Book Review: Environment, Education and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses

Bhandari, Bishnu

English

In International Review for Environmental Strategies (IRES) Volume 2 Number 2 (Winter 2001)

Peer-reviewed Article

Peer-reviewed Article

Book Review: "Environment, Education and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses"
David Yencken, John Fien, and Helen Sykes (ed.)
Publisher information: London: Routledge, 2001, 360 pp
ISBN: 0-415-20581-6

Reviewer: Bishnu B. Bhandari

This book is the result of a comprehensive report of an empirical study on the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of young people in regards to nature and sustainability. Articles of the book, individually, as well as jointly written, are organized into 11 chapters. The first two chapters discuss the conceptual framework of the problem and research methodology. Chapters 3 to 8 investigate the influence of attitudes on nature, environmental conditions, and environmental education in four countries in two sub-regions-Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Chapters 9 to 11 present research findings and their implications for the environment and environmental education.

This comparative study was conducted in nine countries, with focus group discussions held in eight cities of the seven countries. Some 10,316 young students were interviewed between 1996 and 1998. For easy reference, data are reported by country, rather than by city. The foreword of the book gives a brief overview of recent trends in environmental education and the diversity of the Asia-Pacific region. Entering the subject of discussion, Chapter 1 begins with a quick comment on a widely accepted motto, "think globally and act locally," when co-author David Yenken suggests the order should be reversed to be "act globally, think locally" for two important reasons. First, local areas are a treasure trove of traditional environmental knowledge, which provides us with insights and understanding of environmental problems. Second, issues of the global commons, such as atmospheric and ocean pollution, have to be acted on globally.

Sustainable development is a widely accepted societal goal and concept with many global as well as local implications. It is not only a vision, but an ideology as well. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region is saddled with problems of environmental deterioration and pollution. Within these two contrasting contexts, the book attempts to provide answers to the following questions: Are young people aware of and do they have a good understanding of the concept of sustainability? Are young students able to define its concepts correctly? To what extent have young people moved from a social paradigm towards the adoption of an environmental paradigm? How do young people respond to these questions? What do they think of the most significant environmental problems in their own countries and worldwide.

An analysis of the literature suggests that "ancient biocentric traditions and love for nature do not automatically translate into environmentally supportive behavior." These biocentric traditions are not, however, valueless or insignificant. They form a basis for an ethic and behavior consonant with contemporary environmental imperatives.

In parallel with the debate about traditional attitudes towards nature and the varying degrees of environmentalism in different cultures, another debate has been taking place about the emergence of a global ideology of nature that transcends individual cultures. This ideology represents a popular shift from a dominant social paradigm toward a shared environmental paradigm.

Individual countries have different cultural traditions and different approaches to nature. Chapters 3 to 8 describe a great diversity in cultural traditions, some of which include respect and reverence for nature (Hindu), a harmonious relationship between God, human beings, and nature (Balinese culture), a steward-like relationship of humans to nature (Islam), principles of reciprocity and balance of conflicting opposites (Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism), human dominion over the Earth (Christianity), knowledge for survival (Pacific countries), etc.

Chapters 9 and 10, which present the findings and discussion, show that the large majority of young people hold environmentally supportive beliefs. There were also similarities among young people in the desire and action taken to improve the environment and adopt environmentally friendly behavior. The study indicates a strong relationship between environmental knowledge and environmental behavior and the desire to improve the environment and environmental behavior.

Striking differences are also noted in the assignment of national priorities, the levels of awareness about concepts, and the reliability of information between countries, at the same time as finding general agreement among young people about environmental beliefs and commitment to the environmental paradigm and personal behavior. The differences in responses are many and varied-raising many intriguing questions as well.

In every country, respondents (59 to 83 percent) believed that protecting the environment is more important than economic growth and that it is quite possible to have both a prosperous economy and a healthy environment. Also, the respondents ranked environmental protection as the first goal in five countries and second and third in nearly all the other countries. The damage to the ozone layer, cutting down forests, overpopulation, and greenhouse gases were ranked, respectively, as the first, second, third, and fourth most important environmental problems of the world. In all countries, the respondents were best able to define the concepts of depletion of the ozone layer and greenhouse effect, followed in some countries by renewable resources and ecology. A smaller number were able to define sustainable development, biodiversity, and carrying capacity. Almost one-third to half of respondents gave the correct definition of important scientific and environmental concepts. With the exception of Indonesia and New Zealand, female support for protecting the environment was significantly stronger than male support. In some countries, such as Australia and Thailand, there is a significant difference in female's desire to improve the environment than that of males, but not in other countries.

