This dissertation aimed to explicate the major paradigms in environmental education, the paradigm adopted by each Australian state educational authority, perceptions by environmental organisations of the performance of state authorities in environmental education, perceptions by teachers in one state, Western Australia, of the amount of support they had from the state educational authority in this area, and the form the environmental education had taken in the schools. The study initially explicated paradigms from the research, then used surveys, most of which incorporated qualitative, standardised, open ended questions, to gain responses from the state educational authorities, environmental organisations and teachers. The teacher survey, in addition, incorporated a section constituting closed, quantitative questions. The paradigms explicated from the research were labelled ' rationalist', 'thematic' and 'holistic', each differing in the way in which curriculum is determined, the type of resources utilised, the degree to which education about, in and for is undertaken, the source of control of learning in environmental education, the extent and diversity of environmental education in the school, the amount of community interaction, the type and degree of action taken, and the amount of emphasis on causal aspects of environmental problems. It was found that most state education authorities adopted the ' rationalist' approach to environmental education. One state was classified within the 'thematic' approach and one state adopted an ' holistic' approach. Teachers' perceptions generally agreed with those of environmental groups about the support given by educational authorities to environmental education. Both groups were dissatisfied with the general lack of support given to environmental education by educational authorities. Teachers in Western Australia were mainly involved in teaching about the environment, and thus classified in the 'rationalist' paradigm. Some teachers had seemed to progress into the 'thematic' approach, but may have been limited by systemic inertia. This dissertation explores teachers' feelings and attitudes, and connects and identifies many levels of thinking and the diversity of teaching and learning practices in environmental education.