A Report on an Ontario Secondary School Integrated Environmental Studies Program

In secondary schools in Canada, environmental education is rarely infused throughout the highly discipline-based curriculum. The various integrated environmental studies programs operating in a number of Ontario secondary schools, however, offer an alterna-tive approach which bears some promise. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the Ontario programs before turning to a case study of one such program, highlighting student perspec-tives. We conclude by discussing the promises and limitations of these programs, as well as constraints on their implementation. Résumé Dans les écoles secondaires du Canada, l’éducation relative à l’environnement imprègne rarement tout le programme d’études qui est grandement axé sur les disciplines. Les divers programmes d’études environnementales intégrées mis en place dans un certain nombre d’écoles secondaires de l’Ontario offrent cependant une approche alternative qui semble prometteuse. Dans cet article, nous donnons un bref aperçu des programmes ontariens et nous étudions ensuite un programme en particulier, en y soulignant les perspectives des élèves. Nous concluons par une discussion sur les promesses et les limites de ces programmes, ainsi que sur les contraintes de leur mise en œuvre. While school-based environmental education practices across Canada are diverse, it is still unusual to find environmental education infused into all sec-ondary school subjects or integrated so that the curriculum is organized not around subjects but interconnected issues and themes (Pike & Selby, 1999). More commonly, environmental education, if it occurs at all, is offered as an isolated elective course (often in science or geography) or as an extracurricular activity, and its existence in a school is frequently due to the efforts of one o