<p>Recent attention to socio-scientific issues such as sustainable agriculture, environmental responsibility and nutritional health has spurred a resurgence of public interest in gardening and cooking. Seen as contexts for fostering scientific literacy?the knowledge domains, methodological approaches, habits of mind and discourse practices that reflect one?s understanding of the role of science in society, gardening and cooking are under-examined fields in science education, in part, because they are under-utilized pedagogies in school settings. Although learning gardens were used historically to foster many aspects of scientific literacy (e.g., cognitive knowledge, norms and methods of science, attitudes toward science and discourse of science), analysis of contemporary studies suggests that science learning in gardens focuses mainly on science knowledge alone. Using multiple conceptions of scientific literacy, I analyzed qualitative data to demonstrate how exploration, talk and text fostered scientific literacy in a school garden. Exploration prompted students to engage in scientific practices such as making observations and constructing explanations from evidence. Talk and text provided background knowledge and accurate information about agricultural, environmental and nutritional topics under study. Using a similar qualitative approach, I present a case study of a third grade teacher who explicitly taught food literacy through culinary arts instruction. Drawing on numerous contextual resources, this teacher created a classroom community of food practice through hands-on cooking lessons, guest chef demonstrations, and school-wide tasting events. As a result, she promoted six different types of knowledge (conceptual, procedural, dispositional, sensory, social, and communal) through leveraging contextual resources.This case study highlights how food literacy is largely contingent on often-overlooked mediators of food literacy: the relationships between participants, the activity, and the type of knowledge invoked. Scientific literacy in food education continues to be a topic of interest in the fields of public health and of sustainable agriculture, as well as to proponents of the local food movement. This dissertation begins to map a more cohesive and comprehensive approach to gardening and cooking implementation and research in school settings.

Thesis (masters)--University of South Africa, 2002.

<p> This descriptive case study examined the meanings public elementary school teachers (N = 13) made of learning to enact citizen science projects in their schoolyards in partnership with a local Arboretum. Utilizing Engestr&ouml;m&rsquo;s (2001) framework of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), the Arboretum&rsquo;s outreach program for area Title 1 schools was viewed as an activity system composed of and acting in partnership with the teachers. The major finding was that teachers designed and mastered new ways of teaching (expansive learning) and transformed their citizen science activity to facilitate student engagement and learning. I highlight four important themes in teachers&rsquo; expansive learning: (a) discussion, (b) inclusion, (c) integration, and (d) collaboration. Teacher learning communities formed when colleagues shared responsibilities, formed mentor/mentee relationships, and included student teachers and interns in the activity. This program could serve as a model for elementary school citizen science education, as well as a model for professional development for teachers to learn to teach science and Environmental Education outdoors.</p>

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the fact that Islam remains a powerful social force in the lives of many of its adherents, contemporary scholars lament the silence of Muslims on the environmental question. However, closer scrutiny reveals a burgeoning green movement amongst Muslims the world over. While scholarly works initially elucidated the scriptural basis for Islamic ecological ethics (ecoethics), efforts are now centred on translating the ecoethics of Islam into practice. The educational landscape of Islam is frequently put forward as the primary arena for imparting its ecological teachings. This thesis examines the connections between Islam, ecology and education, and investigates the revival of Islamic ecoethics by way of environmental education in the educational landscape of Islam broadly, and the maktab in particular. The maktab, the foundational educational establishment in Islam, remains underutilised despite its important place in the educational life of Muslims. A liberation ecotheology research framework was employed to display the richness of traditional resources and institutions in meeting contemporary environmental challenges. Through a conceptual analysis