Over the past quarter of a century, researchers have shown that faith, religion, and spirituality play pivotal roles in the formation of our society’s beliefs about and stewardship of the world around us. Innovative environmental education engages body, mind, and spirit to address the complicated environmental issues of this century.  A new conference strand explores this relationship and highlights the environmental education that integrates faith, religion, or spirituality to develop environmental literacy and stewardship.
 
Expect presentations that will answer questions such as these:
•    What models of environmental education:
o    are based in religion or spirituality?
o    are holistic, involving body, mind, and spirit?
o    reveal god or spirit through nature to connect people to the environment?
o    are based on sacred texts?
o    focus on the intrinsic values of the environment to develop stewardship and environmental literacy?
o    help people have meaningful spiritual experiences in nature?
•    What models of spirituality/faith-based education are based on the environment?
•    How do these models demonstrate collaboration among the environmental education profession and spirituality/faith-based organizations to achieve broad community participation?
•    What barriers and challenges exist in providing spirituality or faith-based environmental education?  What solutions exist to address these challenges?

Contributors to this story included Laura Downey (ldowney@kacee.org).