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Art and Literature in Environmental Education: two research projects

Summary This paper deals with environmental education from the perspective of literature teaching. We discuss two research projects, one focusing on descriptions, interpretations and evaluations of landscape paintings and the other on the concept of ‘nature’ in Robinson Crusoe, a prototypical example of modern European literature. In both cases, the teaching materials were developed, implemented and evaluated through feedback (action research) in teacher training (pre‐service and in‐service). The article seeks to illustrate the importance of art and literature for developing environmental literacy and awareness.

Creating a New Borderland on the Screen

Abstract This article deals with the outcome of an educational research project conducted at the University of Ghent. 1 We started creating new teaching materials for teaching literature from a European perspective, and ended up with the conviction that the opening up of the traditional (ie national) literary canon should lead to a global revision of the literature course design. In such a revision the multimedia hypertext should play a key role, as we try to illustrate with two hypermedia applications on classic European novels: Don Quixoteand Robinson Crusoe. 1. A project on the authority of the Ministry of Education (Flemish Community, Belgium): ‘An empirical research into the possibilities and problems in creating a European dimension in the teaching of literature’ (supervision: N. Rowan, G. Schelstraete, R. Soetaert).