Environmental citizenship and participation. The role of education programs

Environmental citizenship and participation. The role of education programs

Martinho, A.P.
Nicolau, P.B.
Caeiro, S.
Amador, F.
Oliveira, C.

2010-10-27

Promoting effective environmental citizenship is one way to achieve sustainability - people should be encouraged to act to preserve the environment and the common good. The citizen’s qualities and attitudes will determine the evolution of our society at all levels. Individuals must develop a cultural capacity that in modern society turn them into knowing, knowledgeable, competent and participatory actors. The first aim of this work is to reflect about the evolution of environmental citizenship in recent decades, analyzing the legal instruments, plans and strategies that have been published at the European level for its effective implementation. Secondly we intend to present a set of criteria related with higher education, providing a knowledge base for the necessary responsibilities and effective behaviour change towards sustainability. Finally a case study will be presented related to the b-learning Master in Environmental Citizenship and Participation at the Distance Learning University, Portugal, where the courses and the educational methods is rooted in problem solving and collaborative methods. Based on the results of a questionnaire survey applied to the master's students for the past 3 academic years, there is a link between the knowledge acquired and changing attitudes and behaviours towards sustainability.

environmental citizenship
sustainability
higher education
Europe

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c85efbf4-b37f-473f-9ea7-af719026f6a5

Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2010 Martinho, A.P.; Nicolau, P.B.; Caeiro, S.; Amador, F.; Oliveira, C.