A Framework for Environmental Education Strategies

Environmental education (EE) includes a broad range of teaching methods, topics, audiences, and educators. EE professionals have worked over the last 30 years to provide distinct definitions, guides, objectives, and standards that will help educators know how to differentiate environmental education from other educational efforts and how to deliver it effectively. This article incorporates several recent frameworks of educational strategies into one that has usefulness to formal and nonformal educators as well as communicators. Our purpose is not to redefine EE, but to provide a framework that can help practitioners consider a suite of possible purposes and interventions that can belong under the umbrella of EE. We define four categories of EE according to their purpose: Convey Information, Build Understanding, Improve Skills, and Enable Sustainable Actions.