Framing Experience on Haida Gwaii: An Ecological Model for Environmental Education

Abstract

This paper describes an ecological framework for environmental education and uses the example of a recent summer institute for teachers conducted on Haida Gwaii to describe how the framework can be enacted. In our description, we use a narrative approach to "tell the story" of how this framework can organize experience with/in environmental education. Our model is grounded in an "ecology" which emphasizes the embeddedness of human societies and cultures (and their technologies) within physical communities. The model describes a range of ecological, socio-cultural, and technical influences that influence educators' experiences with, and interpretations of, formal curriculum. In this paper, we explore the model within the context of "island" communities on Haida Gwaii,where we apply the framework in specific ways, contributing to both professional discourse and teacher development.