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To cite this article: Lea Houtsonen (1997) Education for environmental sensitivity:
The experienced urban environment in Finnish teacher education, International
Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 6:2, 161-169, DOI:
10.1080/10382046.1997.9965042
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Education for Environmental Sensitivity:
The Experienced Urban Environment in
Finnish Teacher Education
Lea Houtsonen
Department of Geography, PO Box 4, Yliopistonkatu 3, 00014 University of
Helsinki, Finland
The task of developing environmental education in Finland is closely connected
with the wider issue of the processes of social change taking place at the present
time, marking the breakdown of old values, ways of thinking, institutions,
practices and power bases. The manifestations of these processes are to be seen
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in surface structures, the rise of economic coalitions and the construction of data
networks, and in deep structures such as values, outlooks on life, world views
and lifestyles (Hirvi, 1996). Young people are particularly sensitive in perceiving
such trends, and the school system, through its pupils, is therefore more closely
engaged in the reality of these changes than any other institution in our society.
Indeed, perhaps the greatest changes of all apply to the area with which the
education system is most concerned, learning and psychological development,
which occupy a key position as society steps out into the future.
This period of change is reflected in education above all in the fact that
increasing weight is being attached to the construcnvist view of learning, the
central idea in which is that knowledge is not transferred as such but learners
construct it for themselves, selecting from among the information presented to
them and interpreting and analysing it on the basis of their existing knowledge,
and that it is in accordance with this that they build up through the medium of
experience an image of the world in which they live and of themselves as a part
of that world (Rauste-von Wright & von Wright, 1996).
One question that has emerged as central to our notion of education is how to
guarantee the best possible future for our children and young people and equip
them to solve the problems that will face them by themselves in an active manner
(Ojanen & Rikkinen, 1995: 12). It is for this reason that desires have been
expressed in Finland in recent years for an intensification of the environmental
education provided in schools, leading to a greater emphasis on such topics in
the training of teachers as well. Earlier the environmental education given in
schools in particular was weighted heavily towards ecological questions and
nature conservation, whereas considerably more emphasis has come to be placed
during the present decade on the examination of built environments, from the
point of view of their state, their history, future trends and the ecological
implications of building. Even matters concerned with the possibilities for
influencing environmental planning have been discussed both in teacher
education and in schools.
As our cities grow in size and the regulations governing our lives in society
themselves, and they should be given an opportunity to plan their own learning
and decide upon it. Environmental education should represent an attempt to
combine a sensitivity for perceiving one's environment, knowledge about our
environment, skills for resolving problems, critical thinking and a clarification of
the individual's own environmental values.
There are many ways of looking at people's interactive relations with their
environment. This comment will concentrate on the experienced environment,
with the aim of deducing how and in what form a person experiences an urban
environment and evaluating methods by which teacher education can provide
practice in experiencing urban environments to the full.
time it is a matter of obtaining the skills required for living in the ever more
complicated and unpredictable world of the future.
Is environmental education based on the pupil's own experiences and
processing of these?
Learning by experience is a way of educating people to be aware of the
environment and willing to act accordingly in practice. The dynamic learning
that arises in this way stems from the tension between earlier experience and new
knowledge, so that learners' attitudes change and their cognitive structures
develop. This also implies ethical considerations and the acceptance of responsi-
bility for their actions.
Since people are active and commit themselves better to environmental values
when the action concerned involves them personally, learning situations should
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also as members of the community and its organisations, a task which places
emphasis on cooperation and social values. It should arouse empathy for all
people and for future generations, and should inspire a desire to support plans
aimed at preventing the pollution and destruction of nature and to bring about
environmental changes that operate in the direction of sustainable development.
Many pupils are prevented from acting for the good of the environment by a lack
of information on the opportunities for such action within the community.
