Advancing Environmental Education Practice

by Marianne E. Krasny

"Environmental education can foster behavior change and collective action by going beyond knowledge and attitudes to consider efficacy, identity, sense of place, social capital, nature connectedness, norms, and nudges"--

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 15, 2020

Reviews

[Camille]

ayoooo thesis

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a valuable reference book for environmental educators up to undergraduate level.

The book is set within an outcomes-based Theory of Change framework. In her introductory section Krasny clearly sets out the book's agenda:

My ultimate outcome, as with many environmental education initiatives, is to improve environmental quality and build social-ecological systems resilience [...] To reach that ultimate outcome, I believe environmental educators can play a key role.

For environmental educators to play a role in improving environmental quality and building resilience, I believe we need to reflect on—and, where needed, enhance—our practice, which is my behavioral outcome. In particular, as environmental educators, we need to broaden the range of approaches we consciously use to influence behavior. We often focus on knowledge and attitudes, but our programs can influence multiple intermediate outcomes that have been shown to impact individual behaviors and collective action—including efficacy, norms, identity, and social capital. I include these intermediate outcomes because my review of the research and my experience lead me to believe that, compared with instilling knowledge or trying to change attitudes, these intermediate outcomes are oftentimes more effective in changing behaviors and actions.

In part I of the book the author briefly overviews the Theory of Change framework for the book and insists on the importance of carrying out proper assessments of the impact of environmental education experiences:

Paralleling environmental education’s emphasis on experiential learning, I view evaluation as part of the experience of being an environmental educator and subscribe to a learning-through-evaluating process.

The two introductory chapters are disappointing and I hope that in future editions, Krasny covers some basic Theory of Change concepts and framework in more detail. In the meantime, I suggest the interested reader take the University of Witwaterrand "Theory of Change for Development" MOOC available under edX.

In Part II, Krasny covers basic concepts on sustainability, environmentally oriented behaviors and collective environmental improvement actions. Both chapter 4 and 5 are key chapters.

The heart of the book is in part III whose eleven chapters cover educational practices based on reinforcing values, dealing with beliefs, shaping attitudes, and the role, leverage points and pitfalls of nature-connectedness, sense of place, a sense of personal and collective efficacy, identity, norms and social capital in changing and improving environment-oriented behaviors. These chapters usually include subsections on the definition of each element (for example sense of place), its importance, the role it plays in environmental behavior (e.g. "How does a sense of place contribute to environmental behavior") and assessment techniques for each element. and, sometimes, its inverse (e.g. "How can environmental education nurture a sense of place"). There are plenty of interesting ideas and warnings tucked away in these chapters and they certain merit reflection, careful reading and re-reading.

In her introduction, Krasny mentioned that she wrote the book in order to "...to improve environmental quality and build social-ecological systems resilience". In my opinion the book will be useful to environmental educators but needs substantially more work to show how it can contribute to resilience, and on the distinction between sustainability and resilience.

The book also has a disjointed, fragmentary feel to it, more detailed case studies could also prove to be most helpful.

In short, a book worth dipping into for ideas when you feel the urge to look at the possibilities of different perspectives to facilitate, encourage and develop more environment-sensitive behaviors and actions.

[Lander Tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good book to reflect on EE programs and develop a plan for change. The theory of Change plays an important role in this book, and the way the book is laid out helps the reader to design the change step by step.

[Carlee Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of the author’s Civic Ecology Lab course, so I benefitted from a richer & deeper engagement with the content. I predict this will be a foundational text for how I approach my environmental education work henceforth!