International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education

The environment and contested notions of sustainability are increasingly topics of public interest, political debate, and legislation across the world. Environmental education journals now publish research from a wide variety of methodological traditions that show linkages between the environment, health, development, and education. The growth in scholarship makes this an opportune time to review and synthesize the knowledge base of the environmental education (EE) field.

The purpose of this 51-chapter handbook is not only to illuminate the most important concepts, findings and theories that have been developed by EE research, but also to critically examine the historical progression of the field, its current debates and controversies, what is still missing from the EE research agenda, and where that agenda might be headed.

Published for the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Robert B. Stevenson is Professor and Tropical Research Leader (Environmental Sustainability Education) in The Cairns Institute and School of Education and Director of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Sustainability Education at James Cook University in Australia. He is an executive editor of the Journal of Environmental Education and has served on the editorial boards of all the major English language journals in environmental education. Bob’s research has focused on the relationships among theory, policy and practice in environmental/ sustainability education and its history and marginalized status as an educational reform in K-12 schools. His current research interests focus on the current and potential spaces and approaches for learning about issues of sustainability and how schools, peers, and the electronic media are being used and can be constructively used to work toward a more sustainable and just society.

Michael Brody is a faculty member in the College of Education, Health and Human Development at Montana State University, where he teaches courses in science, education and research at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in science & environmental education, Master of Science in Biology from the University of New Hampshire and Bachelor of Science in Biology and Secondary Education from Boston College. He is a research associate of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana and received the North American Association of Environmental Education Outstanding Contributions to Research Award.

Justin Dillon is Professor of Science and Environmental Education at King's College London. He is head of the Science and Technology Education Group and co-leader of the Centre for Research in Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. His research interests include science engagement in museums, science centres and botanic gardens, learning outside the classroom, students' interests and aspirations, and teacher identity and development. Justin was Chair of AERA's Ecological and Environmental Education special interest group from 1998-99. He was elected president of the European Science Education Research Association from 2007-11 and was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 2005.

Arjen E.J. Wals is a Professor of Social Learning and Sustainable Development at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. He also holds an Adjunct Professorship at Cornell University and is a UNESCO Chair in the same field. His research focuses on learning processes that contribute to a more sustainable world. Wals obtained his PhD in 1991 with a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor under the guidance of the late Bill Stapp, one of the founding fathers of the field of Environmental Education. Wals maintains a blog at www.transformativelearning.nl.