Future Directions in Environmental Anthropology: Incorporating ethnography of environmental education

Environmental education research spans a wide variety of fi elds and can be distinguished by formal (institutional) and informal (defi ned in terms of sociocultural learning) learning practices. Most studies of environmental education (EE) reported in journals-such as Environmental Education Research, the Journal of Environmental Education, and the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education-as well as journals that are more associated with education for sustainable development (ESD)—such as the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development and International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education-explore theory, methodology, and the evolution of environmental education in formal settings but rarely address informal education. Informal education, associated with beyond-the-classroom experiences, refers to broadly defi ned belief systems of knowledge regarding conceptions of humans in their environment (Efi rd 2011). Environmental anthropologists inquire how the process of cultural learning takes place and how this learning is associated with our ideas or feelings about the environment (Milton 2002).