[Re]thinking Environmental Education – serie

Environmental educators often adhere to a relatively narrow theoretical paradigm focusing on changing attitudes and knowledge, which are assumed to foster pro-environmental behaviors, which, in turn, leads to better environmental quality. This book takes a different approach to trying to understand how environmental education might influence people, their communities, and the environment. The authors view changing environmental behaviors as a «wicked» problem, that is, a problem that does not readily lend itself to solutions using existing disciplinary approaches. The book as a whole opens up new avenues for pursuing environmental education research and practice and thus expands the conversation around environmental education, behaviors, and quality. Through developing transdisciplinary research questions and conceptual paradigms, this book also suggests new practices beyond those currently used in environmental education, natural resources management, and other environmental fields.

Critical Education and Sociomaterial Practice presents a situated approach to learning that suggests the need for more explicit attention to sociomaterial practice in critical education. Specifically, it explores social, place and narrative dimensions of practical experience as they unfold in schools, in place-based learning, and teacher education contexts. Such an orientation to practice both links social and material conditions (social relations, other species, physical context, objects) to human consciousness and learning, and considers the relationship between such learning and broader cultural change. The core of the book is an examination of critical situated learning undertaken through three separate empirical studies, each of which we use to elaborate a particular domain or dimension of practical experience. In turning to the sociomaterial contexts of learning, the book also underscores how social and environmental issues are necessarily linked, such as in the production of food deserts in cities or in the pollution of the drinking water in Indigenous communities through oil development. More social movements globally are connecting the dots between sexism, heteronormativity, racism, colonization, White privilege, globalization, poverty, and climate justice, including with issues of land, territory and sovereignty, water, food, energy, and treatment and extinction of other species. As a result, categorizing some concerns as ‘social justice’ or ‘critical’ issues and others as ‘environmental,’ becomes increasingly untenable. The book thus suggests that more integrative and productive forms of critical education are needed to respond to these complex and pressing socio-ecological conditions.

Critical Education and Sociomaterial Practice presents a situated approach to learning that suggests the need for more explicit attention to sociomaterial practice in critical education. Specifically, it explores social, place and narrative dimensions of practical experience as they unfold in schools, in place-based learning, and teacher education contexts. Such an orientation to practice both links social and material conditions (social relations, other species, physical context, objects) to human consciousness and learning, and considers the relationship between such learning and broader cultural change. The core of the book is an examination of critical situated learning undertaken through three separate empirical studies, each of which we use to elaborate a particular domain or dimension of practical experience. In turning to the sociomaterial contexts of learning, the book also underscores how social and environmental issues are necessarily linked, such as in the production of food deserts in cities or in the pollution of the drinking water in Indigenous communities through oil development. More social movements globally are connecting the dots between sexism, heteronormativity, racism, colonization, White privilege, globalization, poverty, and climate justice, including with issues of land, territory and sovereignty, water, food, energy, and treatment and extinction of other species. As a result, categorizing some concerns as ‘social justice’ or ‘critical’ issues and others as ‘environmental,’ becomes increasingly untenable. The book thus suggests that more integrative and productive forms of critical education are needed to respond to these complex and pressing socio-ecological conditions.

Rethinking Intercultural Approaches to Indigenous Environmental Education and Research arose from a physical and philosophical journey that critically considered the relationship between Western, Indigenous, and other culturally rooted ecological knowledge systems and philosophies. This book shares two related studies that explored the life histories, cultural, and ecological identities and pedagogical experiences of Indigenous, non-Indigenous, and recently arrived educators and learners from across Canada. A variety of socio-ecological concepts including bricolage, métissage, Two-Eyed Seeing, and the Third Space are employed to (re-) frame discussions of historical and contemporary understandings of interpretive and Indigenous research methodologies, Métis cultures and identities, Canadian ecological identity, intercultural science and environmental education, «wicked problems», contemporary disputes over land and natural resource management, and related activism.

