Guiding documents for environmental education centres: an analysis in the Spanish context

Abstract

Guiding documents under the ‘PEC’ acronym are commonly used in environmental education centres (EECs) in Spain. They are written documents that are seen as necessary tools to safeguard quality. In this study, we analyse the guiding documents of twenty-three EECs in the province of Girona (Catalonia, Spain) in order to understand their contents and detect strengths and weaknesses. The instrument used for document analysis is a rubric created for this purpose from the literature review. It includes four main sections: identity features, context analysis, formulation of goals and a plan of action. Each of these sections has associated items that have been used to analyse the guiding documents mentioned. The results show a great lack of information regarding evaluational aspects. They also show difficulties in defining the concepts of environmental education or education for sustainability and relating sustainability to the milieu of EECs.

Keywords:

• guiding document
• environmental education centres
• non-formal education
• environmental education
• education for sustainability

Acknowledgements

This study has been possible thanks to the financial support of the Diputació de Girona (Provincial Council of Girona) and to subsequent funding by the Spanish Government through the project MICINN EDU2009-13893-C02-02. We would like to thank Jaume Hidalgo and Marc Marí, technicians from the Provincial Council of Girona for their help and support during the study. We are also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor of Environmental Education Research for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article.

Notes

1. Interactive map ‘Nature Spaces of Girona’: http://www.ddgi.es/espais/cat/espais000.html.

2. Natura 2000 Network: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/index_en.htm.

3. The document created from this study and its recommendations for elaborating a PEC for EECs is available online (Catalan version) under:Guia per a l'elaboració d'un projecte educatiu per a entitats d'educació ambiental‘Guidelines for the development of a guiding document for environmental education centres’ http://www.ddgi.cat/recursos/servei/2011/doc/guia_projecte_educatiu.pdf.

4. Workshops organised by Provincial Council of Girona addressed to non-formal EEC educators and led by: Joseph Cornell from Sharing Nature Foundation, USA, in 2008; Franco Zuppa and Milena Tempesta from the Marine Natural Reserve of Miramare, Trieste, Italy, in 2009; Felicity Harris from Wild about plants - Plantlife International and Rachel Jones from Goblin Combe, UK, in 2010; Josep Vila-Boix and Anna Barrachina, teachers from formal secondary education, Spain, in 2011; Jean-Baptiste d’Angeli and Véronique Santucci from Casa Marina, Parc Naturel Régional de Corse, France, in 2012.