The Unity of Learning: a Systems Perspective on Environmental Education (England).

Abstract

This study investigated a system of education that recognized the influence of the environment and considered that relationship an integral part of its core curriculum. Oxfordshire, England primary schools provided a setting where the activities of the people participating in the educational process were observed and described during the 1980-1981 school year. Building on past experiences with theory and practice, interdisciplinary approaches were used to go beyond the open systems paradigm to examine the components of the learning system, including the experiences of its participants and their relationships. The human sciences provided modes of inquiry which were largely selected from ethnography, participant observation, documentary, case study methods, phenomenology and grounded theory. Environmental education is not an event in Oxfordshire but a process based upon the child's natural awareness of his/her world. Consequently, a set of beliefs has emerged there that has shaped the extent and form of the relationships between the teacher and learner, creating an underlying structure of the learning process reflected throughout the system. The insights gained from this investigation suggest that among the broader considerations from the World Conservation Strategy and The First Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education notions about educators and the learning process should be re-examined. Institutional arrangements and future research in environmental education should take into consideration an emphasis on learning rather than teaching--that is, the development of a dynamic structure that emanated from the learner's personal experience and knowledge. In Oxfordshire these interactive elements provided the framework for a learning process based upon personal experience, creative modes of expressing ideas, secondary sources of knowledge, communication, and an on-going evaluation. Major components of this responsive learning system were derived from its support structure, the culture of the system, its needs and boundaries, the interactions of its participants, the relationships between teacher and taught, and the ethos: represented in the life of the school; the sense of community; the child's world; and the environment. All of these factors were bound by the lateral transmission and sharing of knowledge.