ERIC Number: EJ1435789
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1350-4622
EISSN: EISSN-1469-5871
Available Date: N/A
Responsible Environmental Education in the Anthropocene: Understanding and Responding to Young People's Experiences of Nature Disconnection, Eco-Anxiety and Ontological Insecurity
Ariane Gienger; Melissa Nursey-Bray; Dianne Rodger; Anna Szorenyi; Philip Weinstein; Scott Hanson-Easey; Damien Fordham; Danielle Lemieux; Celeste Hill; Shoko Yoneyama
Environmental Education Research, v30 n9 p1619-1649 2024
Children and young people today are growing up in an increasingly urban, technical, virtual and ecologically precarious world, leaving many feel disconnected from nature yet anxious about its degradation at the same time. Two distinct bodies of knowledge -- namely youth human-nature relationships and youth eco-anxiety -- are concerned with the former and the latter respectively. Through a narrative literature review, we bring these fields together and explore their interaction. We demonstrate that the dominant responses of facilitating nature exposure and encouraging environmental action risk counteracting each other and ultimately fail to address the root cause of children and young people's experiences. We further show that emerging responses in both fields are overcoming these limitations by turning towards a reimagination of humanity's relationship with nature, providing a holistic way forward. We conclude by discussing barriers restricting the expansion of such approaches and opportunities for future research to contribute to dismantling these barriers.
Descriptors: Environmental Education, Natural Resources, Ecology, Anxiety, Climate, Conservation (Environment), Transformative Learning, Children, Experience, Adolescents, Youth
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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