The role of non-scholar organisations in environmental education: a case study from Portugal

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of this study was to identify, characterise, collect and systematise data on initiatives of environmental education in Portugal. Currently, there is no integrated governmental program on environmental education in this country, but only unrelated voluntary initiatives. Although surveys indicated a growing concern by young people on environmental issues, systematic studying on the issue was lacking. The field seemed to be characterised by wide diversity and disperse voluntary action by non-governmental agents and self-mobilised teachers. In the context of the Decade Dedicated to Education for Sustainable Development of UNESCO, governmental and non-governmental organisations dedicated to the environment now have a new opportunity to enhance and coordinate contributions to make environmental issues a priority for the next generation.

Trends and Dilemmas Facing Environmental Education in Portugal: From Environmental Problem Assessment to Citizenship Involvement

“…The same is valid as to what concerns EE/ESD projects directly promoted or sponsored by non-school organizations. They also rarely include the neighbouring community or other non-school targets (Schmidt et al, 2010a).…”

“…Another survey using a different questionnaire-a first foray into the field-was applied by the authors to non-school promoters of EE/ESD from January to May of 2005 and firstly served to look at issues, problems and contradictions in case examples as a basis for the more comprehensive questionnaire that was subsequently applied to schools. In this case, more than 6500 non-school organizations were initially contacted (Schmidt et al, 2010a(Schmidt et al, , 2010b. 4.…”

“…Yet, less than 14% of the total replies to the questionnaire of non-school organizations refer to local community or other specific non-school groups as targets. The great majority of projects examined cover the school community as exclusive targets (87%), though they preferably choose younger students as targets (Schmidt et al, 2010a). This means that, in practical terms, the school is almost the exclusive setting for EE/ESD activity in Portugal.…”

Environmental Literacy for Waste Management in an Academic Community: A Case Study

“…Evaluating environmental literacy in a group or a context is the best strategy to assess its achievements and address the need for better practices and strategies. However, in Portugal and worldwide, environmental education lacks evaluation, working mainly in the dark, and since the ecological crisis is getting worse, namely the problems that results from a lack of an adequate waste management, it is legitimate to question its effectiveness (Blumstein & Saylan, 2007;Schmidt et al, 2010). In Portugal, environmental education curricular integration has been centred in a specific group of classical disciplines, namely Natural Sciences, Geography and Biology (Tracana et al, 2012), and suffers from 'infantilization', being mostly focused on younger students, with entertaining and recreational pedagogical strategies (Schmidt et al, 2010;Schmidt et al, 2011).…”

Making Wishful Thinking a Reality - From SDGS to Cop21

“…-has become a dominant and cross-cutting idea, one which has shaped global environmental governance and thereby also regional, national and local governance (Carter, 2007;Byrch et al 2009;Schmidt, Guerra & Nave, 2010;Guerra, 2011). These world conferences have, moreover, placed a number of significant documents on the international agenda, some of them reflecting successful experiments like the Global Green New Deal (UNDP 2009), a manifesto for world policy which outlines a very clear framework of that which is widely referred to as "the crisis" and puts forward a package of varied and concrete incentives and measures to overcome it (UNDP, 2009).…”