New thinking in environmental citizenship

All across the world communities and governments are coming to realize the importance of ‘environmental citizenship’ in the pathway to resolving many of our environmental problems. The recently formed European Network for Environmental Citizenship (ENEC) is a Cost Action funded by Horizon 2020, which aims to improve the understanding and assessment of environmental citizenship in European societies and participating countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

European SWOT analysis on education for environmental citizenship

A cidadania ambiental é crucial para o sucesso de qualquer política ambiental. O desenvolvimento sustentável, uma economia circular, uma economia de baixo carbono e uma bioeconomia exigem um envolvimento efetivo dos cidadãos. Os cidadãos são chamados a adotar atitudes e comportamentos ambientais, fazer escolhas ecológicas, aumentar a participação cívica e conhecer e aplicar seus direitos e deveres ambientais. A crise ambiental contemporânea com mudanças climáticas, perda de biodiversidade, poluição do ar e todos os outros problemas ambientais locais e globais exigem uma educação capaz de capacitar cidadãos ambientais. A educação desempenha um papel fundamental na formação de futuros cidadãos ambientais; ninguém nasce um cidadão ambiental, mas qualquer um pode ser educado. Este relatório apresenta uma análise SWOT de um tipo integrado e holístico de educação na Europa: a "Educação para a Cidadania Ambiental". A análise SWOT é apresentada em dois níveis. Na parte A, é apresentada uma síntese dos resultados de 157 especialistas de 28 países europeus. Na parte B, o leitor pode explorar os 23 relatórios de países europeus. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido na Ação de Custo ENEC - Rede Europeia para a Cidadania Ambiental (CA16229), apoiada pelo COST (Cooperação Europeia em Ciência e Tecnologia). Este relatório foi publicado como livro digital na coleção “Educação XXI” do Instituto de Educação - Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. "Educação XXI" trata da diversificação, modernização e melhoria da educação.Environmental citizenship is crucial for the success of any environmental policy. Sustainable development, a circular economy, a low-carbon economy, and a bioeconomy require an effective citizen engagement. Citizens are called upon to adopt environmental attitudes and behaviours, make green choices, increase civic participation, and to be aware of and apply their environmental rights and duties. The contemporary environmental crisis with climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution and all other local and global environmental problems demand an education that is capable of empowering environmental citizens. Education plays a key role in shaping future environmental citizens; nobody is born environmental citizen but anybody can become so by education. This report presents a SWOT Analysis of an integrated and holistic type of education in Europe “Education for Environmental Citizenship”. The SWOT analysis is presented in two levels. In Part A a synthesis of the results of 157 experts from 28 European countries are presented. In Part B the reader can explore the 23 European country reports. This work was developed in the Cost Action ENEC – European Network for Environmental Citizenship (CA16229) supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). This report was published as an e-book in the editorial collection “Education XXI” from the Instituto de Educação — Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. “Education XXI” addresses the diversification, modernization and improvement of education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Education for Environmental Citizenship in Focus

This booklet is based on work from Cost Action ENEC – European Network for Environmental Citizenship (CA16229) supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a pan-European Intergovernmental Framework. Its mission is to enable break-through scientific and technological developments leading to new concepts and products and thereby contribute to strengthening Europe’s research and innovation capacities

Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education

This open access book is about the development of a common understanding of environmental citizenship. It conceptualizes and frames environmental citizenship taking an educational perspective. Organized in four complementary parts, the book first explains the political, economic and societal dimensions of the concept. Next, it examines environmental citizenship as a psychological concept with a specific focus on knowledge, values, beliefs and attitudes. It then explores environmental citizenship within the context of environmental education and education for sustainability. It elaborates responsible environmental behaviour, youth activism and education for sustainability through the lens of environmental citizenship. Finally, it discusses the concept within the context of different educational levels, such as primary and secondary education in formal and non-formal settings. Environmental citizenship is a key factor in sustainability, green and cycle economy, and low-carbon society, and an important aspect in addressing global environmental problems. It has been an influential concept in many different arenas such as economy, policy, philosophy, and organizational marketing. In the field of education, the concept could be better exploited and established, however. Education and, especially, environmental discourses in science education have a great deal to contribute to the adoption and promotion of environmental citizenship.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Circum-Mediterranean cultural heritage and medicial plant uses in traditional animal healthcare: a field survey in eight selected areas within the RUBIA project

