The Evolution of EE as Inferred From Citation Analysis

ABSTRACT:

A list of most-cited authors was compiled from core environmental education literature of 1976–1983, and each cited author categorized into one of five broad disciplines. When the list was compared to a similar one drawn from the core literature of EE's formative years, 1969–1974, very clear differences were found. References to the environmental foundations of EE dominated the earlier period, but have much diminished in recent years, to be replaced by references to psychological foundations and EE itself. This was interpreted as representing a maturation of the fields, as it turned from defining its structure, concepts, and goals, to testing the pedagogical procedures for attaining those goals. References to the affective domain were particularly frequent in the recent period. Special methods were developed for dealing with citations to co-authored articles. The tendency to collaborate differed sharply among disciplines, in accordance with the research traditions of each.