The Perspectives of Science Teachers in Relation to Current Thinking about Environmental Education

Abstract

This article contains a discussion of aspects of current thinking related to the environment within the international community. This is followed by an enquiry into practice among a sample of 81 secondary science teachers in England. The study took place over 3 years with the purpose of identifying the thinking of the teachers about environmental education and whether there were changes in that over the period of the investigation. Specific aspects of the enquiry included teachers’ understanding of the concept of sustainability and whether they included it in their leaching; whether they integrated non‐scientific elements, such as economic, cultural and ethical aspects of environmental issues, into their science teaching; what they considered to be the most important environmental issues to be included in their science programmes; and whether they were aware of the trends in environmental thinking in the international community. The results showed that there was an increasing awareness among the teachers of matters related to sustainability. There had been a shift over the period of the study in their perception of the most important issues that affect the environment and many of the teachers had an appreciation of some of the changes in environmental thinking in recent years.