The roots of environmental education can be traced back as early as the 18th century when
Jean-Jacques Rousseau stressed the importance of an education that focuses on the environment in
Emile: or, On Education. Several decades later,
Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born naturalist, echoed Rousseau’s philosophy as he encouraged students to “Study nature, not books.”
[1] These two influential scholars helped lay the foundation for a concrete environmental education program, known as
Nature study, which took place in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The nature study movement used fables and moral lessons to help students develop an appreciation of nature and embrace the natural world.
[2] Anna Botsford Comstock, the head of the Department of Nature Study at Cornell University, was a prominent figure in the nature study movement and wrote the Handbook for Nature Study in 1911, which used nature to educate children on cultural values.
[3] Cornstock and the other leaders of the movement, such as Liberty Hyde Bailey, helped Nature Study garner tremendous amounts of support from community leaders, teachers, and scientists and change the science curriculum for children across the United States.
A new type of environmental education, Conservation Education, emerged as a result of the Great Depression and
Dust Bowl during the 1920s and 1930s. Conservation Education dealt with the natural world in a drastically different way from Nature Study because it focused on rigorous scientific training rather than natural history.
[4] Conservation Education was a major scientific management and planning tool that helped solve social, economic, and environmental problems during this time period.
The modern environmental education movement, which gained significant momentum in the late 1960s and early 1970s, stems from Nature Study and Conservation Education. During this time period, many events – such as Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War – placed Americans at odds with one another and the U.S. government. However, as more people began to fear the fallout from radiation, the chemical pesticides mentioned in Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring, and the significant amounts of air pollution and waste, the public’s concern for their health and the health of their natural environment led to a unifying phenomenon known as
environmentalism.
The first article about environmental education as a new movement appeared in Phi Delta Kappan in 1969, authored by James A. Swan.
[5] A definition of "Environmental Education" first appeared in Educational Digest in March 1970, authored by William Stapp
[6] Stapp later went on to become the first Director of Environmental Education for UNESCO, and then the Global Rivers International Network.
Ultimately, the first
Earth Day on April 22, 1970 – a national teach-in about environmental problems – paved the way for the modern environmental education movement. Later that same year, President Nixon passed the National Environmental Education Act, which was intended to incorporate environmental education into K-12 schools.
[7] Then, in 1971, the National Association for Environmental Education (now known as the North American Association for Environmental Education) was created to improve environmental literacy by providing resources to teachers and promoting environmental education programs.
Internationally, environmental education gained recognition when the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, declared environmental education must be used as a tool to address global environmental problems. The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (
UNESCO) and
United Nations Environment Program (
UNEP) created three major declarations that have guided the course of environmental education.
