Environmental Citizenship in Secondary Formal Education: The Importance of Curriculum and Subject Teachers

Abstract

Environmental Citizenship can take on different meanings in different countries and discourses as outlined in other chapters of this book. When Environmental Citizenship becomes part of the educational system, another level of complexity is added to the construct, the diversity of the educational systems in various countries. In this chapter, we will address this issue with a focus on formal secondary education. In the previous chapter on primary school and informal education, much has been written about how to practice different teaching approaches related to Education for Environmental Citizenship. In this chapter, we will focus on how to overcome the demands in order to be able to enact such teaching approaches in secondary education, with students aged 11–19 years old. In secondary education the subject or discipline comes into focus. As a result, students are taught by several subject specialists from different disciplines. To enact Environmental Citizenship, these different teachers need to collaborate. Moreover, secondary schooling might have different aims compared to other school forms, and it is often regulated with specific subject syllabi. In this chapter we discuss how Environmental Citizenship can be enacted considering these challenges.