The Journal of Environmental Education is the oldest of the journals focusing on environmental education research. It began life in 1969 as “Environmental Education”, and changed its name in 1971 to much its growing focus on research activity. It’s known across the world as “J.E.E”. It says this about itself:
” JEE is a research-oriented, refereed periodical intended to provide a forum for critical and constructive debate on all aspects of research, theory and practice in environmental and sustainability education (EE & SE). Publication of diverse theoretical and methodological approaches and perspectives for international audiences is aimed at improving the quality of research and practice in the fields of EE & SE. Articles are encouraged that focus on methodological issues, challenges to existing theoretical discourses, conceptual work that links theory and practice and that crosses disciplinary boundaries. cialis for sale online Readers will be encouraged to respond to these papers, thus engaging with ideas that advance the theory and practice of EE/SE research.”
This focus on practice and helping practitioners has been a key aspect of its work from the outset. The current (special) issue has a focus on the politics of policy in education for sustainable development, and you can get access to all the paper abstracts by clicking here, although you will need to pay for most of the full papers. The following abstract comments on another paper in the issue, to make a point about what it sees as humanity’s exploitation of every other species:
“Stefan Bengtsson’s commentary about policy hegemony discusses the alternative discourses of socialism, nationalism, and globalism. However, Stefan does not adequately demonstrate how these discourses can overcome the Dominant Western Worldview (DWW), which is imbued with anthropocentrism. It will be argued here that most policy choices promoting sustainability, and education for it, are made within a predetermined system in which the already limiting notion of environmental protection is highly contingent on human welfare. What would really contest the dominant assumptions of policy and, more specifically, education for sustainable development (ESD) is an alternative discourse that challenges the DWW. That alternative discourse embraces philosophical ecocentrism and practices of ecological justice between all species, and deep ecology theory – all perspectives fundamentally committed to environmental protection.“
The word “all”, which we emphasise, above, caught our eye and raised our eyebrows. If all is to be taken seriously, it has to include, not just charismatics like the panda and rhino, but the ebola virus (which recently killed 11,000 people in West Africa), and malaria (which the WHO says killed around 438,000 people in 2015, most of whom were in Africa). This is not the sort of environmental education that NAEE supports or condones.