'Education for the Environment: A critique'—an analysis

Abstract

This article analyses Education for the environment: a critique' (Jickling & Spork, 1998). It illustrates ways in which the critique is a partial analysis of education for the environment. Thus, the article addresses Jickling and Spork's concern that education for the environment is a universalising discourse that seeks to marginalise other approaches. It does this by showing how it may be Jickling and Spork's lack of reflexivity over their own ideology of education which leads them to construct such a partial interpretation of education for the environment. This article also argues that the critical pedagogy of education for the environment provides a professionally-ethical way of teaching which contrasts with the allegations of indoctrination in the critique. The article nevertheless reflects an appreciation of the opportunity to engage constructively with contesting ideas in environmental education and concludes with suggestions for further avenues of inquiry for those wishing to engage in discourse analysis in order to deconstruct and, hopefully, reconstruct, education for and also in/through, with and about the environment.