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Recent decades have seen a marked growth in the quantity and range of literature reviews published on various aspects of environmental and sustainability education (ESE). However, critical assessment of these reviews suggests common challenges for authors and readers, the core of which concern distinct but related aspects of naming, assessing, and applying literature review methods. In some cases, these concerns can be traced back to matters of 'category mistake'. Such mistakes may arise through a failure to recognise or demonstrate sufficient understanding of the differences between and suitability of literature review options, such as systematic vs. scoping reviews. In response, we contrast some of the key considerations for designing and conducting both review methods. We also draw on various protocols, checklists, and examples of reviews from the field to help readers and authors combat the likelihood of repeating a category mistake. In sum, we suggest such considerations are particularly helpful for checking when research objectives and methodological frameworks are not correctly aligned with their elected literature synthesis approach, while they may also help enhance the transparency and rigour of literature reviews and help further establish their suitability and/or usability in the field of ESE.

Locus of Control (LOC) is a general term used in social and educational psychology to refer to the perceived source of control for behavioural outcomes. Since the 1980s, various instruments have been developed to measure this construct in relation to pro-environmental behaviours and action. In this article, we revisit the value of this construct and its measurement to offer a critical analysis of the psychometric properties and instrument construction approach of eight publicly available Environmental Locus of Control (ELOC) instruments. Our analysis focuses on both the robustness of their instrumentation alongside the continued relevance of these measures to diverse audiences in light of various methodological advances. Findings suggest that while the theories and tools available for developing and validating ELOC have become more sophisticated, even the most recent ELOC instruments still exhibit key limitations, particularly in relation to content and construct validity. In light of this, we propose a series of considerations for developing more rigorous ELOC instruments to help improve future measurement of action and self-determined behaviour.

Three decades have passed since approximately 1,700 scientists signed the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" highlighting severe environmental problems and trends affecting local and global communities. To reverse the situation, their 1992 Warning argued we need to change our behaviour. In 2017, a larger group issued a second consensus statement warning that the direction and rates of environmental change had worsened and remained unsustainable. Neither document, however, identified "education" as a key strategy in supporting the necessary behavioural changes that could address such trends. With this in mind, in this essay we argue that to avoid imperilling our future and the planet's--and to achieve a just transition to sustainability--environmental education is a cornerstone for the social and environmental changes expected in such "Warnings." We also argue that consensus on our environmental predicaments is not simply a matter for scientists; it must be supported in multiple spheres. This includes the humanities, arts, and social sciences, and wider society. Only then will contemporary calls by organisations such as UNEP and UNESCO that 'environmental education be a core component of all education systems at all levels by 2025', have a chance of gaining the multilateral and multileveled support the situation so urgently requires.

This article explores how an environmental education policy text comes to be constituted by discursive strategies that reproduce or challenge particular ideologies of environmentalism in relation to education. Using a qualitative analysis of discourses in the National Policy of Environmental Education of Colombia (NPEEC), we examine how these can be traced to a range of stakeholders. Unsurprisingly, key findings include that the discourses present in the policy strongly reflect broader policy agendas circulating in the country, such that the NPEEC falls in line with neoliberal policy prescriptions for addressing environmental challenges. The NPEEC also omits and transforms certain discourses from the environmental education researcher community, particularly when these offer critical and alternative viewpoints for tackling environmental issues through education. The article illuminates how these gaps and movements might be a result of global pressure on local governments, and how the contributions of nationally-recognised environmental education research and researchers have been reduced in the text of the NPEEC. We conclude this represents a problematic relation between research and policy, and discuss the features of this 'disidentification'.

This article offers a series of reflections based on a recent edited collection, Environmental and Sustainability Education Policy: International Trends, Priorities and Challenges. As one of its editors, here I bring together key features of the collection and themes pertinent to this emerging field of scholarship, to offer some way-markers for possible future research avenues. Taken together, I trust these observations might help others navigate what we encountered in policy studies and practice development, and illuminate various blank, blind, bald and bright spots for research and policy in both environmental and sustainability education, and related fields of inquiry.