of sacred texts, traditions and contemporary thought on Islam, ecology and education, this thesis constructs an eco-justice ethic of Islam and draws out the pedagogical implications for implementing this ecoethic. Content analysis, of environmental education activities in the broader educational landscape of Islam, provides insights into environmental teaching and learning. Environmental education in the maktab, which plays a pivotal role in imparting the elementary teachings and values of Islam, is brought into focus by way of a curriculum review which examines the environmental elements encapsulated in two maktab curricula produced in South Africa. Implications for environmental teaching and learning in the maktab, are then extracted. This thesis affirms the important position of religious thought as a determiner of environmental action. It presents, from within a liberatory tradition of Islam, a theocentric eco-justice ethic which is based on the sovereignty of God, the responsible trusteeship of humankind and the intrinsic value of Creation. It puts forward an activist, transformative approach to environmental education, premised upon an integrated knowledge structure and educational objectives which require reflective and critical engagement with all ecological knowledge, responsible environmental action, and social transformation. And it proposes a transformative approach to environmental education to bring the liberatory intent of the Islamic environmental tradition into focus, both in the broader educational landscape of Islam, as well as the maktab. Muslims own a fair share of the global concern around the earth’s health and wellbeing. To varying degrees, they continue to draw upon religious teachings to shape their values, beliefs and attitudes towards life - including the environment. Revitalizing ecological ethics in the educational establishment of Islam provides an impetus to not only uncover Islam’s environmental tradition, but to affect Muslim awareness and action on the ecological question. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ondanks die feit dat Islam ‘n sosiale krag in die lewens van baie van sy aanhangers is, beklaag hedendaagse geleerdes die stilte van Muslims op die omgewings-vraag. Nadere ondersoek toon egter ‘n ontluikende groen beweging onder Muslims die wêreld oor. Terwyl navorsing tot dusver die skriftuurlike basis vir die Islamitiese ekologiese etiek (ekoetiek) verklaar, is pogings nou gevestig op die omskepping van hierdie ekoetiek in die praktyk. Die opvoedkundige landskap van Islam is dikwels na vore gebring as die primêre arena vir die oordra van sy ekologiese leerstellings. Hierdie tesis ondervra die verband tussen Islam, ekologie en opvoeding, en ondersoek die herlewing van die Islamitiese ekoetiek deur middel van omgewingsopvoeding in die opvoedkundige landskap van Islam in die algemeen, en die maktab in die besonder. Die maktab, die belangrikste grondlegging-stigting in Islam, bly onderbenut ten spyte van sy belangrike plek in die opvoedkundige lewe van Muslims. ‘n Bevrydings-ekoteologie navorsing raamwerk was in diens geneem om die rykdom van die tradisionele middele en instellings van die Islamietise ekoetiek na vore te bring. Deur middel van ‘n konseptuele analise van heilige tekste, tradisies en hedendaagse denke oor Islam, ekologie en opvoeding, bou hierdie tesis ‘n ekogeregtigheids etiek van Islam, en ontrek die pedagogiese implikasies vir die uitvoering van hierdie ekoetiek. Inhoud analise van omgewingsopvoedingaktiwiteite in die breër opvoedkundige landskap van Islam bied verder insigte tot omgewingsopvoeding praktyke aan. Omgewingsopvoeding in die maktab, wat ‘n belangrike rol speel in die oordra van die basiese leerstellings en waardes van Islam, is by wyse van kurrikulum-hersiening ondersoek. Hierdie hersiening ondersoek die omgewings-elemente vervat in twee maktab kurrikulums wat in Suid-Afrika geproduseer is. Implikasies vir omgewingsopvoeding in die maktab word dan ontrek. Hierdie tesis bevestig die belangrike posisie van godsdienstige denke as ‘n bepaling van omgewings-aksie. Dit bied, binne ‘n bevreiheids-tradisie in Islam, ‘n teosentriese eko-geregtigheids etiek aan wat baseer is op die opperheerskap van God, die verantwoordelike herderskap van mensdom en die innerlike waarde van die skepping. Dit poneer ‘n transformatiewe benadering tot omgewingsopevoeding wat berus op ‘n geïntegreerde kennis struktuur en opvoedkundige doelwitte wat reflektiewe en kritiese omgang met ekologiese kennis vereis; verantwoordelike omgewings-aksie; en sosiale transformasie. Dit bied ook aan dat die Islamitiese omgewings-tradisie deur middel van ‘n transformatiewe benadering tot omgewingsopvoeding, beide in die breër opvoedkundige landskap van Islam sowel as die maktab, na vore gebring kan word. Muslims besit ‘n groot deel van die wêreldwye besorgdheid oor die aarde se gesondheid en welstand. Tot wisselende grade, gaan hulle voort om hulle waardes, oortuigings en houdings teenoor die lewe, insluitend die omgewing, op godsdienstige leerstellinge te baseer. Om nuwe lewe in die ekologiese etiek van Islam in die opvoedkundige vestiging te blaas, bied ‘n geleentheid aan om nie net Islam se omgewings-tradisie te ontbloot nie, maar ook om die bewustheid en optrede van Muslims op die ekologiese vraag te beïnvloed.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

