Ecologically Minded Teachers and Character Education

Overview & Synopsis

Character education and environmental/ecological education (EEE) are not often discussed in the same circles of discourse. However, in recent studies of EEE, several teachers have identified the exploration and enactment values pertinent to EEE, with some even naming character education as a potentially helpful framework. In this work, the authors provide an overview of environmental/ecological education, and introduce the framework of ecological mindedness. The authors then consider the conceptual crossover of ecological mindedness with character education, highlighting the ground the two approaches share. This is corroborated and complicated by discourse with educators, their perceptions of ecological mindedness as character education, and the ways in which their ecological beliefs inform their practice. Finally, the authors offer a few next steps for these lines of inquiry, noting the potential of exercising a degree of transdisciplinarity on this front to improve both character education and environmental/ecological education.