To Know Is Not Enough: Secondary School Students’ Engagement in Environmental Activism

• In Event: Roundtable Session 60
  In Roundtable Session: Political Participation and Community-Based Environmental Learning

Abstract

We live in times of growing evidence of environmental degradation. One of the solutions commonly suggested is education. In the Canadian province of Ontario, there exist approximately 35 integrated Environmental Studies Programs (ESPs) specifically designed to teach students about the environment in an interdisciplinary way. There is a paucity of research about how and if these programs actually impact students’ pro-environmental behaviours. This presentation is based on the results of two case studies of Ontario ESPs that sought to analyze the impact of ESP participation on students’ attitudes to and relationships with and to the environment and the extent to which program participation informs domestic pro-enviornmental behaviours and/or emancipatory social and environmental actions.

Authors

• Mary Catherine Breunig, Brock University

• Constance L. Russell, Lakehead University

• Jocelyn Murtell, Brock University