Researching environmental education in the school curriculum: An introduction for students and teacher researchers

Environmental education is becoming an increasingly important focus for educational research in a school context. This research reflects a number of contrasting environmental and educational research paradigms and these are evident in definitions of environmental education, curriculum objectives, curriculum content, and pedagogy. This review seeks to examine the nature of environmental paradigms and their relationships to environmental education in school curricula. Technical, interpretive and critical curriculum theories are discussed. Future research directions are indicated and suggestions are made for employing various forms of curriculum inquiry in the context of environmental education. Copyright © 2001 J. Chi Kin Lee & M. Williams.