In recent years, Yokohama City, Japan, has seen substantial efforts to address socio-environmental issues. One such effort is the G-30 program, which has helped reduce garbage waste production by 43 percent in 2010, since 2001. The eco-picture diary, an environmental education project, has been identified as contributing to the success of G-30. However, no research to date has examined the diary's effect on garbage reduction, nor accounted for what the project is and how it became prevalent. Using questionnaires with citizens and interviews with other stakeholders, this case study addresses these gaps. Key findings concern how people perceived the diary to have been central to garbage reduction by citizens. The study also shows how the diary illustrates an example of backcasting, ecopedagogy, reflective learning, and place-based approaches to environmental education, as well as how uptake of the project can be explained via diffusion of innovation theory and the theory of planned behavior.

This non-traditional article identifies a series of questions pursued and/or critiqued within inquiries about climate change education (CCE) and research. The questions and clustering format were initially crystallised from summaries and critical discussion with editors, referees, and critical friends of this journal, during the process of bringing together a series of international studies for various CCE collections in "Environmental Education Research." First offered as a supplement to a Virtual Special Issue, launched at Education Day of COP23 in Bonn (2017), the 'key questions' were subsequently revised in light of community feedback and further analysis of the 'blind, blank, bald, and bright spots' for environmental education and CCE research that they might represent. Sources used to guide the initial compilation and revision were submissions to, reviews of, and studies published in the journal between 2010 and 2019, and those forming two additional collections of research and commentary on CCE, published in Volume 25. Other considerations were: (i) the literature base associated with these papers (drawing on citation and document analysis), and (ii) presentations and conversations on CCE topics at various international research- and education-focused events during that period, focusing on what seemed 'stale', 'fresh', and 'invigorating'. In sum, the questions: (a) suggest various 'fundamental topics' to 'niche considerations' about CCE and research in this research field, (b) reflect a diversity of question purposes and formats that may direct, underpin, and/or structure associated research projects and publications too, and (c) reveal a complex array of assumptions and ends-in-view that are not necessarily compatible with each other nor with a coherent or progressive agenda for research and practice development. Further commentary and responses to the 'essences' and 'fragrances' associated with such questions, as well as new questions and analysis from relevant sources, fields, periods and projects, are invited.

This article introduces key features to the background, themes and implications of three collections available in "Environmental Education Research" that focus on climate change education and research. The problems and perils of scholarship and inquiry in this area are highlighted by contrasting these with some of the possibilities and potentials from a broad range of studies published in this and related fields of study, for example, in understanding who is doing the teaching and learning in climate change education, and in identifying the conceptual, policy and economic drivers and barriers related to its uptake. Key points for debate and action are identified, including for so-called 'pyro-pedagogies' and 'practice architectures', and the various philosophical, political and phenomenal aspects of climate change education that are likely to affect its prospects, at this moment and into the immediate future.

Since the early days of the field, attitude-behavior (A-B) relationships have received sustained attention in the evaluation and researching of environmental education (EE). This level of interest extends beyond the field's scope though, in part due to a certain reliance on theoretical and empirical assertions which claim that attitudes serve as a strong precursor and/or predictor of behavior. In this paper, we consider reviews of studies on the A-B relationship in EE and other fields that routinely challenge such assumptions, leading to the questioning of corresponding foci and commitments for research, evaluation, practice, and development. With key findings from these studies hand, we highlight several insights that may be useful for dispelling some of the folklore about what matters in, and what can be argued with, A-B studies, if we are to develop the design, conduct, reporting, and critique of studies and practices of EE reliant on such relationships.

Perspectives and approaches to health and wellbeing education vary considerably over time and space even as certain contextual and critical features may be maintained. Through an analysis of a range of studies published in the "Journal of Curriculum Studies", we illustrate what unites as much as divides various positions taken by their authors through a focus on which assumptions they proceed from, those they may seek to problematise, and which they try to rework through their scholarship. Our analysis centres on two key questions: (a) the critical question of health education, and (b) the question of critical health education. To advance our analysis, we draw on insights from critical literature review techniques and the need to problematise research topics and assumptions that frame and guide their selection and investigation. Key outcomes include six thematic categories and the key parameters for identifying various degrees of light and shade to the criticality within these studies, including their thresholds. We conclude with a reflection on the significance of determining the object of critique during curriculum studies, and the continuing need to inquire into, rather than bypass, what counts as critical in health and wellbeing education.

