The paper sets out suggestions for seven areas of study within curricula whose practitioners Intend them to prepare students for the difficult task of pursuing sustainabllity at personal and community levels within societies not yet close to taking that pursuit seriously. In addition to developing clear understandings about sustainabllity, biodiversity, climate change and psychological roots of ecological crises students need to experience Deep Ecology cognltively and personally, and to take action. Some difficulties this poses for environmental educators and education systems are outlined.

Three themes are set out in this paper. The first is that learning about ecologically sensitive living–and putting that living into practice–are central to Aboriginal indigenous education. Second, Australia's first peoples were and are deprived of landscapes providing the base to their spirituality; continuing processes maintain that loss of independence. The third is that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians need to address quickly courses of action which provide for a reinvigoration of that landscape connection and independence. This need has points of significance for environmental educators, several of which are presented.

This paper starts with an account of some of my childhood experiences, ones provided by my father, the original environmentalist in my life and a practising scientist. I continue with a discussion of the need for environmental educators to view science from an informed perspective. It is essential that we help our students to understand the workings of nature and that science has inherent limitations in its ability to explain those workings.

I indicate that what is needed if humans are to live in partnership with the Earth is sensitivity to and appreciation of the complexities and aesthetics of its environments from which a culture of nurturing and personal involvement should emerge.

I conclude that it is equally important that environmental educators include in their lessons current scientific views, and direct experience in thought-provoking and valuing exercises.

This paper explores some of the ideas that underlie different conceptions of sustainable development. It suggests the notion of ‘sustainable living’ may provide direction for the role of environmental education in the transition towards a sustainable society. Aspects of the emerging concept of ‘education for sustainable living’ are used to analyse some widely-held assumptions about environmental education practice. In doing so the paper seeks to contribute to the process of identifying a vision and practice appropriate to environmental education for a new millennium.

Concern exists over the extent to which environmental education is being addressed in Australian primary school curricula. This is especially so since the release of the nationally developed Statements and Profiles in eight key areas of learning because no documents specifically relating to environmental education were produced. This paper reports the results of a study in which a survey based on outcomes relevant to environmental education, as drawn from curriculum documents in use in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria, was completed by a sample of primary teachers from both states. Results indicated that, in most schools, outcomes relevant to environmental education were being given significant attention. However, the extent to which different outcomes were addressed varied widely, as did the extent to which individual schools addressed outcomes over the years kindergarten/preparatory to year 6 (K/P-6). Implications for teacher education drawn from the findings are discussed.

This paper considers some recent ideas about tertiary environmental education and about environmentalism as an emerging social purpose of universities. It shows that total reliance on education about the environment results in unacceptable views of the environment, environmental education and environmental problems'. The paper considers approaches to teaching, arguing for one which assumes that learners construct their own concepts of the environment It distinguishes between current discipline-based teaching in universities and the more holistic Green Education. The paper concludes with a list of characteristics of Green Education which follow from the arguments presented.

This article reports on experiences gained in two postgraduate programs in environmental education—one at the University of Canberra and one at Deakin University. The paper draws from the work of several postgraduate students who are exploring environmental issues in their communities as part of their postgraduate studies. The paper addresses some issues associated with community-based environmental education, including:

• research as participation in the critical appraisal of environmental situations

• the need for the research to be responsive to the needs and interests of the community

• the role of the researcher as change agent.

The article concludes that community-based environmental education research is a powerful learning experience for postgraduate students who are at the forefront of the research process and communicating directly with the community.

The paper reports a study within the Chinese cultural context of Hong Kong of the influence which people's perception of the probable effectiveness of their actions has on the relationship between attitudes and actions. As expected, respondents with pro-environmental attitudes and a perception that their actions would be effective indicated a likelihood to act in an environmentally responsible manner which was greater than those whose attitudes were not so pro-environmental and whose perceptions were that their actions would not be effective. However, amongst the group of respondents with little indication of pro-environmental attitudes and a perception that their actions would not be effective there were some who, nonetheless, said they would act in environmentally responsible ways. This observation is discussed in terms of a social ethic of conformity, obedience and suppression of personal beliefs.

The Saltwatch environmental education program aims to increase awareness and understanding of salinity and thereby to stimulate remedial and preventative action. An evaluation of the program in Victoria in 1995 revealed its wide use across school curricula, and subsequent practical environmental action in 53% of schools. Participation in Saltwatch and subsequent environmental activities were more restricted in community groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of Saltwatch's success and possible improvements.

In this paper I describe the design of distance education texts that encourage the kinds of student-tutor dialogue which ‘industrial’ methods of course delivery may find hard to achieve, and how such texts enable students and their tutors to be critically reflective about the theory and practice of environmental education in different cultural contexts. Aspects of the following are discussed - the limitations of ‘new technologies’ in resolving issues faced by distance educators; the potential of open texts in distance education; ways of supporting students in necessary critical reflection; the Importance of social belonging for students, especially those of distance education courses in environmental education. The paper concludes with a series of suggestions for colleagues wishing to establish culturally sensitive, critically reflective distance education courses in environmental education.

Significant differences were found between a pretest measurement of environmental attitudes of a sample of tertiary students from the USA and that of a similar sample of Australian students; the latter scored higher on the total scale used to measure attitudes, and on all but one of the subscales. After an educational program USA students showed significant increases in scores for the total scale and for all the subscales so that they scored significantly higher on two subscales than Australian students. Discussion of these changes in measured attitudes refers to the institutional processes of education, to changes in environmentalism and to notions of dependence on science and technology for the resolution of environmental issues.