Learning to Care: Education and Compassion

Abstract

In 1993, John Fien wrote Education for the Environment: Critical Curriculum Theorizing and Environmental Education. Applying a critical perspective to his own ideas, he concluded the book with an examination of three criticisms that deep ecologists would make of critical environmental education. Acknowledging the validity of much of their case, he concluded that the critical curriculum theory of education for the environment proposed in the book was an incomplete one, and that “more theorizing, reflection, action, and more reflection again” would be necessary to develop the ideas more fully than they were. In this paper, which was the Professorial Lecture he presented on 14 May 2003, he returned to this task seeking to broaden the theoretical frameworks of environmental education to encompass deep and wide caring for human and non-human nature.

The Characters of Primary Students in Coastal Tourist Destination Beach Area

“…Although there were some students who throw out the trash in inappropriate places when having a break, most of the students were aware that trash should not be thrown out carelessly. The awareness of ecological environment will increase one's awareness of social environment [31].…”

Natural Resources: Extractions, Depletions, Protections and Sustainable Managements

“…It outlines the need for sustainable use of natural resources and suggests that the protection of resources should be incorporated into national and international systems of law [20]. To look at the importance of protecting natural resources further, the World Ethic of Sustainability, developed by the IUCN, WWF and the UNEP in 1990 [21], set out eight values for sustainability, including the need to protect natural resources from depletion. Since the development of these documents, many measures have been taken to protect natural resources including establishment of the scientific field and practice of conservation biology and habitat conservation, respectively.…”

While We Are Talking about Environmental Justice, Let’s Give Children a Voice

“…27 Fien supports this point of view, claiming that students need to embrace the value of compassion as they question the world around them, looking for a means of dealing with the social issues that face them. 28 What is absolutely necessary is that the teachers sustain an ongoing explicit focus on this approach, helping the students to establish interrelationships between fragmentary pieces of information, such as pollution and health of the eco-system, arriving at an understanding of their world as an integrated whole 29 . The most positive aspect of this approach is that these critical evaluations of the world around them have currency within the walls of their classroom, communities and homes.…”