Philosophies of Adult Environmental Education

Adult Education Quarterly Volume 60 Number 1 November 2009 3-25 © 2009 American Association for Adult and Continuing Philosophies of Adult Education 10.1177/0741713609336109 Environmental Education http://aeq.sagepub.com hosted at Pierre Walter http://online.sagepub.com University of British Columbia This article offers a typology of philosophical traditions in environmental education for adults, based on five philosophical perspectives of adult education described by Elias and Merriam. These five traditions are liberal, progressive, behaviorist, humanist, and radical adult environmental education, respectively. A summary of each philosophy’s main tenets, including the aims of education, beliefs about the nature of learners, the role of educators, and instructional strategies and assessment of learning is given in the article. Limitations of the typology are also discussed. Prominent examples from the environmental movement and adult environmental education practice in North America are then presented to illustrate each philosophy. The article ends with a discussion of direc- tions for future research and implications for practice. Keywords: environmental education; philosophies of adult education; environmentalism n recent years, the growing threat of global warming, the resource demands of a Ivoracious world economy, ever-expanding consumerism, and the untold ecological consequences of war have emerged as critical environmental problems. Together with continuing problems of toxic waste, industrial pollution, water contamination, urban sprawl, solid waste disposal, deforestation, the degradation of marine environments and wetlands, the destruction of wildlife habitat, and the loss of biodiversity, these new problems constitute a global ecological crisis (Clover, 2003; Merchant, 2005). This ecological crisis has given a new sense of urgency to environmental education for adults (and children). With adult education’s strong roots in community development, popular education, and social justice—in extension education, literacy, and workplace education, on one hand; and in the labor, civil rights, peace, and other social movements, on the other—the field is well positioned to lead the way forward in fostering environmental awareness and action among adults, social institutions, and social movements. A multiplicity of theorizing and expertise in more mainstream areas of adult education practice such as human resources development, citizenship education, distance education, seniors education, vocational education, and health education also provides a strong base of knowledge and experience for the development of diverse strands of thought and pedagogy in adult environmental education. Author’s Note: An abridged version of this article was presented at the Western Region Research Conference on the Education of Adults, October 12-14, 2007, Western Washington University, Bellingham. 3 4 Adult Education Quarterly However, in spite of its great promise, adult education is not yet a particularly “green” field of research and scholarship. Although there is a healthy and expansive world of “green” educational practice for adults, and a strong network of committed environmental adult educators and activists on the ground, research and theorizing in academia is still largely in the infant stage. Most of what is considered environmental education by academics takes place either with children in the K-12 school- ing system or with university students in environmental studies programs in higher education. In adult education, the outstanding exception to this rule is the area of environmental adult education, composed of a vibrant community of scholars and activists concerned with adult learning in social movements, global environmental justice, transformative learning, and popular education (Clover, 2000a, 2002a, 2004a; Clover, Follen, & Hall, 2000; L. H. Hill & Clover, 2003; R. J. Hill, 2003). However, this body of work in environmental adult education represents only one of many diverse traditions of practice in environmental education for adults. The typology of adult environmental education presented in this article was developed for several reasons: (a) to allow a wider consideration of approaches to theorizing adult environmental education than currently exists; (b) to allow adult educators within the vast, yet largely undocumented, field of “green” educational practice to begin to locate themselves within particular philosophies of environmental education; and (c) to stimulate questioning and debate about philosophies of environmental education for adults, about practice in the field, and the connections between the two. Drawing on five major philosophies of adult education described by John L. Elias and Sharan B. Merriam in Philosophical Foundations of Adult Education (1995), this article compares liberal, progressive, behaviorist, humanist, and radical philosophies of adult environmental education (Table 1).1 To date, Elias and Merriam’s typology has been used to good effect in understanding differing philosophies of adult education in fields of practice ranging from extension education (White & Brockett, 1987) and language education (Kelly, 1998) to entrepreneur- ship education (Hannon, 2005) and radiation safety training (Dauer & St. Germaine, 2006). However, the typology has not been applied to categorize philosophies of environmental education for adults, the central task of this article. Examples of adult environmental education in the typology were chosen for inclusion both for their illustrative power and their importance to the North American environmental movement. Relative importance was determined in an extensive review of relevant works in environmental history (Gottlieb, 2005; Hughes, 2006; Kline, 2007; Merchant, 2002; Nash, 2001; Wellock, 2007), and in an exhaus- tive review of (a) leading journals in adult education, (b) current scholarship in environmental adult education, and (c) leading journals in K-12 and tertiary environmental education.2 Examples were classified under a particular philosophy of environmental education using a constant comparative process of data analysis, common to qualitative research in adult education (Merriam & Associates, 2002). Although Table 1 shows an evenly balanced summary of philosophies, the discussion of each Table 1 Philosophies of Adult Environmental Education Associated Groups, Role of Instructor and Assessment of Programs, Activities, Philosophy Purpose of Education Nature of Adult Learners Instructional Strategies Learning and Educators Liberal Expansion of knowledge and Humans are rational beings Teacher as the source of Subject matter exams Nature conservancy understanding Rigorous Learners are empty vessels knowledge and Essays Audubon Society intellectual training Focus is on the power of authority: the Oracle Recitation Nature centers Development of spiritual, the mind Guides learners through Botanical gardens, moral and aesthetic sense content and zoos Enlightenment of citizens contemplation Museums of natural Book-centered pedagogy history Assign, study, recite Aquariums Socratic dialogue lecture Alice Hamilton, Focus on liberal arts Rachel Carson, Al curriculum Gore Progressive Education for democracy Humans are born neither Teacher as guide, Observation Izaak Walton League and social reform good nor bad facilitator Demonstration National Wildlife Liberation of talents, Humans are adaptive Learner-centered Federation experience, knowledge of Learners have unlimited Experimentation Outward Bound adults potential for growth Experiential learning Audubon Expedition Betterment of human Problem-based learning Model condition Apprenticeship Outdoor education Focus on scientific Ecotourism method Conservation movement Federick Law Olmstead Aldo Leopold Behaviorist Ensure survival and Human nature is neither Contingency manager Observation of Environmental minimize suffering of good nor bad Behavioral engineer behavioral change Defense Fund human species Human behavior is a result Environment shapes Measurable outcomes Natural Resources 5 of prior conditioning desired behavior Evidence-based Defense Council (continued) 6 Table 1 (continued) Associated Groups, Role of Instructor and Assessment of Programs, Activities, Philosophy Purpose of Education Nature of Adult Learners Instructional Strategies Learning and Educators Control learning Humans are Behavioral objectives Criterion-referenced Environmental environment to lessen “preprogrammed” to Rewards and punishment legislation human tendency toward respond to stimuli in Green marketing self-gratification, predetermined ways Carbon tax aggression, and Recycling programs destruction Energy reduction programs Antilittering campaigns Humanistic Self-actualization Humans are by nature Facilitator: establishes Self-evaluation Sierra Club Transcendence essentially good climate of acceptance; Achievement of Wilderness Society Human happiness Humans are complex, promotes personal insight into problem First Nations Social, emotional, spiritual, autonomous beings with growth and self- solving environmental and intellectual an inherent sense of awareness; uses Individual learning education development freedom and dignity experiences and contracts Transcendentalists Learners have unlimited potentialities of learners Deep ecology potential Learning is holistic, Spiritual ecology Learners are internally subjective, and Preservation motivated & self-directed problem-centered and movement takes place through Henry David

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