What should be Taught in Environmental Education as a Separate Subject? Problems of Contamination-Focused Environmental Education

중등학교 환경 교과의 방향에 대한 제언 : 오염과 공해 그리고 환경 문제

In Korea nearly all the subjects teach environmental education in the secondary school. In addition we have a separate environmental education subject (environmental subject). This could be a very strong point in the Korean environmental education. The environmental subject and the other subjects, however, overlap in teaching materials and methods in almost all aspects. Because of this, the environmental subject has not done its job effectively, and is sometimes considered as an unnecessary surplus. To effectively play its own role in environmental education, the subject should focus on environmental issues rather than on contamination, which it is focusing on now. The contamination-focused environmental subject simply teaches nearly the same contents that the other subjects teach. In addition, it makes students visit actual sites related to pollution in order to encourage them to be aware of the severity of pollution. However, it has difficulty in teaching how environmental problems occur in a society and how the social decisions are made to resolve the problems. To overcome this difficulty the environmental subject should employ discussion classes more substantially, which let students investigate social aspects as well as scientific aspects of environmental problems and make integrated decisions through interdisciplinary approaches, to make students understand social mechanisms of environmental problems. The subject should focus on teaching what factors influence producers' and consumers' behavior and what factors they should consider when they have to make decisions on environmental issues. It should leave teaching technical knowledge and skill to the other subjects, and train students by the integrated approach which makes them see technology through a sociologist's eye. Although such integrated approach is emphasized in the environmental subject, environmental teachers should be trained to understand technological knowledge and skill in profound depth.