During the years 2003¿2005, a comparative ethnobotanical field survey was conducted on remedies used in traditional animal healthcare in eight Mediterranean areas. The study sites were selected within the EU-funded RUBIA project, and were as follows: the upper Kelmend Province of Albania; the Capannori area in Eastern Tuscany and the Bagnocavallo area of Romagna, Italy; Cercle de Ouezanne, Morocco; Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park in the province of Huelva, Spain; the St. Catherine area of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt; Eastern and Western Crete, Greece; the Paphos and Larnaca areas of Cyprus; and the Mitidja area of Algeria. One hundred and thirty-six veterinary preparations and 110 plant taxa were recorded in the survey, with Asteraceae and Lamiaceae being the most quoted botanical families. For certain plant species the survey uncovered veterinary phytotherapeutical indications that were very uncommon, and to our knowledge never recorded before. These include Anabasis articulata (Chenopodiaceae), Cardopatium corymbosum (Asteraceae), Lilium martagon (Liliaceae), Dorycnium rectum (Fabaceae), Oenanthe pimpinelloides (Apiaceae), Origanum floribundum (Lamiaceae), Tuberaria lignosa (Cistaceae), and Dittrichia graveolens (Asteraceae). These phytotherapeutical indications are briefly discussed in this report, taking into account modern phytopharmacology and phytochemistry. The percentage of overall botanical veterinary taxa recorded in all the study areas was extremely low (8%), however when all taxa belonging to the same botanical genus are considered, this portion increases to 17%. Nevertheless, very few plant uses were found to be part of a presumed "Mediterranean" cultural heritage in veterinary practices, which raises critical questions about the concept of Mediterraneanism in ethnobotany and suggests that further discussion is required. Nearly the half of the recorded veterinary plant uses for mammals uncovered in this survey have also been recorded in the same areas in human folk medicine, suggesting a strong link between human and veterinary medical practices, and perhaps also suggesting the adaptive origins of a few medical practices. Since most of the recorded data concern remedies for treating cattle, sheep, goats, and camels, it would be interesting to test a few of the recorded phytotherapeuticals in the future, to see if they are indeed able to improve animal healthcare in breeding environments, or to raise the quality of dairy and meat products in the absence of classical, industrial, veterinary pharmaceuticals

European Green Deal and Environmental Citizenship: Two Interrelated Concepts

The world is facing an unprecedented global environmental crisis as environmental problems have been exacerbated in recent decades. Climate crisis, plastic pollution, and the loss of biodiversity are just some of the many environmental issues we are facing every day. Actions by citizens are central to EU plans to tackle the recent environmental crisis, to achieve the European Green Deal, and the EU 2050 strategy for a low (neutral) carbon Europe. Perhaps, more than any other previous environmental policy, the European Green Deal (EGD) has set participation and citizen engagement as one of its main priorities. Empowering citizens for transition towards a climate neutral, sustainable Europe is one of the horizontal priority areas of the EGD (Thematic area 10: Empowering citizens for transition towards a climate neutral, sustainable Europe Call). According to the EGD, the green transition must be just and inclusive and requires ambitious actions to engage people, communities, and organizations to bring about a fair and inclusive transition, leaving no-one behind. Such actions must promote change at the collective level through deliberation, as well as through research to foster behavioral and social change, and at an individual level by empowering citizens as “agents of change”. This is a fundamental aim of the recent conceptualization of Environmental Citizenship

Evaluating a Novel Learning Intervention Grounded in the Education for Environmental Citizenship Pedagogical Approach: A Case Study from Cyprus

In times of environmental crisis, Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) is argued to be of great significance in the development of secondary education students’ pro-environmentalism as environmental citizens. However, given that EEC is still emerging, there is a lack of empirical foundation on how environmental citizenship can be approached in a pedagogically sound way; as a result, empirical documented interventions in secondary education are also limited. This paper presents a case study from Cyprus, which evaluates the impact of a novel learning intervention grounded in the EEC pedagogical approach, taking into consideration the potential effect of students’ gender as well as of their past/present EC actions. The participants were fifty students (n = 50) in secondary biology education who attended the learning intervention; the students comprised 29 girls (58%) and 21 boys (42%), from two intact classrooms. Data were collected with the Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ), which was administered before (pre-) and after (post-) the learning intervention, and were analyzed using a combination of non-parametric statistical analyses (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman’s Correlation and cluster analysis). Our findings indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ EC learning gains, both EC competences and EC future actions, by the end of the intervention. However, our findings also indicated that the impact of the learning intervention was related significantly to the students’ gender as well as to their past/present EC actions, as these were reported by the students prior the intervention. Overall, our findings provide empirical substantiation of the contribution of the EEC pedagogical approach to the development of secondary students’ EC. At the same time, our study also pointed out the critical roles of gender and past/present EC actions in students’ learning gains

