A Comparative Study on Environmental Education in Southeast Asia : With Emphasis on the Cultivation of Global Citizen Consciousness and Ethno-Cultural Perspective towards Environment

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This study is aimed to clarify present situation and challenges of environmental education in Southeast Asia countries ;Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, from three viewpoints as the following :1.The framework of formal or non-formal environmental education,2.The situation of reflection of value, such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, etc., and3.Features in the environmental education curricula, textbooks and teaching materials, and the educational method which are ;(1)International common feature such as global environmental consciousness,(2)Difference found from the viewpoint such as cultural environmental view, of value education, such as traditional culture, religion, etc., and(3)Difference in the educational methodIn the school education of each country, the curricula of the environmental education across boundaries consisting mainly in social studies and science are performed. NGO's activities are used for the experienced environmental education as supplemen … More tation of formal education.In the textbooks and teaching materials, the contents treated the religion moral value over environment are also emphasized. They are natural faith of each region, or Buddhist events in Thailand ; the Islamic or values, such as environment as a creature of God", and "human beings' responsibility for "environment", etc. in Malaysia ; and the Catholic principle of Philippines. In Singapore, there are little religious descriptions in connection with the environment in the textbooks.The educational method emphasizing on experience and critical thinking has many portions common in each country, and can be considered as global standard approach.However, cultural-religious sense of values of each country is not necessarily functioning as an effective factor for expanding global environmental consciousness.Moreover, there are also examples of connection between government organization and NGO (NPO) s, and extremely strong Government control, so there is a danger that only convenient environmental education for the State will be partially emphasized. Less