In this paper, we explore greening initiatives in school grounds as sites where ecological, pedagogical, and social transformation might be promoted and take place. Reflecting on our evaluations of school ground greening initiatives in Canada and England, we note that these initiatives are often at the margins of young peoples' experiences in schools and that their potential to be truly transformative can go unrealized. A series of tensions are highlighted in addressing a shift towards realizing their potential; these include situating greening school grounds more explicitly within the curriculum and securing broader institutional support. We also identify a more radical option, the repositioning of the kinds of outdoor learning that occurs in green school grounds as the basis of teaching and learning in Sterling's (2004) vision for "sustainable education."

The field of environmental education research has been moving away from scientistic and positivistic discourses for some time now ("Environmental Education Research," 2000; Hart & Nolan, 1999). However, it has been noted that the meta-discourse about this research continues to draw on their framings, registers, and lexicons (Hart, 2000; Marcinkowski, 2000; Smith-Sebasto, 2000). Poststructuralist and critical approaches to discourse analysis highlight the constraints and possibilities in such discourse, including how we make sense of claims about the quality of research. With this in mind, the paper explores the meta-discourse about environmental education research, using "the science and art" of imaging and remote sensing of the environment to illustrate the forms and functions of techno-scientific language in this field. In so doing, the paper discusses a series of observations about interpretation and quality in environmental education research discourse, and constraints and possibilities in relation to the meta-discourse. (Contains 1 figure and 5 notes.)

Discusses the analytical processes and outcomes of a doctoral study in environmental education that investigated teachers' thinking and practice regarding the contributions of geography teaching to students' environmental education. (Contains 33 references.) (DDR)

This paper presents results from an experimental study that examined embedded strategy prompts in digital text and their effects on calibration and metacomprehension accuracies. A sample population of 80 college undergraduates read a digital expository text on the basics of photography. The most robust treatment (mixed) read the text, generated a summary for each page of text, and then was prompted with a metacognitive strategy. The metacognitive treatment received metacognitive strategy prompts only, and the cognitive group implemented the cognitive strategy (summarization) only. A control group read the text with no embedded support. Groups were compared on measures of achievement, attitudes, cognitive load, and metacomprehension and calibration accuracy. Results indicated that a combination of embedded cognitive and metacognitive strategies in digital text improved learner achievement on application-level questions, yielded more accurate predictive calibration, and strengthened the relationship between metacomprehension and performance, all of which are common attributes of an academically successful learner.

In this paper, we reflect on a study in Brazil's Cerrado that attempts to address a lack of attention to an aesthetic dimension in environmental education practice and research. We start by tracing this lack to the overvaluing of the cognitive sphere in the educational process, noting its echo in the low aesthetic value attributed to the Cerrado biome. Then, through reflecting on an empirical, interview based study of sensations, perceptions and feelings evoked by aesthetic experiences in the Cerrado, we draw on insights from a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to identify key themes for environmental education research and practice in this regard. These include: recognising the singularity of experience; attending to the qualities of experience; acknowledging the value/s of "lighter" and "darker" experiences; and deepening emotions and verbal communication. In our final considerations, we discuss the limitations of the study, alongside new directions in studies of perception, experience, aesthetics and pedagogy that may also advance attention to an aesthetic dimension in environmental education practice and research.

