This study explores the notion of contestation in environmental education. Contestation is a process in which self interested individuals and groups in a social organisation cooperate, compete and negotiate in a complex interaction aimed at solving social problems. A framework for critique is developed, comprising technicist, liberal / interpretive and critical paradigms in each of scientific knowledge, educational innovation, educational research and education itself. This framework forms the basis from which a critique is mounted of contesting perspectives in environmental education at international, national and local levels. The thesis addresses the issue of which of several contesting forms of educational research offers the most coherent response to the educational problem of environmental education, and argues that, for the time being, approaches grounded in the critical social sciences are both the best justified and most promising approaches to educational research for environmental education.