Cultivating Artistic Approaches to Environmental Learning: Exploring Eco-art Education in Elementary Classrooms

Abstract

This article explores curriculum development in eco-art education, an integration of art education and environmental education, as a means of increasing awareness of and engagement with the environment. It reports on a qualitative research study that tracked teachers’ experiments with the design and implementation of eco-art education in elementary classrooms. Guided by the framework of collaborative action research, a team of educators generated practical and theoretical knowledge to plan, implement, observe and reflect on eco-art curricula and pedagogy. As the first inquiry to examine eco-art education in a sustained way across multiple school sites, it makes a significant contribution to the emerging knowledge and growing discourse of eco-art education by demonstrating how arts-based learning at the elementary level can align with and support environmental education concepts and pedagogy.