Teachers’ perceptions on environmental citizenship: A systematic review of the literature

As we are living amid an unprecedent environmental crisis, the need for schools to em-power students into environmental citizenship is intensifying. Teachers are considered as the main driving force in fostering students’ environmental citizenship. However, a critical question is how teachers conceive environmental citizenship and whether their perceptions of environmental citizenship are well-informed. There is an urgent need to investigate teachers’ perceptions, considering their crucial role in the formation of students’ environmental citizenship. This study examines teach-ers’ perceptions of environmental citizenship through a systematic review and thematic analysis of relevant empirical studies. The selected studies (n = 16) were published in peer-reviewed journals during the timespan of the last twenty-five (25) years (1995–2020). The thematic findings of this review revealed that teachers’ perceptions: (a) manifest a relatively decreased understanding of environmental citizenship, (b) are narrowed down to the local scale, individual dimension and private sphere, (c) affect teaching practices, (d) are multi-dimensional, defined by inter-related components, (e) vary according to teachers’ educational/cultural background and personal identity, (f) affect other environmental constructs defining teachers’ professional identity, (g) can be enhanced during teacher education, (h) can be also improved during professional development initiatives. These findings bear significant implications for researchers, policymakers, as well as for teacher educators in the field of Environmental Education

Evaluating a Novel Learning Intervention Grounded in the Education for Environmental Citizenship Pedagogical Approach: A Case Study from Cyprus

In times of environmental crisis, Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) is argued to be of great significance in the development of secondary education students’ pro-environmentalism as environmental citizens. However, given that EEC is still emerging, there is a lack of empirical foundation on how environmental citizenship can be approached in a pedagogically sound way; as a result, empirical documented interventions in secondary education are also limited. This paper presents a case study from Cyprus, which evaluates the impact of a novel learning intervention grounded in the EEC pedagogical approach, taking into consideration the potential effect of students’ gender as well as of their past/present EC actions. The participants were fifty students (n = 50) in secondary biology education who attended the learning intervention; the students comprised 29 girls (58%) and 21 boys (42%), from two intact classrooms. Data were collected with the Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ), which was administered before (pre-) and after (post-) the learning intervention, and were analyzed using a combination of non-parametric statistical analyses (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman’s Correlation and cluster analysis). Our findings indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ EC learning gains, both EC competences and EC future actions, by the end of the intervention. However, our findings also indicated that the impact of the learning intervention was related significantly to the students’ gender as well as to their past/present EC actions, as these were reported by the students prior the intervention. Overall, our findings provide empirical substantiation of the contribution of the EEC pedagogical approach to the development of secondary students’ EC. At the same time, our study also pointed out the critical roles of gender and past/present EC actions in students’ learning gains

A systematic literature review of K-12 environmental Citizen Science (CS) initiatives: Unveiling the CS pedagogical and participatory aspects contributing to students’ environmental citizenship

Environmental Citizen Science (CS) initiatives have been largely embraced in K-12 education, as they are often hypothesized to improve students' knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours to act as “environmental citizens” according to the notion of Environmental Citizenship (EC). However, the potential of environmental CS initiatives to promote Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) has not been systematically explored. At the same time, environmental CS initiatives for educational purposes are highly heterogenous and learning is enacted in diverse ways, according to the participatory and the pedagogical components underpinning each initiative. To address the complexity of the field, this review study adopts the PRISMA methodology to synthesize thirty-four empirical studies (n = 34) retrieved from a systematic review of the literature covering the last two decades (2000–2020). The reviewed environmental CS initiatives were subjected to a content analysis to identify their impact on students' EC (e.g., EC competences, actions, outcomes), as well as to unveil the CS initiatives' constitutional components in terms of (a) Participation (e.g., types of students' contributions, level of data collection, frequency of students' participation, modes of student engagement, forms of students’ involvement), and (b) Pedagogy (e.g., learning goals, educational contexts, learning mechanisms, EEC pedagogy). Our analysis shed light to the three territories (Participation, Pedagogy, Environmental Citizenship) underpinning the reviewed CS initiatives as well as to their interrelations. We reflect on these findings, and we provide directions for future research to guide the development of more successful environmental CS initiatives in K-12 education, serving as a vehicle for EC