180
Reformations of early and primary education based on the Geneva Declaration
of the Rights of the Child (UNICEF 1990) have led to redefining the goals that it
pursues. We mention below those we see as being relevant discussion points in
relation to Education for Environmental Citizenship.
1. Primary education should foster a free, complete and harmonious development
of the child’s personality according to its own pace and needs and support its
autonomous and creative learning and development.
2. Primary education should develop the ability of children to interact with other
children, adults and the environment, and to acquire new knowledge, skills,
attitudes and behaviours. It also needs to encourage explorations, exercises, trials
and experiments, all as autonomous learning experiences.
3. Primary education should contribute to each child’s discovery of its own identity,
autonomy and the development of positive self-image and support the child in
the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes necessary for them
to enter school and lifelong learning.
As we will debate later in this chapter, non-formal education presents a unique
educational context in which children’s environmental identities (see, e.g. Clayton
2003) can be developed and where they can acquire the competences needed to
become Environmental Citizens.
12.2 Non-formal Education for Environmental Citizenship
12.2.1 Defining Non-formal Education
Our aim in this chapter is to explore how non-formal education can take place for
young children as a space to experiment with and learn the competences needed to
become an Environmental Citizen. Before doing so, it is only fair that we explain
how we interpret the term ‘non-formal education’. In line with Norland (2005), we
acknowledge that ‘any term beginning with “non” can be perceived as somewhat
negative or even disagreeable: non-communicative, non-responsive, non-productive’
(p. 6). Non-formal education should not be perceived as the lack of something, but
rather as an educational context with unique qualities. The concept emerged in the
international discourse on education about 40 years ago. It is associated with the
idea of lifelong learning and emphasises the importance of education going beyond
the formal frameworks of the education system, whether in educational spaces other
than school, or through education activities that are not subject to the school
curriculum but that respond to the needs and interests of a group’s knowledge and
development.
The value of non-formal education arises because the formal education system is
adapting too slowly to the socio-economic and cultural changes of the world in
which we live. Non-formal education is different from formal education, both in
J. Boeve-de Pauw and R. Halbac-Zamfir
Reformations of early and primary education based on the Geneva Declaration
of the Rights of the Child (UNICEF 1990) have led to redefining the goals that it
pursues. We mention below those we see as being relevant discussion points in
relation to Education for Environmental Citizenship.
1. Primary education should foster a free, complete and harmonious development
of the child’s personality according to its own pace and needs and support its
autonomous and creative learning and development.
2. Primary education should develop the ability of children to interact with other
children, adults and the environment, and to acquire new knowledge, skills,
attitudes and behaviours. It also needs to encourage explorations, exercises, trials
and experiments, all as autonomous learning experiences.
3. Primary education should contribute to each child’s discovery of its own identity,
autonomy and the development of positive self-image and support the child in
the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes necessary for them
to enter school and lifelong learning.
As we will debate later in this chapter, non-formal education presents a unique
educational context in which children’s environmental identities (see, e.g. Clayton
2003) can be developed and where they can acquire the competences needed to
become Environmental Citizens.
12.2 Non-formal Education for Environmental Citizenship
12.2.1 Defining Non-formal Education
Our aim in this chapter is to explore how non-formal education can take place for
young children as a space to experiment with and learn the competences needed to
become an Environmental Citizen. Before doing so, it is only fair that we explain
how we interpret the term ‘non-formal education’. In line with Norland (2005), we
acknowledge that ‘any term beginning with “non” can be perceived as somewhat
negative or even disagreeable: non-communicative, non-responsive, non-productive’
(p. 6). Non-formal education should not be perceived as the lack of something, but
rather as an educational context with unique qualities. The concept emerged in the
international discourse on education about 40 years ago. It is associated with the
idea of lifelong learning and emphasises the importance of education going beyond
the formal frameworks of the education system, whether in educational spaces other
than school, or through education activities that are not subject to the school
curriculum but that respond to the needs and interests of a group’s knowledge and
development.
The value of non-formal education arises because the formal education system is
adapting too slowly to the socio-economic and cultural changes of the world in
which we live. Non-formal education is different from formal education, both in
J. Boeve-de Pauw and R. Halbac-Zamfir