship. Ecological sustainability is a long‐term strategy based on deep ecology and bioregionalism. Technological sustainability is a short‐term strategy based, on centralized bureaucracies, high technologies and economic markets. USFWS engages technological sustainability through acquisition and ecosystem management. While technological sustainability is urgently needed where habitat is disappearing rapidly, it can preempt ecological sustainability elsewhere, as illustrated in this case study. Environmental educators should teach concepts of ecosystem management and sustainability carefully. Private stewardship for ecological sustainability is not part of the anti‐environmental ‘wise use’ movement.     

Muskrat theories,tobacco in the streets,and living Chicago as Indigenous land

In this paper, we aim to contribute to ongoing work to uncover the ways in which settler colonialism is entrenched and reified in educational environments and explore lessons learned from an urban Indigenous land-based education project. In this project, we worked to re-center our perceptual habits in Indigenous cosmologies, or land-based perspectives, and came to see land re-becoming itself. Through this recentering, we unearthed some ways in which settler colonialism quietly operates in teaching and learning environments and implicitly and explicitly undermines Indigenous agency and futurity by maintaining and reifying core dimensions of settler colonial relations to land. We describe examples in which teachers and community members explicitly re-engaged land-based perspectives in the design and implementation of a land-based environmental science education that enabled epistemological and ontological centering that significantly impacted learning, agency, and resilience for urban Indigenous youth and families. In this paper, we explore the significance of naming and the ways in which knowledge systems are mobilized in teaching and learning environments in the service of settler futurity. However, we suggest working through these layers of teaching and learning by engaging in land-based pedagogies is necessary to extend and transform the possibilities and impacts of environmental education.     

Positive Youth Development and Resilience: Growth Patterns of Social Skills Among Youth Investigated for Maltreatment

Maltreated children are a vulnerable population, yet many of these youth follow positive developmental pathways. The primary aim was to identify social skills growth trajectories among at‐risk youth to understand processes underlying resilience. Nationally representative, longitudinal data from 1,179 families investigated for child maltreatment (M_age = 12.75) were obtained from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being. Four trajectories were identified—stress‐resistant, emergent resilience, breakdown, and unresponsive‐maladaptive. Protective resources from multiple levels of the youth ecology (individual, family, school, and social service) predicted positive growth social skills trajectories. Resilience process and attendant positive outcomes in multiple domains of functioning were evident among the stress‐resistant and emergent resilience trajectories. Results underscore the saliency of social skills development for resilient outcomes in youth.     

A review of the foundational processes that influence beliefs in climate change: opportunities for environmental education research

Recently, many organizations involved in environmental education have initiated programs that aim to educate visitors or other publics who interact with nature-based resources about the impacts and landscape transformations occurring because of climatic changes. However, many psychological, human-evolutionary, and social–ecological processes that impede individuals’ ability to notice or respond to (e.g. adaptation and mitigation behaviors) climate impacts in nature-based areas, or in their urban-based home communities, may influence the educational process. By reviewing and examining these foundational processes and their potential influence on an audience’s attitudes and beliefs towards climate change, we outline and explain their importance for research. Based on these important psychological, human-evolutionary, and social–ecological processes, the authors conclude by identifying how researchers can investigate the influence of these processes and their potential impacts on environmental education outcomes.     

西安市水环境生态修复模式研究

水体生态修复是环境学领域研究的热点问题,也是城市生态环境营造与修复的重要方面。西安市历史时期水资源充沛,但目前的城市水环境修复中存在重人文轻自然、重个体轻整体等问题。西安市水环境的生态修复应当进行整体生态规划与设计,以水体生态服务功能的修复为最终目标,通过景观格局的恢复、功能分区的优化、自然生态的良性循环等途径,达到自然生态、经济与社会三者和谐统一的目的。     

What works to improve the quality of student learning in developing countries?

We conducted a systematic review to identify policy interventions that improve education quality and student learning in developing countries. Relying on a theory of change typology, we highlight three main drivers of change of education quality: (1) supply-side capability interventions that operate through the provision of physical and human resources, and learning materials; (2) policies that through incentives seek to influence behaviour and intertemporal preferences of teachers, households, and students; (3) bottom-up and top-down participatory and community management interventions, which operate through decentralisation reforms, knowledge diffusion, and increased community participation in the management of education systems. Overall, our findings suggest that interventions are more effective at improving student performance and learning when social norms and intertemporal choices are factored in the design of education policies, and when two or more drivers of change are combined. Thus, supply-side interventions alone are less effective than when complemented by community participation or incentives that shift preferences and behaviours.     

依托地方文化资源优势开展社区教育研究——基于河北省邯郸市开展社区教育的实践

社区教育是继续教育的重要形式,发展社区教育对促进经济发展、辅助社会管理、传承先进文化、提升个人素质、拓展电大教育具有不可替代的作用。邯郸在实践中将地方文化资源作为开展社区教育的重要内容,将地方文化活动作为开展社区教育的有效载体,并利用地方文化资源系统发展社区教育组织,这些做法或许为社区教育的深入发展提供了些许思路。     

谈当代青年大学生生态意识的养成

当今,生态问题凸显成为不争的事实,应对生态危机成为全人类共同面临的任务。"生态"一词不仅仅是单独意义上的学科概念,而是逐步上升到普遍意义上生态意识的高度。青年大学生,一直是时代关注的对象,青年发展水平代表社会发展水平。培养公民生态意识,高等学校应成为主战场、青年大学生应成为领跑者。     

高校生态道德教育刍议

高校生态道德教育是培养大学生自觉维系自然界生态平衡、环境保护和不可再生资源可持续利用的道德理念的一种新型的德育活动。从可持续发展的角度来看，目前高校生态道德缺乏全局性、前瞻性和一致性等问题。因此，高等学校必须加强对生态道德教育的研究探讨，发挥高校自身优势，在教育方法的改进上下功夫，引导学生树立正确的生态道德观。