Systems Planning for Environmental Education

The development of citizen capacity to function from a systems perspective on major public issues is needed to combat the "politics of selfishness\´ as practiced through single-issue political action groups. Environmental education offers an opportunity to develop citizenship functions through the challenge set forth in the Environmental Education Act of 1970. Systems methodologies have been developed that offer the possibility of citizen learning and doing through participative effort. Examples of the use of various systems methodologies relate to defining environmental education, exploring core themes for use in environmental education, classroom learning, and acceptance in field testing of methodology. Design of a regional environmental learning system (RELS) offers another opportunity to apply systems methodology. A general methodology for conceptual design of systems can be readily applied to public design of environmental learning systems.