With regard to their actions during the past 12 months, many respondents were involved in choosing environmental household products and reducing water use. The largest number of respondents assessed their skills and knowledge to bring about environmental improvements as from medium to strong or very strong. It was reported that powerlessness (the lack of power to make changes) is the underlying cause of their behaviors that are not environmentally friendly.

Television, newspapers, and schools are by far the most important sources of information about the environment, although non-governmental organizations are given the highest ranking for reliability of information. Young people are pessimistic about personal and social goals but optimistic about the improvement of environmental conditions. They opined that people are the main source of environmental problems because of their desire for materialistic lifestyles, overpopulation, ignorance of these issues, and the inappropriate use of science and technology. Also, they expressed the opinion that environmental protection and improvement are possible only if people's attitudes and behaviors change.

The findings are consistent with major cross-cultural studies carried out to date. The evidence suggests that young people in all countries have moved decisively from a social paradigm towards the adoption of an environmental paradigm. The research provides some important insights about environmentalism. The concept of sustainable development is neither as well-known nor understood as one might expect, given its central position in environmental debates internationally and nationally.

The last chapter discusses some of the implications of the findings for curriculum and pedagogy so that young people will be able to understand and appreciate the importance of sustainability as a foundation of social, economic, and political life. Despite the presence of a supportive socio-economic fabric and young people interested in learning more about sustainable development, there are a number of barriers, such as a lack of national policies on environmental education or education for sustainablity, the bias of curricula toward physical sciences, etc. Consequently, school officials are often not sympathetic to the social vision of education for a sustainable future. The official curriculum is often deficient in these matters, whereas the hidden curriculum (things that are not taught but learned at school, which are not necessarily the result of the official curriculum, textbooks, etc.) is often an even greater barrier to sustainable development.

Also, there is a great discrepancy between the level of awareness and that of action for improvement, and between the willingness and ability of students to practice civic responsibility (environmental citizenship) and their actions to care for planet Earth. Young people also often lack the abilities for competent action-the ability to address the elements of unsustainable development, explore alternative ways of development and living, evaluate alternative visions, learn how to negotiate, and justify choices between visions, etc. In order to make sustainable development effective, reforms are suggested: ( focus courses explicitly on environmental issues, including ethics for living sustainably; (2) provide increased flexibility for teachers and students to choose topics and adopt cross-disciplinary approaches, and move away from nationally determined examination on the secondary school curriculum; and (3) remove barriers to collaboration between the school, community, and other agencies.

Thus, education should be re-oriented toward sustainability by balancing the roles of state and school on the "reproductive" role (enabling citizens to contribute to desired economic activities and goals by socializing and educating them not only in acquiring knowledge and skills but also in inculcating in them the sense of positive attitudes, responsibility, diligence, punctuality and social cohesion) and "capacity building for civil society" (enhancing the capacities of citizens to respond to anticipated challenges, public issues and social problems so that they can contribute and participate in solutions as active and informed citizens), and by revising both "first-order change" (improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the educational process without disrupting the basic organization or milieu) and "second-order change" (reforming fundamental ways in which the educational system and institutions function).

The book provides a suite of empirical evidence on the relationships between environmental knowledge, attitudes, and the behavior of young people in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the samples of this study do not represent the entire young population of each country, and the surveys were not conducted at the same time. Thus, reporting is bound to reflect some cultural bias and temporal influences. Nevertheless, this book provides a window of opportunities to look at the environment from the cultural perspective.

Since the book is the first of its kind in detailing cultural concerns in the Asia-Pacific region, it is innovative in nature. The excellent results obtained from the combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques in a politically, culturally, socially, and economically diverse region provide a framework for this significant book on an important subject about young people, environmental issues, and environmental education. The book will be extremely useful to environmental educators and facilitators for enhancing environmental eco-consciousness and education for sustainability. As a student of environmental education, this reviewer could not agree more with Rupert Maclean, who wrote in the foreword, "The book deserves to be widely read."

The editors deserve recognition for their string of superlative findings in the field of education for sustainability. This will be a great contribution to reorienting education for sustainability in the twenty-first century.

