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Bookshelf

Some of the books on our actual bookshelf! These ones are relevant to our work with Alberta Education and Alberta teachers. Click on the image to see a larger version.

We are not the only ones thinking about environmental education! There is a legacy of writings that support what we all do. Collected on our bookshelf are some of these texts, research, reflections and guidebooks. Feel free to browse and if you have something to add, please contact us! There is always room in our virtual bookcase.

ACEE’s broad definition of environmental education, which integrates environmental, social, and economic considerations, means that ACEE is helping deliver on ‘education for sustainable development’– a term that is used in several places below.

Measuring Success

Measuring the Success of Environmental Education Programs is an easy to follow guide to evaluating your environmental education programs. Thanks to CPAWS Calgary/Banff and Sierra Club of Canada for permission to offer a pdf version of this document.

Youth Engagement

Thanks to the Alberta Emerald Foundation (AEF) for permission to share the Backgrounder on youth engagement together with What we Heard from the province-wide consultations conducted by ACEE, on contract to AEF.
The Green Street Guide to Authentic Youth Engagement outlines some of the best ways to encourage authentic youth participation within organizations and includes practical advice and real-life examples.

From the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)

Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning (K-12) (revised 2010) provides students, parents, educators, home schoolers, policy makers, and the public a set of common, voluntary guidelines for environmental literacy.
Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence provides a set of recommendations for developing and selecting environmental education instructional materials. These guidelines aim to help developers of activity guides, lesson plans, and other instructional materials produce high quality products, and to provide educators with a tool to evaluate the wide array of available environmental education materials.
Nonformal Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence offers a set of recommendations for the design and implementation of comprehensive nonformal environmental education programs. The Nonformal Guidelines outlines six key characteristics of quality EE program design and implementation.
Guidelines for the Preparation and Professional Development of Environmental Educators offers recommendations about the basic knowledge and abilities educators need to provide high-quality environmental education.
Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs, contains a set of recommendations for developing and administering high-quality environmental education programs for young children from birth to age eight, with a focus on ages three to six.

Green Teacher Articles

Thanks to Green Teacher for permission to offer these relevant articles.

Green Tsunami Rising: Environmental education’s third wave (Mike Weilbacher, from issue #83)
Educating for Action: A framework for thinking about the place of action in environmental education (William F. Hammond, from issue #50)

Research

ACEE has listed both peer reviewed and other forms of research.

The Environmental Education Research Network, compiled by the NAAEE Research Commission and Cornell University, highlights recently published refereed journal articles.
Pacific Education Institute is a project-based inquiry program in Washington State that has undertaken various research initiatives using the environment to integrate subject areas and the results in measurable improvements in student learning.
Evidence of Impact of Sustainable Schools, published the University of Bath’s Centre for Research in Education and the Environment for the United Kingdom’s Depart of Education outlines the educational and social benefits to young people of learning in sustainable schools.
Closing the Achievement Gap prepared by the State Education and Environment Roundtable presents the results of a nationwide study using the Environment as an Integrating Context for learning (EIC).
The National Foundation for Educational Research conducted A Review of Research on Outdoor Learning critically examining 150 pieces of research on outdoor learning published in English between 1993 and 2003.
Back to School: Back Outside from the National Wildlife Federation documents how outdoor time boosts academic performance.
Environmental Learning: Insights from Research into the Student Experience is a book that outlines how school and university students experience and respond to learning activities related to environmental issues.
A Bibliography of Environmental Education – Education for Sustainability Research (2000-2011) on Student & Teacher Competencies (link coming soon) is a comprehensive bibliography of Environmental Education – Education for Sustainability Research developed by Michael Mappin.

Provincial Policies

Alberta

Environmental Education Manual for Grades I to XII (1983) was developed as a Curriculum Guide by Alberta Education. Available only in hard copy in a few select libraries. A well-developed guide that could help guide the current work of Alberta Education.
Inspiring Action on Education

Ontario

Environmental Education Ontario (EEON) used a multi-stakeholder approach like ACEE’s to develop its plan, entitled Greening the Way Ontario Learns
The Ontario government has endorsed a plan it commissioned, entitled Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow.
The Ontario government created a series of documents to support environmental education in Ontario schools.

British Columbia

Environmental Learning and Experience – An Interdisciplinary Guide for Teachers was created by the Ministry of Education.
How Sustainability Education? A Solutions Summit Final Report produced by the BC Working Group and Network on Sustainability Education as a report on a one-day summit held in 2009. The summit moved the dialogue from “why sustainability education” to “how sustainability education” and the report summarizes eight action themes to serve as a roadmap to education as sustainability.