In Australia, education think tanks have become increasingly influential in policy circles through "reports" to government, and in public debate through the mainstream media. Invariably think-tanks draw on educational research to lend authority and legitimacy to their work. This is desirable if the research deepens understandings about important educational issues. However, it can be dangerous if it is enlisted to serve a specific ideology. This paper takes a case study of an avowedly conservative think-tank in Australia--the Education Standards Institute (ESI)--to explore the ways in which research is (mis)used in the service of a particular ideology in the public sphere. To sharpen the case study, the paper focuses on a contemporary policy issue in Australia--Independent Public Schools. It is argued that over a prolonged period of time the ESI Director has argued for an extreme version of school autonomy which goes far beyond anything which has yet been proposed by policy-makers in Australia. In so doing he uses the imprimatur of research evidence to substantiate his claims. The paper explores the many flaws in the ways in which educational research is employed to bolster the case. Education research should play a central role in informing public discussions and debates about education policy. It should not be used as a front for sloganeering for particular ideologies, and educational researchers have an important role to play in pointing this out.

This paper focuses on our experience of researching the influence of ResourceSmart Schools, a sustainable schools programme in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on ideas from programme theory and realist synthesis, we illustrate and reflect upon our approach to conceptualising, investigating and generating evidence about the programme's "impacts" and "influence" in participating schools. This distinction is deliberate: it helps distinguish between efforts to understand the impacts that a programme has within schools ("programme impact"), and efforts to understand what it is about a programme that is influential in bringing about those impacts ("programme influence"). Drawing on evidence from our work in this project and the wider literature, we argue for a more nuanced discussion and more sophisticated investigations into the complexities of programme influence, rather than impacts only. Our conclusions suggest key areas of development for our own work, the provision of environmental and sustainability education, and their evaluation and research more broadly.

In this study, we discuss findings from a small-scale project evaluating an in-service teacher training programme focused on "perspective transformation" in early childhood education and education for sustainability (EfS). A bespoke professional development programme was developed for Turkish early childhood teachers, based on a variety of Mezirowian-inspired adult education activities. Data were gathered using a mixed method research design, from 24 early childhood educators, through learning diaries, a Learning Activities Survey and follow-up interviews. Initial findings illustrate the range of transformations possible in the teachers' perspectives during and after the training workshops. Influential factors in facilitating perspective transformation are shown to be the content, structure and sequencing of the training, and peer support. We conclude that transformative learning techniques offer a viable framework for engaging practicing early childhood teachers with EfS and also discuss implications for teacher preparation in both areas.

The digital revolution is shifting print-based textbooks to digital text, and it has afforded the opportunity to incorporate meaningful learning strategies and otherwise separate metacognitive activities directly into these texts as embedded support. A sample of 89 undergraduates read a digital, expository text on the basics of photography. The treatment prompted the reader with self-regulatory questions and embedded a generative strategy, paraphrasing, and confirmed previous research on the relationships between prior knowledge and level of self-regulation on reading comprehension. A one-way between subjects ANOVA revealed significance for the level of self-regulation on comprehension-level items and for the level of prior knowledge on recall-level items. ANOVA also indicated that the quality of paraphrasing has a significant impact on recall-level and overall performance on the posttest. Further, participants were generally positive towards the instructional materials, which suggests willingness, and in some cases, preference, to reading in a digital format while experiencing embedded, metacognitive instructional interventions. It is recommended that comprehension may be enhanced by providing deeper training on the use of the generative strategy and by increasing motivation prior to interacting with the text in order to capitalize on the unique advantages of digital materials.

Australians live at a time when the quality of discussion in the public sphere and within the institutions of the state is at a very low ebb; when policy making is dictated by short term political cycles, spin and focus groups; and when notions of the public good are set aside in favour of self-interest. This paper is based on the premise that if one of the historic purposes of education is to renew the public, then education holds the key to improving the quality of public discourse. However since education policy making in contemporary times is also caught up in the processes which diminish public discourse, the challenge is to find ways to break this vicious cycle. This paper argues that one of the factors contributing to this state of affairs is the influence of what is currently passing for educational "research." It traces the ways in which unrefereed consultant and think-tank research has captured policy makers and some sections of the media, and shows--using a recent influential research report as a case study--how such research often does not stand up to critical review. The purpose in questioning the rigour of such research is based on the conviction that a process of reinvigorating and deepening public debate about education must be based on quality research. The paper concludes by suggesting some ways by which the education research community can contribute to the process of renewing the public.

