Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education

Abstract

Urgent issues such as climate change, food scarcity, malnutrition, and loss of biodiversity are highly complex and contested in both science and society (1). To address them, environmental educators and science educators seek to engage people in what are commonly referred to as sustainability challenges. Regrettably, science education (SE), which focuses primarily on teaching knowledge and skills, and environmental education (EE), which also stresses the incorporation of values and changing behaviors, have become increasingly distant. The relationship between SE and EE has been characterized as “distant, competitive, predatorprey and host-parasite” (2). We examine the potential for a convergence of EE and SE that might engage people in addressing fundamental socioecological challenges.