<p> This study explored how citizen science programs can connect young people with nature while providing needed scientific data. The premise was that, with attention to proper design, modification of current programming might increase citizen science outcomes for conservation. Furthermore, combining sound scientific protocols with effective education and positive youth development strategies can lead to consequential benefits for youth and society. An embedded single-case study explored a set of 20 citizen science programs relevant to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine how the programs intended to educate and develop youth and to understand the programs&rsquo; designs. A theoretical framework based upon science education, environmental education, and positive youth development guided the inquiry. The study also explored how environmental educators, youth group leaders, scientists, and public land managers might work together to design and implement youth community and citizen science programs on federal lands. Study findings informed development of a prototype planning framework to guide planning and implementation of youth-focused community and citizen science programs on federal lands. Using the framework to design robust citizen science programs can assist scientists monitoring environmental conditions to inform land management decisions; and assist environmental education program coordinators to design meaningful service&ndash;learning activities for youth.</p><p>

<p> Adventure is a relic of imperialism and the European romanticization of place. It has evolved from quests for domination of place and people (colonialism), to spiritual or consumeristic escape from the modern world, to an attempt to return or reconnect to nature. This paradigm implies that if humans must reconnect to nature, there is an inherent disconnect or a separation. This reconnection is rooted in romantic notions and Cartesian duality of man and nature. However, approaches towards adventure and tourism apart from such dominant Western mountain traditions focus on the critical and contextually based aspects of adventure experiences. These approaches, informed by indigenous meanings of place, traditional ecological knowledge, and ecofeminism, decenter human experience. Likewise, a feminist new materialist approach towards understanding place and materiality also allows for an awareness of entanglements and intra-active relationships of human and more-than-human to emerge, as did this research. </p><p> This dissertation examined place in the context of adventure trekking tourism in the upper Solukhumbu District, Nepal through a walking ethnography of the trails in and around Mount Everest base camp. This research was based on the following questions: 1. How can the future of development of Nepali Himalayan adventure tourism industry move forward ethically and with reciprocity towards the interconnectivity of mountains and people; 2. How can the adventure tourism industry consider the complexities of influence on a place&mdash;from both a direct impact and that of greater anthropogenic impacts? This research was grounded in the background and orientations of Everest tourism, which developed within discourse and materiality of Khumbu, shifting with local identities and meanings of place. Tourism in this context mangles in the edges of local and global cultures looming within immanent threats of the Anthropocene. Discourse composed and idealized from outside the mountain boundaries contributes to motivations for traveling to the Khumbu and perceptions of this place, in turn shaping the expectations of the tourist. In these contact zones mountains are sacred, a business venture, a personal challenge, place of revelation and spirituality, imperial conquest, neocolonial stomping ground, to scientific object of study. Within these complexities, this dissertation examined the concept of place and how meaning and agency develop in relation to adventure tourism experiences in Khumbu and the Anthropocene. A reciprocity develops in which human amongst more-than-human becomes embedded and inseparable. Shifting an anthropocentric gaze that privileges and sets matter apart as isolated and constrained by boundaries determined by