Ian Robottom

An Overview of Significant Influences and Formative Experiences on the Development of Adults’ Environmental Awareness in Nine Countries

Summary This article, like the preceding one in this special issue of the journal, examines the relative importance of various categories of influence and formative life experiences on the development of environmental educators’ knowledge of and concern for the environment. It provides an overview of data deriving from nine countries (Australia, Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, UK) and highlights global similarities and differences.

Two paradigms of professional development in environmental education

SummaryIn environmental education in this information age, it is particularly important to adopt the approach of enquiring critically into the environmental, educational and social values informing environmental, educational and social actions when and where required, rather than to simply adopt the approach of emphasising the acquisition and retention of information of an alleged universal type — information drawn from the stockpile of “objective knowledge” collected by others. This paper argues that to achieve this aim, environmental education in an information age requires aparadigm shift in the areas of professional development — a shift from a paradigm of “information technology” to a paradigm of “information critique”. A perspective on the form of this paradigm shift in the particular field of professional development in environmental education is the subject of this paper.

Towards a meta-research agenda in science and enviormental educaion

Abstract This paper begins by establishing the existence of a debate in the broader educational community about the nature, meaning and significance of educational research, and its recognition that different approaches to educational research do not simply represent different strategies for data collection but rest on and express different ideologies that implicate different political attitudes among teachers, students, subject‐matters,schools, support agencies and researchers themselves. Evidence can be seen that this debate is beginning to appear in the science education literature and it is believed that the arguments can be extended. It is argued that research in science education and environmental education needs to consider methodology in the political terms of ideology, rather than simply in the technical terms of method and technique. Some of the recent thinking about the politics of method in both science education and environmental education, is then considered briefly and a number of meta‐rese...

The OECD-ENSI Project and Its Relevance for Teacher Training Concepts in Environmental Education.

SUMMARY This article presents an account of the Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) project. The philosophical basis of the project is outlined, and case studies from within the project provided as a basis for a consideration of some current issues in the field. It is concluded that one of the distinctive features of the ENSI project is its encouragement of praxiological, action research‐based approaches to curriculum and professional development. The case studies of ENSI activities suggest that some of the more conventionally prescribed characteristics such as agreed sets of goals and professional competencies might need to be revisited.

Evaluation in Environmental Education: Time for a Change in Perspective?

Abstract The proposition has been advanced that the appropriateness of conventional approaches to evaluation of EE needs to be regarded as problematic. The paper addresses this proposition by considering the resonances between two different perspectives to evaluation, and commonly accepted characteristics of EE. Both perspectives to evaluation will be considered in respect to their epistemology, locus of control, and interests served—in short, in respect to their “political theory.” Finally, the argument will be advanced that the choice of evaluation paradigm for EE be a deliberative one based on the relationship between the “political theory” of the evaluation, and the intentions of the program to be evaluated.

Matching the Purposes of Environmental Education with Consistent Approaches to Research and Professional Development.

The relationship between research in policy and professional development of practitioners in environmental education is explored. Alternative techniques and methods must be used for research in the professional development of practitioners and encouragement of different kinds of teacher professionalism.

Dilemmas of Participatory Enquiry: a case study of method‐in‐action

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to problematize the notion of participatory enquiry as a legitimate form of educational evaluation. Using a case study of a new teacher education program the authors describe how they negotiated and enacted an alternative evaluation methodology within a traditional context. The evaluation process was intended to actively engage faculty members and students, as well as representatives of the educational system and the broader community, in self‐reflection and self‐evaluation of their own program. The authors then attempt to turn the methodology back on itself by critically analyzing their own participatory process in terms of a number of dilemmas that arose during the three‐year course of the evaluation. These dilemmas were addressed directly as political issues of method as a means of eliciting discussion and debate about the appropriateness of various forms of enquiry in the assessment and evaluation of higher education.

Environmental Education and Local Initiatives: A Rationale, International Examples and an Issue for Research

This article explores the idea of localness in environmental education. The articles presents a case for activities that are localized and contextual, and then outlines a number of examples of local initiatives in environmental education drawn from Australia, South Africa, and Scotland. The article concludes with a consideration of an enduring research in this field.

Ethics, education and wildlife issues

Many agencies have given attention to ethical dimensions of wildlife management issues. Important questions remain about the nature of ethics, and how they can be interpreted. This paper explores two different conceptions of ‘ethics’ and suggests a framework for exploring ethical dimensions of environmental issues. This framework is applied in the examination of two case studies of wildlife management issues — one from Canada and one from Australia. The paper concludes with a consideration of implications for practice, research and education, arguing that a consideration of ethics can itself serve an educative function.

Evaluation of Teaching Skills.

The University of Helsinki evaluates teaching skills when filling teaching and research positions or deciding on applications for the title of docent. The evaluation of teaching skills takes into account the applicant’s teaching qualifications as a whole. The evaluation also considers the areas of teaching skills defined in the Regulations of the University of Helsinki (section 34): teaching experience, pedagogical training, the ability to produce learning material, other teaching merits and, if necessary, a demonstration of teaching skills as well as participation in doctoral education. The scale used to evaluate teaching skills is based on the five-level scale outlined in section 38 of the Regulations on Degrees and the Protection of Students’ Rights at the University of Helsinki, in which the grade Good represents the intermediate level.