Environmental education to engage urban youth: anecdotes from Southwest China

ABSTRACT

Environmental education (EE) is a concern in modern society. Plant blindness and nature-deficit disorder highlight how important nature contact and plant consciousness is for urban populations. Considering rapid urbanisation, these phenomena are of increasing concern in China. Integrating EE curricula in Chinese cities is necessary to help younger generations appreciate the environment and understand how to address environmental challenges. Based on our EE teaching experiences in Southwest China’s largest urban conglomeration, Chengdu, we discuss anecdotes and propose strategies to improve Southwest China’s EE, with guidance for future research. Although children are more drawn to animals, EE education should focus on ecosystem-wide approaches rather than entirely zoocentric or anthropocentric perspectives, since these could reinforce the problematic view that plants are merely ‘backdrops’. Urban greenspaces should be utilised in active education schemes, with teachers trained via professional EE modules rooted in local environmental concerns and complementing national/regional priorities. EE programmes should actively engage parents, encouraging their interaction with schools during EE activity preparation and venue selection, as their participation can help overcome obsessive safety and liability concerns. Older generations should be encouraged to transmit their own environmental and ecological knowledge, with implications for both cultural resilience and biocultural diversity conservation efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• environmental education
• plant blindness
• primary education
• nature-deficit disorder

Acknowledgments

We thank Xiaobing Pan for her help, motivation, and commitment to EE and facilitating contact with schools, parents, and teachers.

Author contributions

Benjamin Laffitte: Investigation, Conceptualization, Writing - Original Draft. Barnabas C. Seyler: Supervision, Conceptualization, Writing - Original Draft and Review/Editing. Ya Tang: Writing – Review/Editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2022.2118812

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.