Rethinking Intercultural Approaches to Indigenous Environmental Education and Research arose from a physical and philosophical journey that critically considered the relationship between Western, Indigenous, and other culturally rooted ecological knowledge systems and philosophies. This book shares two related studies that explored the life histories, cultural, and ecological identities and pedagogical experiences of Indigenous, non-Indigenous, and recently arrived educators and learners from across Canada. A variety of socio-ecological concepts including bricolage, métissage, Two-Eyed Seeing, and the Third Space are employed to (re-) frame discussions of historical and contemporary understandings of interpretive and Indigenous research methodologies, Métis cultures and identities, Canadian ecological identity, intercultural science and environmental education, «wicked problems», contemporary disputes over land and natural resource management, and related activism.

This book was named a 2015 Choice magazine Outstanding Academic Title.Place-based education offers a compelling opportunity to engage students in the life of their community. More than just taking a field trip, participants in a place-based project make sustained efforts to make a difference and learn basic skills along the way. Academic concepts come to life as real-world problems are investigated from a local angle. Even global issues can be connected to the community, such as the high school in Missouri that linked local land-use choices to the «dead zone» in the Gulf of Mexico. For teachers, place-based projects offer a chance for professional revitalization as they orchestrate complex and meaningful learning environments that go well beyond scripted curriculum mandates. Both teachers and students benefit from a new level of agency as they take ownership of their work. Drawing on his own experience as a teacher and more than a decade of work supporting teachers in crafting their own projects, the author outlines the many benefits of place-based education and describes the challenges that must be overcome if we are to realize its potential.

Learning from Bad Practice in Environmental and Sustainability Education illuminates the notion of bad practice from the perspective of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) and how it is possible to learn from it in order to avoid the relentless pitfalls and blind spots that are part of any educational field. Combining lessons from Danish and South Korean NGOs involved in both formal and non-formal ESE with emerging theoretical perspectives on education, the important question is: Why do practitioners, educators and researchers have such a hard time dealing with the challenges of bad practice and is it possible to understand bad practice as not only something that mars the educational purpose of ESE, but also as something that at the same time protects the very ideals we find in the fields. Through empirical analysis, and theoretical perspectives from Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Slavoj Žižek, Learning from Bad Practice in Environmental and Sustainability Education argues how we, as teachers, practitioners and researchers can learn from bad practice and move beyond the comfortable position of finger pointing and push for more genuine good practice.

Learning from Bad Practice in Environmental and Sustainability Education illuminates the notion of bad practice from the perspective of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) and how it is possible to learn from it in order to avoid the relentless pitfalls and blind spots that are part of any educational field. Combining lessons from Danish and South Korean NGOs involved in both formal and non-formal ESE with emerging theoretical perspectives on education, the important question is: Why do practitioners, educators and researchers have such a hard time dealing with the challenges of bad practice and is it possible to understand bad practice as not only something that mars the educational purpose of ESE, but also as something that at the same time protects the very ideals we find in the fields. Through empirical analysis, and theoretical perspectives from Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Slavoj Žižek, Learning from Bad Practice in Environmental and Sustainability Education argues how we, as teachers, practitioners and researchers can learn from bad practice and move beyond the comfortable position of finger pointing and push for more genuine good practice.

Children’s Environmental Identity Development: Negotiating Inner and Outer Tensions in Natural World Socialization draws inspiration from environmental education, education for sustainability, environmental psychology, sociology, and child development to propose a theoretical framework for considering how children’s identity in/with/for nature evolves through formative experiences. The natural world socialization of young children considers not only how the natural environment affects the growth and development of young children but also how children shape and influence natural settings. Such childhood relations with the environment are explicitly linked to familial, sociocultural, geographical, and educational contexts. While the book is theoretical and will be of interest to academics and students, the use of accessible language, vignettes, and figures will make it useful to teachers, policy-makers, parents, and others genuinely concerned with children’s relationships with other humans and the natural world.

