Bringing Environmental Education to the Curriculum: Practical Elements Emergent from Teaching Experiences and Research

Abstract

Bringing theories or policies about environmental education into the classroom is a common problem that  teachers must confront. The purpose of this paper is to provide teachers with practical elements emergent from teaching experiences and research. A Complex Environmental Formation framework is proposed to curricularize a self-eco-organized understanding of the environment and being. Methodologically, three cases are studied using in two methods – a content analysis to identify emergent teaching elements, and a conducted analysis using the framework. The analysis and results indicate some potentially transferable teaching elements –a) selecting local environmental situations to contextualize curriculum, b) integrating knowledge for reading/transforming reality, c) guiding teaching and learning through questions, d) competence-based teaching and learning, e) project-based teaching and learning, f) assessing cooperatively and with formative purpose, g) addressing environmental education from different educational approaches, and h) breaking institutional barriers. There is an approximation to self-eco-organize the subject, communities, institutions, knowledge, learning, teaching, and assessment.