Editorial: Situated Culture, Ethics and New Learning Theory: Emerging Perspectives in Environmental Education Research

Abstract

Celebrating the 8th International Invitational Research and Development Seminar

This edition of the EEASA Journal celebrates the hosting of the 8th International Invitational Research and Development Seminar on Environmental and Health Education in South Africa in March 2005. The International Invitational Research and Development Seminars are ‘special events’ in the field of environmental and health education research. They are characterised by their democratic, deliberative nature, and by their intent to scope innovation and methodological issues. First established some years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, these seminars have provided an evolving international forum for researchers interested in research methodology to meet and frame new themes, trends and issues arising in the field of environmental education and health
education research. More specifically, this edition of the EEASA Journal profiles some of the insights and perspectives introduced and deliberated at this Invitational Seminar, notably situated culture, ethics and new learning theory. It opens a conversation on the significance of these themes for environmental education research at the start of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainability. Of the 11 feature articles, five were presented and discussed at the 8th International Invitational Seminar in March 2005, with an additional paper making its way into the journal from earlier deliberations at the 7th International Invitational Seminar, hosted in Alaska in 2004. Of interest, however, is the way in which the other papers in the journal (not presented at the Invitational Seminars) also reflect encounters with situated culture, ethics and new learning theory in different ways.