Globalisation and environmental education: A view from the south

Abstract

Globalisation is one of the key ideas currently informing educational policy, practice and research in many countries. This paper examines the meaning of globalisation and its local expression in countries such as South Africa and Australia, with particular reference to possible implications of globalisation for environmental education. I outline an approach to conceptualising globalisation as a 'transitional imaginary' in curriculum work and draw some distinctions between globalisation, development, and the types of 'thinking globally' that environmental education often promotes. I suggest that there are significant tensions between supporting economic globalisation and promoting global perspectives in school curricula that have particular relevance for environmental education and may require a distinctive local response from southern African environmental educators.