2008:EE Forum 2008

2006 articles:

EE, ESD: What is the difference

Acidic Oceans

Ducks Unlimited

2005:

Introducing the EE Forum
The purpose of this forum is to raise issues for discussion and to stimulate critical reflection about the quality of our efforts in environmental education.  It is hoped that the Forum will encourage contributions from a wide range of people in the field, both in and beyond school-based education.

The forum is coordinated by David Chapman. Dr Pip Lynch and Dr Claire Freeman have agreed to provide editorial assistance and it is hoped to enlarge this group in the future.  The opinions expressed here do not represent the views or policies of the New Zealand Association for Environmental Education.  We hope to air a wide range of material here.  Reports on innovations in practice, approaches to problem solving, research, material that offers critique, that contributes to our ability to address the goals of the field, or that is just thought provoking are welcomed.

To start I have provided a summary of what environmental education is about.  This draws on material from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in association with the United Nations Environment Project, UNEP.  This material is the basis of the association’s constitution.  UNESCO-UNEP hosted a meeting of educators at Belgrade in 1975.  This meeting produced the Belgrade Charter which called for a new global ethic, and identified poverty as a key issue in its first paragraph.  The summary here has been developed from the Tbilisi Declaration.  This arose from a subsequent UNESCO-UNEP intergovernmental conference at Tbilisi, Russia, in 1977.

I hope that the material in this summary will serve as a frame of reference for reflection on what we do, and in particular, for thinking about what constitutes quality environmental education.  There is a great deal of discussion about the environment and about environmental education in which people do not clarify what they mean and what they are trying to do, their starting points.  Some common understanding about the foundations of the field may assist us to move forward.  It would be helpful if intending contributors referred back to this summary.  Incidentally, this summary is not intended to be above critique.

I have asked for contributions in two recent editions of our association’s newsletter but it seems we Kiwis are a bit modest about this sort of thing.  As a result, I am in the process of approaching a few people both here and overseas for contributions.  Feel welcome to just send something though, although we want it to contain new ideas.

With that said, welcome.  We hope you find the Forum stimulating and thought provoking, but in the end, we will depend on our contributors for that.  If you would like to contribute, in the first instance please send your material to; admin@nzaee.org.nz.

 David Chapman, August 2005.