PHOTOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
“critical stewardship” as the fourth theme to have emerged from his research: the idea that conservation photographers commit themselves to preserving wildlife that humans have put in a critical condition (778). The conservation photographers embody what Farnsworth (borrowing a phrase from Burke and Cutter-Mackenzie 2010) describes as “‘immersion and embodiment’” (778), through which their photographs represent highly emotional, physical experiences as effective two-dimensional educational tools. Photographers bring forth this emotion by creating images of wildlife in compromised positions, both in their environment and in the frame, or by leaving out wildlife and presenting the lack of environmental stewardship on the part of a community. By creating these photographs, the conservation photographers in the study followed a similar educational process that environmental educators use when creating lessons. The photographs, like a traditional classroom lesson, have a high educational potential when presented (Farnsworth 781-82). With a practical knowledge of Farnsworth’s identified themes, students and teachers could use photography to better understand the world around them. However, the article focuses on conservation, and though conservation is an environmental issue, this paper approaches environmentalism more generally than Farnsworth’s study does.
NEXT STEPS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION While attempting to discover the best use of photography in an environmental education classroom, this paper failed to find any study that could quantitatively prove the efficacy of photography in the classroom. This lack of research within the community of environmental education scholars supports Blumstein and Saylan’s critique of environmental education. None of these studies and articles implement controlled methods when devising new, non-traditional assessments or teaching tools, such as photography, just as Blumstein and Saylan warn. However, certain recommendations for future research can be made. For example, a comparison between student-directed photographic projects (Cook et al.) and teacher lead projects (Rivet and Schneider) could provide interesting data on which method affects student behavior in accordance with Blumstein and Saylan’s recommendations (0975). This paper also considers issues of age and the use of visual methods to teach environmental education. While the research of Lipponen et al. provides an interesting look at the function of photographs in education, it limits itself to preschoolers. In the same vain, in Green and Somerville’s work on place and its connection of creative education, the limited age of students did VOLUME 26 / 2016-2017 | 61