Responsible Environmental Action: Its Role and Status In Environmental Education and Environmental Quality

Abstract

This century will be one of continued global population growth, technological advancement, and subsequent burdens on the natural world from consumer demands. A citizenry capable of understanding the complexity of environmental issues and actively participating in their resolutions is vital. The ultimate goal of environmental educators should be to facilitate the creation of this active citizenry. The means by which educators achieve this goal are equally important. Student autonomy in issue investigations and action planning should supplant coercive, advocacy programs if a new generation of critical thinkers is to solve new environmental problems and maintain or improve environmental quality on both the local and global scales. To date, nearly all evaluations of environmental education (EE) have focused on educational outcomes. Evaluations of impacts to environmental quality linked to actions resulting from EE efforts will be necessary if this discipline is to remain relevant in a world facing a century of great challenge in protecting environmental integrity while meeting the needs of our growing and increasingly consumptive population.

Keywords:

• environmental impact
• environmental quality
• evaluation
• responsible environmental action

Acknowledgments

Philip C. Short received a master of science degree in zoology (ecology emphasis) and a Ph.D. in curriculum & instruction (science & environmental education emphasis) from Southern Illinois University–Carbondale. He has been an educator at the middle school, high school, and college levels for the past 26 years and continues to teach courses in biology, ecology, environmental science, issues in science education, and environmental education. His current research interests include evaluations of EE's effectiveness across diverse populations on the basis of both educational outcomes and tangible measures of environmental impacts.