Environmental Education In India: Analysis Of National Curriculum And Pedagogical Approaches

India, being a fast-growing major world economy and home to one-sixth of the world’s population, has a significant impact on the consumption of natural resources. As a result, it produces a huge amount of carbon emissions even though per capita emissions are low in the country. Hence, it is very important that current and future Indian generations not only understand the value of sustainable development but also incorporate it into their daily life. Education has a key role in developing that understanding and, therefore, it becomes important that pedagogical approaches commonly employed in Indian schools align well with the country’s development agenda and its sustainability goals. The curriculum documents are important in providing direction to the teaching practices and guiding educators to provide students with the best learning opportunities. This study examines the position of SDGs within the Indian environmental education curriculum and effective pedagogical approaches that enhance understanding in young minds and help enable them to follow and adopt the path of sustainable development. The study involves a two-stage evaluation design involving document analysis and critical literature review. Findings of the study reveal that the EE curriculum consists of concepts that provide knowledge about some SDGs at the elementary level, however, several SDGs are not well represented in the curriculum. The concept of sustainable development needs to be more deeply placed within the curriculum. Findings from the analysis of the literature review show that EE is implemented through three pedagogical approaches: infusion, separate subject, and extra-curricular activities in Indian schools. It is also clear from the findings that many Indian scholars believe that schools in India should adopt EE pedagogical approaches that involve practical, experiential, and activity-based iii learning as these are successful in helping students to develop pro-environmental attitudes, behaviours, understanding, and skills. Scholars also believe that courses offering knowledge about local issues, the presence of eco-clubs and support from environmental NGO’s also significantly improve the learning experience of students. It is also emphasized by scholars that use of multimedia and social media technologies can bring more fruitful results in EE by making learning easily comprehensible, effective, efficient, resourceful, applicable, and economical. However, research findings from the analysis of the curriculum demonstrate that teaching about climate action needs to be stronger within the Indian school curriculum. Pedagogical approaches and effective practices that improve the learning experience of students about sustainability and climate solutions should be encouraged through EE in Indian schools. More theoretical pedagogical approaches are being currently used in EE than practical approaches in schools across Indian. Therefore, this gap must be filled through providing more experiential learning opportunities to the students.