Children’s Environmental Identity Development: Negotiating Inner and Outer Tensions in Natural World Socialization draws inspiration from environmental education, education for sustainability, environmental psychology, sociology, and child development to propose a theoretical framework for considering how children’s identity in/with/for nature evolves through formative experiences. The natural world socialization of young children considers not only how the natural environment affects the growth and development of young children but also how children shape and influence natural settings. Such childhood relations with the environment are explicitly linked to familial, sociocultural, geographical, and educational contexts. While the book is theoretical and will be of interest to academics and students, the use of accessible language, vignettes, and figures will make it useful to teachers, policy-makers, parents, and others genuinely concerned with children’s relationships with other humans and the natural world.

Written during a time characterized by catalyzing Indigenous environmental movements such as Idle No More, political upheaval, and the final years of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Protest as Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Indigenous Environmental Movements was motivated by Gregory Lowan-Trudeau’s personal experiences as an activist, educator, and researcher. Insights from interviews with activists and educators in a variety of school, community, and post-secondary contexts are presented in relation to teaching and learning during, and in response to, Indigenous environmental movements. Looking toward future possibilities, the rise of renewable energy development by Indigenous communities across Canada is also considered. Throughout Protest as Pedagogy, these inquiries are guided by a theoretical framework built on concepts such as decolonization, Herbert Marcuse’s repressive tolerance, Elliot Eisner’s three curricula, and broader fields of study such as social movement learning, critical media literacy, Indigenous media studies, and environmental communication.

Written during a time characterized by catalyzing Indigenous environmental movements such as Idle No More, political upheaval, and the final years of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Protest as Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Indigenous Environmental Movements was motivated by Gregory Lowan-Trudeau’s personal experiences as an activist, educator, and researcher. Insights from interviews with activists and educators in a variety of school, community, and post-secondary contexts are presented in relation to teaching and learning during, and in response to, Indigenous environmental movements. Looking toward future possibilities, the rise of renewable energy development by Indigenous communities across Canada is also considered. Throughout Protest as Pedagogy, these inquiries are guided by a theoretical framework built on concepts such as decolonization, Herbert Marcuse’s repressive tolerance, Elliot Eisner’s three curricula, and broader fields of study such as social movement learning, critical media literacy, Indigenous media studies, and environmental communication.

Building Kids’ Citizenship Through Community Engagement offers a compelling, empirically-based argument for giving young people opportunities to grow through productive involvement with their local community. Drawing on John Dewey’s pragmatic frame of experience and concepts of bildung that inform educational practice in Europe, the book speaks directly to teachers and parents who are looking for a way to support young people in their efforts to become confident, self-directed citizens. Throughout, the book offers a paradigm for growth that counters the limits of narrow visions of schooling and equally thin out-of-school learning opportunities which serve to limit young people’s potential.In framing the argument, veteran educator Bob Coulter draws on more than 30 years of experience that includes extensive work with youth as a classroom teacher and in a variety of other community-based efforts, as well as 18 years of work as a mentor to teachers and parents. Key themes running through Building Kids’ Citizenship Through Community Engagement include a cogent argument in support of young people assuming an active, age-appropriate role as citizens, as well as a modern updating of Dewey’s concept of experience that is suitable for a technological age. These theoretical ideas are made tangible through specific recommendations for productive uses of digital technology and a critical review of several frameworks that have proven useful for designing and evaluating the quality of kids’ community-based learning experiences.

Building Kids’ Citizenship Through Community Engagement offers a compelling, empirically-based argument for giving young people opportunities to grow through productive involvement with their local community. Drawing on John Dewey’s pragmatic frame of experience and concepts of bildung that inform educational practice in Europe, the book speaks directly to teachers and parents who are looking for a way to support young people in their efforts to become confident, self-directed citizens. Throughout, the book offers a paradigm for growth that counters the limits of narrow visions of schooling and equally thin out-of-school learning opportunities which serve to limit young people’s potential.In framing the argument, veteran educator Bob Coulter draws on more than 30 years of experience that includes extensive work with youth as a classroom teacher and in a variety of other community-based efforts, as well as 18 years of work as a mentor to teachers and parents. Key themes running through Building Kids’ Citizenship Through Community Engagement include a cogent argument in support of young people assuming an active, age-appropriate role as citizens, as well as a modern updating of Dewey’s concept of experience that is suitable for a technological age. These theoretical ideas are made tangible through specific recommendations for productive uses of digital technology and a critical review of several frameworks that have proven useful for designing and evaluating the quality of kids’ community-based learning experiences.