humans, demonstrated the vibrant agential reality of more-than-human intimacies such as forgotten landscapes, rocks, dirt, glaciers, and altitude. Nature is not a passive object upon which humans descend, but rather an entangled subjectivity. This awareness allows for a rethinking of human enactments of Anthropocene and complicit behaviors of this epoch, reframing approaches to adventure. The conclusions of this research found that mountains&mdash;more-than-human&mdash;have agency and meaning and are not passive or in the background of human experience. This applies to a practical application of the research through a praxis tool for new materialist research and the adventure industry, in turn decentering the human/anthropocentrism and identified practices of tourism that are both sustainable and more inclusive of the entanglements of people and place.</p>

<p> This dissertation research examines the perceptions held by African Africans as they pertain to the environment and nature and the factors influencing those perceptions. The research covers the ecopsycological elements, historical narratives, and current social dynamics of African American culture in order to understand their frame of reference in connection to the environment. Two populations of African American adults in Michigan and South Carolina were used to study the perceptions and behaviors exhibited by the culture. The research study used interview sessions and questionnaires in order to generate qualitative and quantitative data. The data focused on outdoor childhood activities, adult involvement, concerns about the environment, perceptions of individuals and mainstream organizations associated with the environment, current and potential environmental behaviors, and factors contributing to the participants&rsquo; environmental actions and decisions. With unanimous responses indicating that research participants have engaged in some form of outdoor activity during childhood, as well as a majority of these individuals expressing time spent outdoors or in nature as positive, there is indication the environment plays an integral part in the lives of African Americans. Additionally, participants acknowledged discussions about the environment and nature rarely occurred between themselves and their parents or other adults during their childhood, especially in regards to conservation, preservation, and pollution prevention measures. What they did experience, however, was language through demonstration; any specific actions about managing or taking care of the earth was learned through hands-on approaches rather than verbal communication. Lastly participants in this study overwhelmingly cited Caucasians and elements oftentimes associated with Caucasians as the frame of reference for environmentalism. In contrast, African Americans are just as interested in and concerned about the environment, yet they do not perceive themselves as environmentalists. The study results indicate there are significant correlations between some environmental and social aspects exhibited by the participants and overall, African Americans are interested in the environment and some of the components associated with it.</p>

Orientador: Ricardo Ribeiro / Banca: Sebastião de Souza Lemes / Banca: Silene Fontana / Resumo: Fruto de Políticas Públicas de Educação Ambiental, a proposta de Escolas Sustentáveis no Brasil pode contribuir para que cada escola se torne um "espaço irradiador de sustentabilidade para a comunidade". As formas como esses processos se desenvolvem nas diferentes escolas, com destaque para a proposta de criação das COM-VIDAS "Comissões de Meio Ambiente e Qualidade de Vida", são o foco deste trabalho. Diante da relevância do tema exposto, este presente estudo teve como objetivo compreender a proposta de criação das COM-VIDAS e sua capacidade de mobilizar a participação da comunidade local, assim como as transformações socioambientais nos espaços escolares, possibilitadas pelas ações desenvolvidas através dessas Comissões de Meio Ambiente e Qualidade de Vida. A pesquisa partiu do questionamento: "O que são Escolas Sustentáveis?" e a busca para compreender essa indagação desencadeou olhares específicos para o entendimento de como essa proposta se desenvolve no Brasil, com destaque para o Programa Nacional de Escolas Sustentáveis, para as Conferências InfantoJuvenis para o Meio Ambiente, as COM-VIDAS, também fruto de Processos Formativos em Escolas Sustentáveis. Os procedimentos metodológicos da dissertação destacaram a abordagem teórica, exploratória e qualitativa, sendo concretizado por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e análise teórica documental. Como resultado a pesquisa reforça o desafio da formação de sujeitos ecologicamente orientados e aspectos positivos diagnosticados em... