This study aims to explore practical directions for fostering ecoliteracy in secondary (middle school) art education. Ecoliteracy is a complex competence composed of cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, and it aligns with educational goals...
This study aims to explore practical directions for fostering ecoliteracy in secondary (middle school) art education. Ecoliteracy is a complex competence composed of cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, and it aligns with educational goals that seek to reframe the relationship between humans and nature in the face of the climate crisis, transform existing ways of life, and pursue new values.
Accordingly, this study posed three research questions. First, through a literature review, it organized the components of ecoliteracy and analyzed how these components are reflected in the 2022 revised middle school art curriculum and art textbooks. Second, it conducted in-depth interviews with secondary art teachers who have implemented ecology/environment-focused art lessons in schools to examine how they perceive and practice ecological and environmental education. Third, based on the findings from the first two questions, it explored educational approaches for fostering ecoliteracy in secondary art education.
With regard to the first research question, the literature analysis confirmed that ecoliteracy is an integrated competence encompassing cognition (ecological knowledge and thinking), affect (ecological sensitivity and ecocentric attitudes), and action (ecological practice and participation). An analysis of the 2022 revised art curriculum and 15 textbooks revealed that ecological sensitivity and ecological practice/participation were strongly represented, whereas elements related to ecological knowledge were relatively insufficient. In most textbooks, ecology-related units accounted for less than 5% of the total content. Ecoliteracy components were largely concentrated in the domain of aesthetic experience, and only a few textbooks distributed them more evenly across aesthetic experience, expression, and appreciation. In addition, even in textbooks that linked ecological/environmental art with learning activities, the perspectives of ecological transition education and problem-solving/management-oriented environmental literacy coexisted, and noticeable differences appeared across textbooks in both content selection and emphasis.
Regarding the second research question, teachers who had practiced ecology/environment-focused art lessons regarded art education’s distinctive value as helping students build relationships with nature through imagination and observation, and deepening aesthetic and ecological sensitivity through sensory and aesthetic experiences in ways that can lead to meaningful change. At the same time, they pointed to limitations in lessons where waste is generated during art-making, where art is used instrumentally as a vehicle for environmental slogans, or where environmental education becomes didactic and transmissive. They sought to move away from approaches that treat the environment merely as an object of problem-solving and management. As key approaches for internalizing ecoliteracy and forming an “ecological self,” they proposed long-term, project-based lessons centered on relationality, sensory experience, and the ecological self; autonomous inquiry through outdoor experiences in nature; and narrative storytelling. While teachers evaluated the expansion of ecology-related content and instructional time in the 2022 revised art curriculum positively, they also tended to understand ecoliteracy primarily at the level of sensitivity and ecocentric attitudes and reported a sense of vagueness about more concrete content. Consequently, they identified as urgent tasks the expansion of resources and professional development that include art lesson cases for fostering ecoliteracy, the sharing of lesson cases, and the establishment of an art teacher network to promote research and practice.
Based on these results, the third research question proposes approaches to invigorate art education for ecoliteracy: project-based learning, narrative storytelling, securing and sharing art lesson cases that foster ecoliteracy, and building teacher networks.
First, an integrated approach through project-based learning is needed. Project-based lessons enable students to understand ecology-related themes by integrating multiple topics and perspectives, and they cultivate the autonomy presupposed by ecoliteracy by encouraging students to take initiative in addressing problems. They also help secure sufficient time for students to experience nature directly and form relationships with it.
Second, narrative storytelling can support the formation of an ecological self. The “ecological self” refers to a sense of self that understands identity through relationships and interdependence with surrounding nature and is able to embrace and care for other beings. In art lessons aimed at fostering ecoliteracy, narrative storytelling encourages learners to construct stories about their relationship with the natural environment by drawing on imagination, metaphor, symbolism, and related artistic devices. Through this process, learners can internalize their relationship with nature more deeply on emotional and symbolic levels, thereby forming a more meaningful and enduring connection with natural beings and environments.
Third, sharing lesson cases and building teacher networks devoted to ecological art education are essential. Teachers emphasized the need for ecoliteracy-oriented art education that fully embodies the distinctive capacities and value of the art subject, and they felt that practical classroom cases should be further expanded. They also observed that lessons aimed at cultivating an ecological self are significantly influenced by the extent to which teachers themselves have developed an ecological self. Therefore, this study recommends establishing teacher networks focused on researching ecological art education in order to share lesson cases and invigorate research on diverse methods for fostering ecoliteracy.
This study is meaningful in that it concretely examined how ecoliteracy components are reflected in the 2022 revised art curriculum and textbooks, and, through the perspectives of art teachers who have implemented ecological and environmental education in schools, it derived directions for improvement and practical implications. Art teachers in school settings are attempting various methods grounded in deeper understandings of ecology and the environment as they strive to offer meaningful ecology/environment-focused education. The teacher perspectives revealed in this study can therefore serve as foundational data for exploring richer and more substantive directions for art education aimed at fostering ecoliteracy.
However, because this study focused on generating findings through in-depth interviews with a small number of art teachers, the teachers’ perceptions and cases cannot be generalized. In this sense, the study is limited in that it cannot be said to reflect the full diversity of ecology and environmental art education practices in school settings. Building on the implications of this study, there is a need for continued practice-based research that examines a wider range of perspectives and lesson cases for fostering ecoliteracy in art education.