This article presents a transcript of the 21st Fritz Duras Memorial Lecture, presented at the 27th ACHPER International Conference on Tuesday April 19 2011, at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, South Australia. In this lecture, the author focuses on Physical Education, rather than the broader field comprising all those areas that, at least in recent times, are located within the Learning Area of Health and Physical Education (HPE), although he hopes that what he says will be relevant to them as well. The author wants to make some observations about where Physical Education has come from, in order to propose some issues for consideration as the field considers where it is going in this new century. He argues that throughout its history, the subject of Physical Education has been on the margins of the official curriculum in Australia, in terms of time and status. This has continued with the current processes of designing and developing a National Curriculum. However, the fact that HPE has been marked down for development in Phase 3 opens up some rare opportunities for advancing the Learning Area. He suggests that there is an urgent need to fashion a strategy which is based on a strong and coherent rationale for PE, drawing on the latest research about the brain, ensuring that there is an integration of mind and body, and picking up on the contribution that PE can make to social as well as individual well being. Such a rationale should inform not only the Learning Area of HPE but also the opportunities presented by the General Capabilities to give physical activity a presence across the curriculum.

This paper responds to the articles in the recent special edition of The Curriculum Journal (Volume 20, Number 3). The special edition discusses an "archaeological" approach to student enquiry, with associated ideas of personalisation, competency development, and building learning power. We argue that the papers both raise and omit complex issues that need to be addressed if their transformative agenda is to be realized. For example, it is important to reconsider traditional assumptions about the nature of knowledge, so that teachers' practice and students' learning can become more appropriately aligned to twenty-first century conditions of knowing and being. Similarly, the wider political contexts that frame practice need to be addressed, in part by rethinking connections between pedagogy, curriculum and assessment to provide a more satisfactory theoretical rationale for competencies and personalization, and by re-theorising related ideas such as "equity". We fear that lack of attention to such issues will simply mean the new pedagogies will continue to reproduce the status quo.

This not quite "final" ending of this special issue of "Environmental Education Research" traces a series of hopeful, if somewhat difficult and at times challenging, openings for researching experiences of environment and place through children's literature. In the first instance, we draw inspiration from the contributors who have authored, often autoethnographically, some of the art and craft of their respective ecopedagogies and research efforts. We then proceed with a reminder of the lurking presence of fear found in some of the articles published here and elsewhere, opening up the fear factor at large in broader everyday, social, political and global discourses to further scrutiny and a more optimistic quest when engaging children's literature, its risks and its hopes. Our aim here, as noted in the Editorial, is to develop the discourse and practice of environmental education research in this area. Thus, we also explore how children's literature has a pedagogical place in the positive social construction of intergenerational ethics focusing on how and what, and in what ways, textual and visual messages can be passed on to that next generation, and how and what they might take up creatively and imaginatively, in practice and conceptually. To do this, we offer thoughts on how children's literature might draw selectively from broader aspects of the eco-literature and humanities, and finally, on the basis of this collection, present a series of possible research issues and further deliberations to broadly nurture the development of research in this area. (Contains 10 notes.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a national survey of government primary school principals in Australia, investigating the purposes of education, in terms of the importance and level of enactment of those purposes in schools. Design/methodology/approach: In 2009, an electronic survey was distributed to government primary school principals in Australia seeking their views on the purposes of education. The survey comprised 71 items of a closed format and three items of an open-ended format. Respondents rated first the importance they ascribed to particular purposes of education, then second the degree to which they believed these purposes were actually enacted in their particular school. Factor analyses were conducted on the item responses. Differences between importance and enactment of purposes are discussed together with reasons for these differences. Findings: The findings overwhelmingly point to tensions between what they, the principals, believe ought to be the purposes of education and what the strategies to achieve those purposes might be, and the realities of what is actually happening. It could be argued that the results indicate a major shift away from public purposes of education to those more aligned with private purposes. Many of the barriers to achieving a greater focus in schools on public purposes are seen to be related to external (to the school) issues, such as government policy decisions, differential funding and resourcing across school sectors and emerging community and societal factors. Research limitations/implications: This research complements other aspects of this project into the purposes of education in Australia. There are some limitations to the reported findings in so far as only government principals participated in the survey. Non-government school principals were invited but declined to participate. Originality/value: This is the only piece of research of its kind in Australia and provides unique insights--those of principals--into what schools are focusing on and what the leaders think they ought to be focusing on. There are clearly policy and practice implications of the research. (Contains 10 tables and 7 notes.)