Manitoba

The Manitoba Ministry of Education consistently weaves Education for Sustainable Development into its K-12 program of studies. They have developed a guide to assist Manitoba curriculum developers and educators to integrate sustainability concepts into new and existing curricula.

Education for a Sustainable Future: A Resource for Curriculum Developers, Teachers and Administrators
Cross-curriculum maps

Quebec

The Quebec Teachers’ Union has developed an exciting and popular whole-school model known as Établissements verts Brundtland (EVB – Brundtland Green Schools).

Analysis of Canadian Policies

International Institute for Sustainable Development has an analysis of environmental and sustainable development policy development in school districts in Manitoba and Canada. The paper includes numerous examples of school and district initiatives from Canada and other jurisdictions.
The Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP) has drafted an excellent 2006 document entitled Survey of National Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development Laws and Policies: Lessons for Canada.
The Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network (CEGN) created a 2006 issue brief entitled Environmental Education in Canada, which outlines some key policy approaches and strategies.

International Policies

Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto developed by the United Kingdom’s Department of Education sets out a vision to enable every young person to experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of their learning and personal development.

Frameworks

Connecting the Dots focuses on learning strategies and the ways of organizing learning experiences; the “how to” of learning. These learning strategies involve students as engaged learners, learning within the context of their communities and addressing relevant, local issues.
Council of Ministers of Education in Canada (CMEC) released a background paper – Developing a Pan-Canadian Education for Sustainable Development Framework for Collaboration and Action to provide the international context for work on ESD in Canada and to lay out CMEC’s commitment to ESD.
The Western and Northern Canadian Protocol (WNCP) has drafted five guiding principles to serve as starting points for rethinking curriculum frameworks. The work of WNCP is providing a common vocabulary and a broad vision for the development of 21st century curriculum frameworks.
Learning for a Sustainable Future as a partner in the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Canada has created theme documents on a variety of topics that help educators and curriculum designers understand ways to engage students that are appropriate for the various levels of development.
Calgary Board of Education (CBE) has helped ‘show the way’ with a revolutionary framework to advance environmental stewardship that links energy conservation, environmental education, and community integration.
The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) has developed a network of state and provincial associations that support environmental education – the ‘Affiliate Network.’ The NAAEE Affiliate Network includes links to environmental education state legislation.
The Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication (EECOM) is committed to building capacity for environmental education across Canada. The capacity building subcommittee has drafted a 4 page resource entitled Tools to Build Capacity in Environmental Education.
21st Century Learning focuses on competencies that students will require for the 21stCentury. There are many groups that have developed their own frameworks for this as well as resources. Listed below are a few of these groups:

High Value Presentations

Dr. Rick Kool is the Program Head for the Master of Arts in Environmental Education and Communication at Royal Roads University in Victoria. He thinks deeply about environmental education and his presentations are always valuable and worth seeing again! Below are two powerpoint presentations from Dr. Kool.

Communities of Practice, Networks and Partnerships

Etienne Wenger coined the term Communities of Practice. This webpage gives an excellent summary of what CoPs are and how they could operate.
  Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder describes how Communities of Practice might be purposely developed as a key driver of organizational performance in the knowledge age. Seven principles for cultivating communities of practice is a valuable excerpt from this book.
Cultivation a Community of Practice – a quick start up guide is a one page summary of considerations when starting Communities of Practice.
Community of Practice Design Guide is a step by step guide created by the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative and American Association for Higher Education that focuses on designing and cultivation Communities of Practice for higher education
A Community of Practice on Community of Practice! This group has forums and workshops about CoPs and a well stocked Wiki full of resources and links.
Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: a conceptual framework looks at one way to evaluate the value of Communities of Practice and networks. The general website also has some useful resources.
The Partnership Handbook is designed to provide information, tips and questions about the basics of partnerships, which
can be applied to your own circumstances. The creation of this 90 page document was funded by Human Resources Developlement Canada.
Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale is an article by Margaret Wheatley looking at the characteristics of networks and how they can lead to change.
The Constellation Model for Social Change comes from the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. An interesting way to look at how groups come together to tackle a common issues or challenge.
GEO and Monitor Institute partnered to release Catalyzing Networks for Social Change, to explore what it takes for grantmakers to cultivate a network mindset, offer recommendations for how funders can effectively build the capacity of networks and identify five network approaches that are helping grantmakers and social change makers to harness the power of networks.