Education for Environmental Citizenship: The Pedagogical Approach

Abstract

Despite its importance Environmental Citizenship has been under-explored until the last few years (Dobson 2007). Due to the complexity of the concept, Environmental Citizenship was not clearly defined and framed (Environmental Evidence Australia 2012) in relation to other concepts such as environmental behaviour, environmental attitudes, environmental literacy, environmental education, environmental knowledge, awareness and sustainability. In addition, the fragmented nature of the research findings and information related to Environmental Citizenship constraint its effective incorporation into educational practices and frameworks. However, this comprehensive concept has been elucidated from collective research efforts and Environmental Citizenship has been conceptualized (ENEC 2018). Environmental Citizenship is an umbrella concept that encompasses an array of characteristics such as the skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and beliefs needed to address environmental problems, as well as all the competences needed for civic engagement and active participation in societies. Several chapters of this book maintain that in view of the development towards more sustainable societies, citizens need to be supported to overcome challenges in taking part in sustainable societies. In addition, within a sustainable society young people need to understand that they could and should have a political role beyond the legal frameworks of representative democracies; as young people they are also citizens rather than 'future citizens'. Empowering people to become environmental citizens is crucial for addressing current environmental issues and a necessary

Teachers’ Perceptions on Environmental Citizenship: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Despite its importance, environmental citizenship has received limited exploration so far, until the last few years [19]. On one hand, this could be attributed to the conceptual complexity of environmental citizenship, as well as to its relations with more established constructs (i.e., environmental behavior, environmental attitudes, environmental literacy, environmental knowledge, awareness and sustainability), which have been often used as complements or substitutes [20]. On the other hand, environmental citizenship has political, economic and societal dimensions, which have contributed to the fragmentation of relevant research.…”

“…For instance, it has been argued that environmental citizenship encompasses ecological literacy with a focus on the understanding of socioecological issues [23,24], the rights and the obligations of citizens within political communities [25,26], awareness of personal values with respect to the environment and the ability to connect these values with knowledge and skills to take environmentally-oriented decisions [4,27], as well as civic engagement and participation to address environmental problems [28,29]. In its essence, environmental citizenship has emerged as an umbrella concept which includes an amalgam of characteristics, such as the skills, knowledge, attitudes, values and beliefs required to address environmental problems [30], as well as the competences needed for civic engagement and active participation in societies [20].…”

Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ): The Development and Validation of an Evaluation Instrument for Secondary School Students

“…According to Melo-Escrihuela [15], the discourse regarding Environmental Citizenship can be classified into two main categories: the personal duty or lifestyle approach, and the participatory rights approach coming from both the liberal and republican political theories. The liberal approach gives emphasis on individual responsibility and on claiming rights to environmental goods (therefore, in individual actions), while the republican approach gives emphasis on participatory rights in decision making, deliberation, civic participation and on the commitment to the common good (therefore, collective actions) (Hadjichambis and Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, [14]). Stern [16] stated that pro-environmental behaviour could be divided into two broad types: private and public sphere.…”

“…According to Westheimer and Kahne [18], three visions of "citizenship" are highlighted: the personally responsible citizen (citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible and law-abiding members of the community), the participatory citizen (citizens must actively participate and take leadership positions within Figure 2. The EEC model (source: Hadjichambis and Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, [14]).…”

Citizen science for environmental citizenship

“…Collaboration reinforces existing feelings of responsibility and care for nature and the willingness to act. Citizen science projects should cultivate public environmental activism and community building, rather than focus on private sphere environmentalism and individual behavior to build environmental citizenship (Hadjichambis et al 2020). Working together is thus more important than working alone for the cultivation of citizenship thinking.…”