Purpose: The paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis. Findings: Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility). Practical implications: The findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia. Originality/value: While earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good. (Contains 3 notes.)

In this paper we discuss a case study investigating how the academic and personal development of first year students on an undergraduate sports education degree can be supported and enhanced with mobile SMS (Short Message Service) communication. SMS-based technologies were introduced in response to students' particular needs (in transition to Higher Education) and characteristics (adept mobile communicators). Despite being unaccustomed to using their mobile phones for academic study, students willingly accepted SMS communication with their tutor via a texting management service. This communication was used in concert and integrated with a more traditional learning and teaching context (lectures and a virtual learning environment). Drawing on evidence from two student surveys, focus groups and a tutor's journal, we illustrate how mobile SMS communication has influenced the student learning experience. Taking a holistic view of the learning environment we use Laurillard's (2002) conversational framework (Laurillard, D. 2002. "Rethinking university teaching: a framework for the effective use of learning technologies." 2nd edition. London: Routledge.) to analyse and discuss the role of texting in supporting student transition to higher education. (Contains 10 figures.)

In this article, we explore a series of issues and tensions raised by the papers in this Special Issue of "Environmental Education Research." This papers focus on developments in environmental education and ESD research in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In order to provide an alternative framework for contextualising and understanding the trends and challenges illustrated in the collection, we begin with an examination of Germany's green political movement, both at the level of national politics but also in relation to broader cultural shifts that have taken place in recent years. We then invite further debate on environmental education and ESD by focusing on three nodes within the discourse on these complex, dynamic and linked fields of theory and practice. First, we explore the themes of compatibility and compliance regarding environmental education and the "global" as two of the key ingredients to ESD. Second, we consider the growing dominance of competency-based approaches to ESD, primarily in terms of educational standards projects, but also in relation to images of the human therein. Third, we look into understandings of agency in relation to innovation and change, including the role of NGOs in research and policy-making, and the sources and drivers of possible frames for future research agendas. The article ends by inviting wider discussion and critique of the achievements, tensions and challenges for research and development in environmental education and ESD, both in the three countries, and further afield. (Contains 9 notes.)

In many countries, neo-liberal education policy has embraced the concept of a regulated education market. In Australia, for example, the federal government is seeking to create one education market by pursuing policies that blur the distinction between public and private education. There is a growing body of research examining the operation and effects of education markets, using a range of perspectives and approaches. However, historical perspectives have rarely been used in relation to this research programme. This is surprising given that the education market is not just a contemporary phenomenon: it has a past. This paper explores the insights that can be gained from an historical perspective by undertaking an historical sociology of a period of South Australian education history (1852-1875) when there was a regulated education market in operation. The paper focuses on one aspect of the effects of regulated markets, that of teachers' work.

This article discusses, principally from an English perspective, globalisation, global citizenship and two forms of education relevant to those developments (global education and citizenship education). We describe what citizenship has meant inside one nation state and ask what citizenship means, and could mean, in a globalising world. By comparing the natures of citizenship education and global education, as experienced principally in England during, approxim-ately, the last three decades, we seek to develop a clearer understanding of what has been done and what might be done in the future in order to develop education for global citizenship. We suggest that up to this point there have been significant differences between the characterisations that have been developed for global education and citizenship education. These differences are revealed through an examination of three areas: focus and origins; the attitude of the government and significant others; and the adoption of pedagogical approaches. We suggest that it would be useful to look beyond old barriers that have separated citizenship education and global education and to form a new global citizenship education. Their separation has in the past only perpetuated the old understandings of citizenship and constructed a constrained view of global education.

