This SpringerBrief focuses on the principles of ecotourism such as relevance of the field, origin, fundamental aspects, definitions, philosophy, implications in biodiversity conservation and environmental impacts. Special emphasis is also given to the interaction between ecotourism and education and it is supported by recent publications from the authors.

This book considers the scope and dynamics of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and learning in schools in Africa. It explores the conditions and processes that support such learning, and examines how ESD in schooling can improve the quality and relevance of education. The quality of education has been defined internationally as a key concern for educational institutions around the world, including schools in Africa. The models of quality are often limited to performance-based approaches and/or inclusive approaches. The contributions in this book show that there is more to a discussion on educational quality in Africa than performance success and/or inclusion. The chapters explain how ESD brings a new relevance to education in Africa, and at the same time, sounds the beginning of a new concept of quality education. The volume presents a collection of experiences in creating and supporting quality learning processes through a variety of ESD practices.

This book provides a critique of over two decades of sustained effort to infuse educational systems with education for sustainable development. Taking to heart the idea that deconstruction is a prelude to reconstruction, this critique leads to discussions about how education can be remade, and respond to the educational imperatives of our time, particularly as they relate to ecological crises and human-nature relationships. It will be of great interest to students and researchers of sociology, education, philosophy and environmental issues.

This book explores why the concept of wild pedagogy is an essential aspect of education in these times; a re-negotiated education that acknowledges the necessity of listening to voices in a more than human world, and (re)learning how to dwell in a place. As the geological epoch inexorably shifts to the Anthropocene, the authors argue that learning to live in and engage with the world is increasingly crucial in such times of uncertainty. The editors and contributors examine what wild pedagogy can truly become, and how it can be relevant across disciplinary boundaries: offering six touchstones as working tools to help educators forge an onward path. This collaborative work will be of interest to students and scholars of wild pedagogies, alternative education and the Anthropocene, and for all those engaged in re-wilding education.

In an era in which environmental education has been described as one of the most pressing educational concerns of our time, further insights are needed to understand how best to approach the learning and teaching of environmental education in early childhood education. In this book we address this concern by identifying two principles for using play-based learning early childhood environmental education. The principles we identify are the result of research conducted with teachers and children using different types of play-based learning whilst engaged in environmental education. Such play-types connect with the historical use of play-based learning in early childhood education as a basis for pedagogy. In the book ‘Beyond Quality in ECE and Care’ authors Dahlberg, Moss and Pence implore readers to ask critical questions about commonly held images of how young children come to construct themselves within social institutions. In similar fashion, this little book problematizes the taken-for-grantedness of the childhood development project in service to the certain cultural narratives. Cutter-Mackenzie, Edwards, Moore and Boyd challenge traditional conceptions of play-based learning through the medium of environmental education. This book signals a turning point in social thought grounded in a relational view of (environmental) education as experiential, intergenerational, interspecies, embodied learning in the third space. As Barad says, such work is based in inter-actions that can account for the tangled spaces of agencies. Through the deceptive simplicity of children’s play, the book stimulates deliberation of the real purposes of pedagogy and of schooling. Paul Hart, University of Regina, Canada

Annotation Hart, speaking from a Canadian academic's viewpoint (he is professor of science and environmental education, U. of Regina) calls environmental education "a rapidly growing field of educational activity that advocates consideration of human- environment relationships in all aspects of education." Hart's use of teachers' narrative accounts contributes to the prescriptive camp of curriculum theory by exposing feelings and arguments about should be taught, and to the descriptive camp by delving into classrooms and the professional lives of teachers to see things are taught. David Orr, Oberlin's eco-pedagogical missionary, is frequently quoted. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

What does it mean to take actions of one's own to learn? How do human beings create meaning for themselves and with others? How can learners' active efforts to build knowledge be encouraged and supported?In this edited compilation, scholars from a diverse range of academic and professional backgrounds address these questions, grounded in the conviction that the ability to take effective action of one's own to learn is itself an essential form of knowledge.In an era of dramatic social, environmental and political change, the need to access vast amounts of information to make decisions demands that learners become active agents in their own knowledge development. Educators are transforming ideas about their role(s) as they strive to provide guidance to help learners take the lead in their own learning. Learners are building new ideas about their capacities to gather and organize information while working with others. No longer simply consumers of information, they are beginning to see themselves as capable and effective researchers. Researchers are also expanding ideas about their knowledge-gathering work and identities. No longer simply reporters of information, researchers are seeing themselves as learners, as they engage in deeper, more collaborative ways with participants in their research.Chapter authors describe their dedicated, and often career long journeys to show the vital connections between knowledge, acting to learn, identity and being. To engage in this work means disrupting traditional ideas about how knowledge is most effectively acquired. This book will inspire researchers, educators and educational planners as they build the kinds of new participative structures needed to support individual and collective actions to learn.