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What Went Well? Understanding the Culture of a Long-Term Israeli Environmental Education Primary School Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2018

Adiv Gal  and
Dafna Gan
Adiv Gal*
Affiliation:
Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, Tel Aviv, Israel
Dafna Gan
Affiliation:
Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, Tel Aviv, Israel
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Adiv Gal, Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, Namir Rd 149, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Email: adiv.gal@smkb.ac.il.
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Abstract

Using the perspectives, behaviours, and environmental values, beliefs, and norms of a school's staff, we investigated the features of a long-term environmental education program. This case study answers the following questions: How has the Lesser Kestrel environmental education program survived for almost two decades and become institutionalised into the school culture? What are the features of the environmental education program at Falcon School that allowed it to endure despite clear obstacles? We inductively analysed documents, focus group transcriptions, and individual interviews. Our findings indicate the goals of the Lesser Kestrel environmental education program and principles of values-beliefs-norms theory were strongly aligned along five main features: leadership and vision, human and economic resources, nature connectedness and conservation, community engagement, and tradition (which united the first four features). We conclude that these features work collectively to integrate the surrounding community into Falcon School's culture and long-term environmental education program.

Keywords

Lesser Kestrellong-term education programenvironmental educationvalues-beliefs-norms theorycase studyschool culture
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , November 2018 , pp. 262 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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