In policy-level discussion, the assumption is common that multi-faceted topics such as Health, Environment and Citizenship would benefit from (or "should" be experienced through) pedagogical approaches that bring together and draw on different curriculum traditions. While there is certainly some continuing interest in a range of such cross-curricular approaches, there are markedly differing degrees of support for such approaches from teachers faced with the responsibility of turning these ideals into fulfilling learning experiences for pupils. How teachers think about cross-curricular approaches "per se", and their own practice in relation to them, varies widely. The authors explore why this is. They argue that, without an understanding of the variety of contexts for interpretation and support amongst specialist and non-specialist teachers, progress towards embedding cross-curricular objectives within national curricula is unlikely to be achieved as well, or as soon, as many policy-makers might hope or expect. They contend that such progress would be more likely if scholarship, policy-making and educational innovation focused on the "content" and the "status" of cross-curricular objectives, rather than the nature of the subjects that act as hosts for cross-curricular work. (Contains 3 notes.)

In contemporary times educators must be able to work effectively within contexts of change, paradox and instability. This has implications for programs that prepare teachers. In particular, teacher education programs should seek to develop teachers who can enquire systematically and critically into their educational practices. However, current policy approaches to teacher education in many "western" countries, far from developing teachers as critical enquirers, shore up organisational structures and approaches that promote a view of teachers as technicians. The paper argues that a revamped version of enquiry-based teacher education can promote programs more relevant to contemporary times, while satisfying current political agendas. Obstacles to enquiry-based approaches are identified, and strategies to address these are proposed.

The paper discusses the 'value-through-utility' argument as a key ingredient of environmental educators' interests in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and examines some of the epistemological and philosophical tensions it generates in employing TEK within the context of learning with sustainability in mind. In an earlier article (Reid et al., 2002), we argued that it is important to recognize that it is outsiders rather than insiders who usually conceptualize TEK. In this paper, we develop this point further, exploring the theorization and practice of TEK-based environmental education in the context of discourses about sustainability and environmental education.

Case studies are put to a variety of uses in investigating environmental and sustainability issues in higher education. These uses include: to document, describe (in detail), contextualize, investigate and/or explain information that characterizes and qualifies what is of interest in this area. The focus of the case study is often an event, a situation, a setting, a problem, an issue, a theory, a model, a unit, an entity ? i.e. some ?thing? in a bounded context that represents the case in question. In this paper, we argue that the definition of the case is a strongly analytical, data-selective choice, and that case-study methodology risks misinterpretation and superficiality amongst case-study producers and readers if assumptions and positionings regarding the epistemological and ontological dimensions of the case under study are not appraised and attended to.

Explores the notion that a review communicates a research program and how it might extend and disrupt readings of Rickinson's (2001) review of the evidence base for environmental education learning. Investigates, through a series of notes and queries using Lakatos's ideas, the production and possibilities of the review rather than the findings. (Contains 50 references.) (Author/NB)

Offers comments based on three questions as an immediate response to the articles in this special issue: (1) What's in a name?; (2) What is possible in education for sustainable development?; and (3) Rather than what education might do for sustainable development, what might sustainable development do for education? (Author/MM)

Analyzes the traditional relationship between public schools and Australian democracy. Argues for the need to retheorize the democratic purposes of public schools in ways that move beyond the discourse of nation building and that redefine the concept of education as a "public good." Argues further that contemporary neoliberal educational policies are destructive of these democratic purposes. (Conains 24 references.) (Author/PKP)

Explores nature and processes of learning from coursework in national examinations undertaken by 16-year-old students, using qualitative approaches. Finds that, while the practice of underpinning coursework could support deeper, more independent learning, pressures of achieving good grades mediated against all pupils reaching an optimum level of higher order thinking. (BT)

British government policy requires schools to teach environmental education in the National Curriculum and encourages schools to develop their own policy and practice. It is unlikely to be effective without better advice and support. (SK)