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Fruit from Public Policies of Environmental Education, the proposal of Sustainable Schools in Brazil can contribute to each school to become "a space which radiates sustainability to the community". The ways these processes develop at different schools, with particular reference to the proposal of the creation of the COM-VIDAS "Commissions of the Environment and Life Quality", are the focus of this work. Considering the importance of the topic exposed, this current study aimed to understand the proposal of the creation of the COM-VIDAS and its potential to mobilize the participation of the Local Community, as well as the socio-environmental changes in the schools, enabled by the actions developed through these " Commissions of the Environment and Life Quality. The research emerged from the questioning: "What are Sustainable Schools ? " And the search to understand this inquiry triggered specific views to the understanding of how this proposal is developed in Brazil, notably the National Program of Sustainable Schools, the Youth Conference to the Environment and the COM-VIDAs - Commissions of the Environment and Life Quality, also fruit from Formative Processes in Sustainable Schools. The methodological procedures of the dissertation highlighted the Theoretical Approach, exploratory and qualitative, accomplished through bibliographical research and documental theoretical analysis. As a result, the research reinforces the challenges of the formation of subjects ecologically ori... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Orientador: Maria Cristina de Senzi Zancul / Banca: Maria Regina Guarnieri / Banca: Marcela de Moraes Agudo / Resumo: Considerando-se a relevância da Educação Ambiental desde o início da escolarização, o objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar e analisar como se dá a inserção da Educação Ambiental nos Centros Municipais de Educação Infantil da cidade de São Carlos, interior do estado de São Paulo, a partir da percepção de professoras que trabalham nesses espaços. Foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com professoras de cinco CEMEIs selecionados para o estudo, com o propósito de identificar como elas entendem o trabalho realizado com Educação Ambiental, as práticas desenvolvidas e a forma como são conduzidas. Buscou-se conhecer as características das atividades desenvolvidas, a existência ou não de formação para a realização do trabalho pedagógico, os tipos de atividades propostas, bem como os obstáculos para realização das práticas de Educação Ambiental. Ao final da coleta, todas as informações obtidas foram organizadas, por meio de procedimentos de análise de conteúdo de acordo com Bardin (2004), procurando-se identificar as tendências e padrões relevantes. Os resultados foram analisados com base em referenciais teóricos da Educação Ambiental Crítica, a partir de trabalhos de autores como Guimarães (2005), Lima e Layrargues (2014), Loureiro (2007), Tozoni-Reis (2007), considerando-se, também, a perspectiva de Paulo Freire (2009). Diante da problemática apresentada e dos objetivos que pretendíamos desenvolver, os resultados da pesquisa confirmam a hipótese inicial de que a inserção d... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Considering the relevance of Environmental Education since the beginning of schooling, the goal of this work was to identify and analyze how the insertion of Environmental Education in the Municipal Children's Education Centers of the city of São Carlos, in the country area of state of São Paulo, from the perception of teachers working in these spaces. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers from five CEMEIs selected for the study, in order to identify how they perceive the work carried out with Environmental Education, the practices developed and how they were conducted. It was sought to know the characteristics of the activities developed, the existence or not of training for the accomplishment of the pedagogical work, the types of activities proposed, as well as the obstacles to the accomplishment of the Environmental Education practices. At the end of the collection all the information obtained was organized through content analysis procedures according to Bardin (2004), trying to identify the relevant trends and patterns. The analysis of the results were based on the theoretical references of Critical Environmental Education, such as in Guimarães (2005), Lima and Layrargues (2014), Loureiro (2007), Tozoni-Reis (2007), considering also the perspective of Paulo Freire (2009). In view of the problems presented and the objectives we intend to develop, the results of the research confirm the initial hypothesis that the insertion of Environmental Education in C... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre