Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities in Environmental Education: Where Are We Headed and What Deserves Our Attention?

Over the past four decades, numerous professionals in the field of environmental education (EE) have attempted to take stock of conditions within and outside of EE. In turn, many used the results of their analyses to describe challenges to and opportunities for EE. Many of these challenges and opportunities continue to ring true today, although the purpose of this article is not to explore those, but to explore several contemporary challenges and opportunities. The first challenge posed is to continue to expand and make use of the range of professional development opportunities within the field, such as is apparent in several of NAAEE's sets of Guidelines and related initiatives, particularly as the field continues to grow in numbers and in different directions. A second challenge pertains to the need for increased attention to sustainability in developed and developing nations' contexts, the rapid growth of “Education for Sustainability” (ESD) since UNCED, and the need to maintain clarity over the complex and dynamic relationships between EE and ESD with respect to sustainable development needs. A third challenge pertains to climate change as the most recent “environmental crisis” and set of problems we face, as evidence continues to mount. However, climate change represents a different kind of challenge, and underscores the challenge of preparing citizens to participate in problem-solving and in envisioning desirable futures through EE. In addressing these challenges and opportunities, we must continue to seek out and affirm the best of what is traditional and innovative, as well as effective and adaptive, within the field.