Remarks:

http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/view.php?docid=412
Full text is available on EBSCOhost database: http://www.ebscohost.com/

Date:

January 2001

Copyright:

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Languages:

English

In International Review for Environmental Strategies (IRES) Volume 2 Number 2 (Winter 2001)

Book Review: "Environment, Education and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses"
David Yencken, John Fien, and Helen Sykes (ed.)
Publisher information: London: Routledge, 2001, 360 pp
ISBN: 0-415-20581-6

Reviewer: Bishnu B. Bhandari

This book is the result of a comprehensive report of an empirical study on the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of young people in regards to nature and sustainability. Articles of the book, individually, as well as jointly written, are organized into 11 chapters. The first two chapters discuss the conceptual framework of the problem and research methodology. Chapters 3 to 8 investigate the influence of attitudes on nature, environmental conditions, and environmental education in four countries in two sub-regions-Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Chapters 9 to 11 present research findings and their implications for the environment and environmental education.

This comparative study was conducted in nine countries, with focus group discussions held in eight cities of the seven countries. Some 10,316 young students were interviewed between 1996 and 1998. For easy reference, data are reported by country, rather than by city. The foreword of the book gives a brief overview of recent trends in environmental education and the diversity of the Asia-Pacific region. Entering the subject of discussion, Chapter 1 begins with a quick comment on a widely accepted motto, "think globally and act locally," when co-author David Yenken suggests the order should be reversed to be "act globally, think locally" for two important reasons. First, local areas are a treasure trove of traditional environmental knowledge, which provides us with insights and understanding of environmental problems. Second, issues of the global commons, such as atmospheric and ocean pollution, have to be acted on globally.

Sustainable development is a widely accepted societal goal and concept with many global as well as local implications. It is not only a vision, but an ideology as well. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region is saddled with problems of environmental deterioration and pollution. Within these two contrasting contexts, the book attempts to provide answers to the following questions: Are young people aware of and do they have a good understanding of the concept of sustainability? Are young students able to define its concepts correctly? To what extent have young people moved from a social paradigm towards the adoption of an environmental paradigm? How do young people respond to these questions? What do they think of the most significant environmental problems in their own countries and worldwide.

An analysis of the literature suggests that "ancient biocentric traditions and love for nature do not automatically translate into environmentally supportive behavior." These biocentric traditions are not, however, valueless or insignificant. They form a basis for an ethic and behavior consonant with contemporary environmental imperatives.

In parallel with the debate about traditional attitudes towards nature and the varying degrees of environmentalism in different cultures, another debate has been taking place about the emergence of a global ideology of nature that transcends individual cultures. This ideology represents a popular shift from a dominant social paradigm toward a shared environmental paradigm.

Individual countries have different cultural traditions and different approaches to nature. Chapters 3 to 8 describe a great diversity in cultural traditions, some of which include respect and reverence for nature (Hindu), a harmonious relationship between God, human beings, and nature (Balinese culture), a steward-like relationship of humans to nature (Islam), principles of reciprocity and balance of conflicting opposites (Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism), human dominion over the Earth (Christianity), knowledge for survival (Pacific countries), etc.

Chapters 9 and 10, which present the findings and discussion, show that the large majority of young people hold environmentally supportive beliefs. There were also similarities among young people in the desire and action taken to improve the environment and adopt environmentally friendly behavior. The study indicates a strong relationship between environmental knowledge and environmental behavior and the desire to improve the environment and environmental behavior.

Striking differences are also noted in the assignment of national priorities, the levels of awareness about concepts, and the reliability of information between countries, at the same time as finding general agreement among young people about environmental beliefs and commitment to the environmental paradigm and personal behavior. The differences in responses are many and varied-raising many intriguing questions as well.

In every country, respondents (59 to 83 percent) believed that protecting the environment is more important than economic growth and that it is quite possible to have both a prosperous economy and a healthy environment. Also, the respondents ranked environmental protection as the first goal in five countries and second and third in nearly all the other countries. The damage to the ozone layer, cutting down forests, overpopulation, and greenhouse gases were ranked, respectively, as the first, second, third, and fourth most important environmental problems of the world. In all countries, the respondents were best able to define the concepts of depletion of the ozone layer and greenhouse effect, followed in some countries by renewable resources and ecology. A smaller number were able to define sustainable development, biodiversity, and carrying capacity. Almost one-third to half of respondents gave the correct definition of important scientific and environmental concepts. With the exception of Indonesia and New Zealand, female support for protecting the environment was significantly stronger than male support. In some countries, such as Australia and Thailand, there is a significant difference in female's desire to improve the environment than that of males, but not in other countries.