An international outlook can also enhance the quality of environmental
education. International cooperation in this sphere arises from a genuine need
for corporate action, for global problems call for solutions implemented through
international cooperation. It is possible to join with schools in other countries to
study and discuss common problems and to consider what has been done in
different parts of the world to solve these problems. A very positive outlook on
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everyday lives give rise to quite different criticisms of planning proposals from
those engendered by the 'spatial' way of thinking that places emphasis on
economy and efficiency.
Discussion has now begun on the topic of urban images. These are multiple,
ambiguous, multi-layered concepts, the symbolic and psychological influences
of which are gradually being understood more extensively in society. They are
concepts that refer to the physical environment on the one hand and to that
created by the perceptions or the imagination on the other. The one thing that
these approaches have in common is that they lead to a visual image of a greater
or less degree of abstraction. The urban image is a subjective, personal experience,
but the experiences of different individuals are frequent similar in direction, to
the extent that one can speak of common, generally experienced images.
Although an urban scene consists of all the things that an observer can see from
a certain place, streets, buildings, parks, surrounding items of nature, activities
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their own living environment and to protect and develop this both aesthetically
and ecologically. For this reason students' environmental sensitivity should be
developed so that they can perceive the essential characteristics of their
environment and changes taking place in these in an open, receptive and
comprehensive manner. It is important that people care about the environment
and that pupils achieve personal contacts and relations with questions concern-
ing the quality of an environment created simultaneously by nature, affluence
and human effort. Education should also provide an opportunity for practising
various forms of corporate action and an ability to face up to the conflicts that
arise in the course of community planning (Jaaskelainen & Nykanen, 1994). The
activation of citizens to undertake action of their own in these respects must be
seen as one of the social tasks of educators, which in turn means that education
should forge closer links with popular action, the diversified planning of
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environmental policy and decision making, to which it should also lend support
(Paldanius, 1992).
All the major pressures for change in our future society will have a demand
for ecological sustainability attached to them. A clean, pleasant environment is a
significant factor contributing to human well-being, and as life increases in
complexity both in small local communities and on a global scale, it will become
more difficult to exercise control over one's life, so that feelings of uncertainty
will become more common (Redclift, 1995). These feelings will be compounded
further by the threat of an ecological catastrophe. Thus the rapidly changing
world of the future will call more than ever before for an ability to see what things
are of significance and what things are not. That is, what kind of life may be
regarded as good and of inherent value (Pitkanen, 1996). This vision of a good
life can then provide a yardstick for use in practical situations that require choices
to be made, a goal in relation to which values and preferences can be placed in
order of priority. The appreciation of values will thereby become the art of living
a good life. This adjustment of people's sets of values in the direction of
sustainable development may be seen as a process of instilling a new lifestyle
through education. This was indeed the original aim of environmental education,
which 'evolved in response to concern over the quality of the environment and
the need for education to improve the existing environmental predicament'
(Tilbury, 1997:106).
The model for the work of developing environmental education in Finland has
been that defined in the UNESCO programme (Venalainen, 1992), where the
instructions with regard to content advocate examining the environment as a
whole and concentrating on the right actual and potential environmental issues
and their reasons and consequences. The approach should be multidisciplinary
and should be directed at environments on local, regional and global scales.
Particular emphasis should be placed on cooperation in the solution of
environmental problems. The methodological instructions put forward by
UNESCO emphasise that environmental education is a continuing, lifelong
process, and one in which value should be attached to the views of the learners
and in which they should be given the chance to plan and decide upon their own
learning. Methods should be found for combining sensitivity in the sensory
perception of environments with information on the environment, problem-solv-
168 International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
ing skills, critical thinking and clarification of one's personal values in this
respect. Particular emphasis should be placed on personal experiences and
practical activity.
The above view of environmental education implies, of course, a thorough
re-examination of the way in which we evaluate our environment, assigning
greater prominence to an awareness of our own set of values, the definition of
our own objectives, the learning process and the notion of collective responsibil-
ity Qeronen et al., 1994). The teacher's role in this is to encourage and support the
recipients of this education, to stimulate them and to open up new perspectives,
but at the same time to provide safe, caring guidance towards the adoption of a
sustainable lifestyle.
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