Encounters with nature and environmental moral learning

Years 2005-2007 Leif Östman lead the multidisciplinary project Encounters with nature and environmental moral learning, financed by the Swedish Research Council. The SMED members Petra Hansson, Johan Öhman, David Kronlid, Marie Öhman, Karin Andersson and Karin Rudsberg participated in the project. The purpose of this research project was to deepen the knowledge about the role of encounters with nature in environmental moral learning. To carry out the purpose of the project theories, perspectives and methods from primarily three fields of research are used: environmental education, environmental ethics and environmental history. The project was divided in two parts that are closely connected. The first study was grounded in discourse theory. It was carried out as a number of case studies in order to identify educational practises that are qualitatively diverse. In the second study the processes of moral learning in the educational practises found in the first study, were focused. In this study, the empirical material was collected through video- and audio recordings.