With regard to their actions during the past 12 months, many respondents were involved in choosing environmental household products and reducing water use. The largest number of respondents assessed their skills and knowledge to bring about environmental improvements as from medium to strong or very strong. It was reported that powerlessness (the lack of power to make changes) is the underlying cause of their behaviors that are not environmentally friendly.

Television, newspapers, and schools are by far the most important sources of information about the environment, although non-governmental organizations are given the highest ranking for reliability of information. Young people are pessimistic about personal and social goals but optimistic about the improvement of environmental conditions. They opined that people are the main source of environmental problems because of their desire for materialistic lifestyles, overpopulation, ignorance of these issues, and the inappropriate use of science and technology. Also, they expressed the opinion that environmental protection and improvement are possible only if people's attitudes and behaviors change.

The findings are consistent with major cross-cultural studies carried out to date. The evidence suggests that young people in all countries have moved decisively from a social paradigm towards the adoption of an environmental paradigm. The research provides some important insights about environmentalism. The concept of sustainable development is neither as well-known nor understood as one might expect, given its central position in environmental debates internationally and nationally.

The last chapter discusses some of the implications of the findings for curriculum and pedagogy so that young people will be able to understand and appreciate the importance of sustainability as a foundation of social, economic, and political life. Despite the presence of a supportive socio-economic fabric and young people interested in learning more about sustainable development, there are a number of barriers, such as a lack of national policies on environmental education or education for sustainablity, the bias of curricula toward physical sciences, etc. Consequently, school officials are often not sympathetic to the social vision of education for a sustainable future. The official curriculum is often deficient in these matters, whereas the hidden curriculum (things that are not taught but learned at school, which are not necessarily the result of the official curriculum, textbooks, etc.) is often an even greater barrier to sustainable development.

Also, there is a great discrepancy between the level of awareness and that of action for improvement, and between the willingness and ability of students to practice civic responsibility (environmental citizenship) and their actions to care for planet Earth. Young people also often lack the abilities for competent action-the ability to address the elements of unsustainable development, explore alternative ways of development and living, evaluate alternative visions, learn how to negotiate, and justify choices between visions, etc. In order to make sustainable development effective, reforms are suggested: ( focus courses explicitly on environmental issues, including ethics for living sustainably; (2) provide increased flexibility for teachers and students to choose topics and adopt cross-disciplinary approaches, and move away from nationally determined examination on the secondary school curriculum; and (3) remove barriers to collaboration between the school, community, and other agencies.

Thus, education should be re-oriented toward sustainability by balancing the roles of state and school on the "reproductive" role (enabling citizens to contribute to desired economic activities and goals by socializing and educating them not only in acquiring knowledge and skills but also in inculcating in them the sense of positive attitudes, responsibility, diligence, punctuality and social cohesion) and "capacity building for civil society" (enhancing the capacities of citizens to respond to anticipated challenges, public issues and social problems so that they can contribute and participate in solutions as active and informed citizens), and by revising both "first-order change" (improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the educational process without disrupting the basic organization or milieu) and "second-order change" (reforming fundamental ways in which the educational system and institutions function).

The book provides a suite of empirical evidence on the relationships between environmental knowledge, attitudes, and the behavior of young people in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the samples of this study do not represent the entire young population of each country, and the surveys were not conducted at the same time. Thus, reporting is bound to reflect some cultural bias and temporal influences. Nevertheless, this book provides a window of opportunities to look at the environment from the cultural perspective.

Since the book is the first of its kind in detailing cultural concerns in the Asia-Pacific region, it is innovative in nature. The excellent results obtained from the combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques in a politically, culturally, socially, and economically diverse region provide a framework for this significant book on an important subject about young people, environmental issues, and environmental education. The book will be extremely useful to environmental educators and facilitators for enhancing environmental eco-consciousness and education for sustainability. As a student of environmental education, this reviewer could not agree more with Rupert Maclean, who wrote in the foreword, "The book deserves to be widely read."

The editors deserve recognition for their string of superlative findings in the field of education for sustainability. This will be a great contribution to reorienting education for sustainability in the twenty-first century.

Remarks:

http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/view.php?docid=412
Full text is available on EBSCOhost database: http://www.ebscohost.com/

Book Review: Environment, Education and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses

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