Umweltbildung und Umweltbewusstsein

The author analyzes the relation of environmental education (Umweltbildung) and environmental awareness (Umweltbewusstsein), enquiring whether school academic environmental education could contribute to the shaping of environmental awareness. Different analyses of environmental education empirical research have shown the influence on environmental awareness, but with doubtful duration and intensity. It has been shown with the critical analysis of environmental education awareness in environmental psychology, in the context of environmental problem perception, value orientations and intentional behavior, that the presuppositions and processes of environmental awareness in the broader meaning are submitted to a much complex and differentiated research concept than it is the case with ordinary ideas in environmental education. Environmental education should avoid the tendencies of moralizing, and pedagogical praxis should enable an individual to think about experience and social context in the choice of activities. Environmental awareness could not be achieved by social and technical strategies along with neglecting motivations and social discourse marked with contradictions