Journal of Advances in Education Research

Download PDF (290.5 KB) PP. 12 - 18 Pub. Date: February 21, 2017

DOI: 10.22606/jaer.2017.21002

• Yannis Hadzigeorgiou^*
  University of the Aegean, Greece
• Gillian Judson
  Simon Fraser University, Canada

This paper addresses the need to reclaim the value of storytelling as a tool for raising environmental awareness in young children. In distinguishing between ‘knowledge’ and ‘awareness’, the paper discusses the role that the sense of wonder evoked through shaping topics in story-form can play in encouraging awareness. Through imaginative and emotional engagement with issues and ideas, children can feel the significance of the natural world around them. The role of the Story of the Universe which presents the natural environment as a living organism, in which human beings and Nature co-exist, is also discussed.

Environmental awareness, storytelling, wonder

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