Puzzle Pieces but Not the Big Picture—How Students from a Green School Perceive the Environmental Crisis from Teachers’ Point of View

Abstract

Background: A Green school (GS) is one way to attempt to reduce the environmental crisis. Teaching in green schools, which is established on a place-based education (PBE) approach that adopts outdoor and experiential learning, should provide students with a holistic view of the environmental crisis that connects local processes to global processes. Purpose: To explore the environmental perspective of fourth-grade students who participate in an experiential outdoor PBE program by examining how they link local, natural phenomena to the global environmental crisis. Methodology/Approach: Phenomenological methods were used in the interpretive approach through student drawing and explanation analysis. Findings/Conclusions: Students could not seem to link the local natural phenomena to a more extensive picture of the global environmental crisis. Implications: We recommend that teachers in green schools who emphasize PBE rethink the incorporation of the concept of “environmental crisis.” The analogy of assembling a puzzle may allow switching from looking at the global picture to examining at the local level. In this way, they may provide students with a more holistic view of the environmental crisis.