In search for the ideological roots of non-formal environment-related education in Finland: the case of Helsinki Humane Society before World War II

Abstract

So far the research on historical environment-related education has focused on scientific rather than ‘humanistic’ (including Romantic and religious) educational approaches and ideologies. In the field of non-formal education implemented by associations these have, however, been common. We used content analysis to study two membership magazines of a prominent Finnish animal welfare organization, Helsinki Humane Society, before the Second World War. Our results show that the educational ideology of Helsinki Humane Society was based on romanticist and humane ideas. They emphasized especially the development of a human being’s total personality and a kindness-to-animals ethic as a solution to social problems. In the early 1900s, humane education seems to have been an effective way of advancing the animal welfare cause, but its importance declined by the 1930s. We believe that today’s environmental and sustainability educators could benefit from a better understanding of how historical animal welfare organizations were able to combine romantic and humane ideas with environmental goals.

Keywords:

• environmental education
• history
• non-formal education
• ideology

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the anonymous referee for valuable insights related to the refocusing of our study, Erkki Olkinuora for comments on an earlier version of this article as well as the Kone Foundation for financial support of the study.