Thinking Past Immersion: The Off-Ramp for Environmental Education Programs

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Mobilizing Youth as Agents of Social Change in Environmental Education

Abstract

While extractive environmental education programs are well-positioned to expose participants to alternative lifestyles and encourage social change oriented actions, the lasting effects of participation in such programs can be difficult to maintain upon graduation. Present-day social and ecological injustices call for collective actions organized by critically engaged individuals. This paper addresses the field of environmental education’s role in cultivating social change agents in its programming, and highlights strategies for continued engagement with participants as a way to ensure that value shifts that may occur in environmental education settings are lasting and can lead to systems-focused change efforts. This paper concludes with a discussion on how extractive environmental education programs can better foster a lasting social change mindset in their participants.

Author

• Michael Chizhov, Grand Canyon Trust