Abstract
In this paper I share my understandings of an elective outdoor environmental education course, a significant component of which was a field school. I helped develop this course at the Canadian university where I work as an academic, with the field school conducted on the island of Kaua‘i in Hawaii. The paper describes the university field school and aspects of the underpinning ideas which cohere the course, particularly the model of an ecology of home. The model highlights how technical, socio-cultural and ecological influences all shape interpretations relevant to environmental education. The course involved educational experiences across three botanical gardens in Kaua‘i: each of these places contributed uniquely to the development of prospective teachers through the pedagogical idea of “islands of discourse.”
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnove, R. F., & Torres, C. A. (Eds.). (2003). Comparative education: The dialectic of the global and the local. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc..
Ballantyne, R., Packer, J., Hughes, K., & Dierking, L. (2007). Conservation learning in wildlife tourism settings: Lessons from research in zoos and aquariums. Environmental Education Research, 13(3), 367–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701430604.
Basile, C. (2000). Environmental education as a catalyst for transfer of learning in young children. The Journal of Environmental Education, 32(1), 21–27.
Bonnett, M. (2004). Lost in space? Education and the concept of nature. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 23, 117–130.
Bowers, C. A. (2001). Educating for eco-justice and community. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Chinn, P. (2007). Decolonizing methodologies and indigenous knowledge: The role of culture, place and personal experience in professional development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(9), 1247–1268.
Cohen, J. (1999). Educating minds and hearts social emotional learning and the passage into adolescence. New York: Columbia University Teachers College Press.
Corral-Verdugo, V., & Frais-Armenta, M. (1996). Predictors of environmental critical thinking: A study of Mexican children. The Journal of Environmental Education, 27(4), 23–28.
Cummins, S., & Snively, G. (2000). The effect of instruction on children's knowledge of marine ecology, attitudes toward the ocean, and stances toward marine resource issues. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 5, 305–326.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2008). Critical methodologies and indigenous inquiry. In N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 1–20). Los Angeles: Sage.
Ericksen, T. E. (1993). Do cultural islands exist? Social Anthropology, (1). Retrieved from http://folk.uio.no/geirthe/Culturalislands.html. Accessed 15 Sept 2015
Gaventa, J. (1988). Participatory research in North America. Convergence, 21(2/3), 19–27.
Gruenewald. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12.
Hajibayova, L., & Buente, B. (2017). Representation of indigenous cultures: Considering the Hawaiian hula. Journal of Documentation, 73(6), 1137–1148. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2017-0010.
Kahn, P. H., Jr. (1997). Children's moral and ecological reasoning about the Prince William sound oil spill. Developmental Psychology, 33(6), 1091–1096.
Kenney, J., Price-Militana, H., & Horrocks-Donohue, M. (2003). Helping teachers to use their school's backyard as an outdoor classroom: A report on the watershed learning center program. Journal of Environmental Education, 35(1), 15–21.
Lewicki, J. (1998). Cooperative ecology & place: Development of a pedagogy of place curriculum. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED461461).
Lieberman, G., & Hoody, L. (2000). Developing leadership and community to support an EIC program in your school: A self-evaluation guide. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED449019).
Lord, T. (1999). A comparison between traditional and constructivist teaching in environmental science. The Journal of Environmental Educaion, 30(3), 22–28.
Meyer, M. A. (2008). Indigenous and authentic: Hawaiian epistemology and the triangulation of meaning. In N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 217–232). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. (2005). Environment literacy in America. Retrieved from http://www.neetf.org/pubs/ELR2005.pdf. Accessed 17 Sept 2015
NTBG (2017a). Allerton Garden. Retrieved from http://www.ntbg.org. Accessed 17 Sept 2015
NTBG (2017b). Limahuli Garden and Preserve. Retrieved from http://www.ntbg.org. Accessed 17 Sept 2015
NTBG (2017c). McBryde Garden. Retrieved from http://www.ntbg.org. Accessed 17 Sept 2015
Roth, W. M. (Ed.). (2005). Auto/biography and auto/ethnography: Praxis of research method. Rotterdam: Brill/Sense Publishers.
Sellman, D. (2013). Thesis summary. Environmental education on climate change in a botanical garden: Adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes and conceptions. Environmental Education Research, 20(2), 286–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2012.700696.
Sellman, D., & Bogner, F. (2013). Climate change education: Quantitatively assessing the impact of a botanical garden as an informal learning environment. Environmental Education Research, 19(4), 415–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2012.700696.
Smith, G. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are.
Smith, G., & Sobel, D. (2010). Place- and community-based education in schools. New York: Routledge.
Stevenson, R. (2008). A critical pedagogy of place and the critical place(S) of pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 353–360.
Thomashow, M. (1996). Ecological identity. Cambridge: MIT Press.
van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. N.Y: State University of New York Press.
Wandersee, J. H., & Schussler, E. E. (2000, August). National survey on the public perception of plants. Paper presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Botanical Society of America, Portland, OR.
Watchow, B., & Brown, M. (2011). A pedagogy of place: Outdoor education for a changing world. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
Woodhouse, J., & Knapp, C. (2000). Place-based curriculum and instruction. Retrieved from ERIC Database. (EDO-RC-00-6).
Zandvliet, D. B. (2016). The ecology of home. Rotterdam: Brill/Sense Publishers.
Zandvliet, D. B., & Brown, D. R. (2006). Framing experience on Haida Gwaii : An ecological model for environmental education. Canadian Journal for Environmental Education, 11, 207–219.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zandvliet, D. Ecological education via “islands of discourse”: teacher education at the intersection of culture and environment. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 22, 145–157 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-019-00037-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-019-00037-3