Developing environmental awareness through literature and media education: curriculum development in the context of teachers’ practice

This project was designed to help teachers in differing national contexts develop approaches to environmental education influenced by the arts rather than the sciences and social sciences, adopting a theoretical perspective allowing us to see our environments as “texts” to be “read” and, consequently, reworked. Efforts were made to encourage teachers’ own pedagogic reasoning by involving them in devising, as well as using, teaching materials. Subsequently, the Internet is being used as a vehicle to encourage more interactive exploration and development of the offered ideas. The work builds on that of Hart, reported in the first edition of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, and attempts to show that teachers can be drawn effectively into reconceptualizing their own practice in environmental education through active involvement in the development of curriculum materials.