Animal Edutainment in a Neoliberal Era is a rich and beautifully written multispecies ethnographic monograph that explores pedagogy and practice at a Southern California aquarium housing and displaying over 10,000 animals. Drawing on extensive interviews with aquarium staff and visitors, as well as fieldwork interacting with and observing human-animal interactions, the book demonstrates the complex ways in which aquarium animals are politically deployed in teaching and learning processes. Weaving together insights from anthropology, critical geography, environmental education, and political ecology, Teresa Lloro crafts a three-pronged "political ecology of education lens," illuminating how neoliberal ideologies interact at various scales (local, regional, national, and global) to deeply shape aquarium decision-making and practice. Acknowledging that neoliberalism enrolls humans and other animals in teaching and learning in new and often poorly understood ways, this study challenges the anthropocentrism of contemporary informal educational approaches, suggesting that imaginative ways forward will require a paradigm shift in regarding the role of animals in education.

What changes in education, when it is not just humans whose teaching is sought and acknowledged? And how can educational research be accountable to the voices and agency of such more-than-human teachers, interlocutors, and kin? These have become pressing questions in an era of soaring interest in forest and nature schools, place- and land-based education. Ecoportraiture offers theoretical and practical guidance into an emerging methodology with deep roots in the anti-racist, emancipatory research tradition of portraiture initiated by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and Jessica Hoffman Davis. Bracketed by the editors’ wide-ranging introductory essay and a closing critical conversation, five inspiring chapters take readers deep into the thinking and action that characterize ecoportraiture research. Ideal for researchers at all levels who want to explore more deeply how human learning is shaped and informed by the more-than-human, this book also invites a wider audience into the artful practice of close listening to the many voices of the natural world. Ecoportraiture seeks to evoke and to guide journeys of knowing that are both profoundly ecological and profoundly personal. This is an open-ended and transformative methodology: one that is less about finding answers than about asking better questions—about learning to participate more deeply, as student, teacher, parent, community member, and/or co-researcher, in the conversations of the Earth.

What does it look like to live with integrity in the midst of complicity? When the daily tasks of eating, working, and providing for our homes are tangled up with climate change, exploitative working conditions, colonial legacies of stolen land, and more, what do we do? Based on five years of research, this book shares intimate narratives about 12 educators working at the intersection of education, environment, and social change, as they describe their understandings and experiences of integrity and complicity in today’s world. Nora Timmerman argues that these stories collectively teach us how scale matters, to stop being one person, and to act anyway. Integrity comes not from ridding oneself of complicity but from critical learning, community accountability, cultivating interdependence, and strategic experimentation to create new worlds."This delightful book, Between Integrity and Complicity, is an environmental educator’s manifesto on how to live well in relation to communities of others. The stories call on us to do more acting (with inevitable missteps) and less worrying. The author skillfully untangles the roots of complicity, integrity and suffering to show us the colourfully varied microcosm of ecological and social renewal, perseverance, and possibility. This book honours listening to the world in all its myriad ways—it is a found treasure."—Leesa Fawcett, PhD, Environmental and Urban Change, Coordinator of Environmental & Sustainability Education, York University"This book explores the existential journeys of leading environmental educators and scholars through illuminating portraits and vignettes in a thoughtfully nuanced manner. It is a timely and notable contribution to the literature."—Greg Lowan-Trudeau, PhD, Associate Professor of Education, University of Calgary