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Chapter 12
Environmental Citizenship in the Context
of Primary Non-formal Education
Jelle Boeve-de Pauw and Rares Halbac-Zamfir
12.1 Features of the Primary Educational Sector
Kellert (2005) identifies three basic stages for children’s development of environmental values and actions. Each stage is associated with a specific approach to environmental education (Kellert 2005): (1) Early childhood (ages 3–7), sometimes
labelled pre-primary education; (2) early/middle grade school (ages 7–11), also
labelled primary education; and (3) adolescence (ages 12–18), labelled secondary
education. The cognitive abilities and psychological development of children at
these different stages are very diverse. In this chapter we focus on non- formal education for children in the primary ages. Primary education is the second link in most
of the formal education systems, and it shares several basic characteristics across
the systems. First, it provides basic training, instrumental component of general
culture, and second it aims at the development of human personality components:
intelligence, curiosity, skills and moral habits, etc. These two features essentialise
the main functions of education for children between the developmental ages of 6
and 12 years old. First, there is the function of achieving basic education by lowering the age of retraining and including it in a system of organised and coordinated
education in scientific humanities. Second, there is its function of developing the
personality of the child and respecting their own capacities, which implies both the
individualisation of education and the promotion of formative education (or
Bildung; Biesta 2015).
J. Boeve-de Pauw (*)
Department of Training and Education Sciences, Research Unit Edubron, University of
Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
e-mail: jelle.boevedepauw@uantwerp.be
R. Halbac-Zamfir
Department of Hydrotechnical Engineering, Polytechnic University of Timisoara,
Timișoara, Romania
© The Author(s) 2020
A. Ch. Hadjichambis et al. (eds.), Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship
for 21st Century Education, Environmental Discourses in Science Education 4,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20249-1_12
Chapter 12
Environmental Citizenship in the Context
of Primary Non-formal Education
Jelle Boeve-de Pauw and Rares Halbac-Zamfir
12.1 Features of the Primary Educational Sector
Kellert (2005) identifies three basic stages for children’s development of environmental values and actions. Each stage is associated with a specific approach to environmental education (Kellert 2005): (1) Early childhood (ages 3–7), sometimes
labelled pre-primary education; (2) early/middle grade school (ages 7–11), also
labelled primary education; and (3) adolescence (ages 12–18), labelled secondary
education. The cognitive abilities and psychological development of children at
these different stages are very diverse. In this chapter we focus on non- formal education for children in the primary ages. Primary education is the second link in most
of the formal education systems, and it shares several basic characteristics across
the systems. First, it provides basic training, instrumental component of general
culture, and second it aims at the development of human personality components:
intelligence, curiosity, skills and moral habits, etc. These two features essentialise
the main functions of education for children between the developmental ages of 6
and 12 years old. First, there is the function of achieving basic education by lowering the age of retraining and including it in a system of organised and coordinated
education in scientific humanities. Second, there is its function of developing the
personality of the child and respecting their own capacities, which implies both the
individualisation of education and the promotion of formative education (or
Bildung; Biesta 2015).
J. Boeve-de Pauw (*)
Department of Training and Education Sciences, Research Unit Edubron, University of
Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
e-mail: jelle.boevedepauw@uantwerp.be
R. Halbac-Zamfir
Department of Hydrotechnical Engineering, Polytechnic University of Timisoara,
Timișoara, Romania
© The Author(s) 2020
A. Ch. Hadjichambis et al. (eds.), Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship
for 21st Century Education, Environmental Discourses in Science Education 4,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20249-1_12