Abstract
Education is positioned by scholars, the UK government, and intergovernmental organisations alike as an important lever in addressing one of the most threatening issues of the 21st Century: the interlinking crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Yet, doubt remains as to whether education in general, and prevailing approaches to formal schooling in particular, are forces for transformative change towards a liveable future, or exist as processes of normalisation into unsustainable, hegemonic habits and norms. Meanwhile, there is little research that explores how educational approaches that address issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and related social issues translate from educators’ intentions for their activities into learners’ own interpretations of these learning experiences, the interlinking crises they relate to, and their roles in relation to them.In response, this thesis explores how counterhegemonic education programmes, which have aims of environmental and social transformation, play out from ideas into actions and experiences.
This research is a multiple case study exploration of three educational programmes spanning formal and non-formal contexts, each of which address climate, environmental and sustainability issues with learners aged from 13 to 25 in the South of England. Within an interpretative, social constructivist paradigm, qualitative data collection was carried out. This took place over an extended period of time at each case site and benefited from ethnographic approaches. In particular, the methods employed were interviews with educators, observations of the education programmes in practice, and interviews with learners. The resulting data was interpreted through the lens of feminist poststructural analysis.
The findings suggest that the ways in which such education programmes are planned, enacted, and experienced are complex. While learners and educators reproduce dominant discourses of unsustainability as they interact with their case study programme, this thesis also illuminates instances in which the interactions, activities, and tools used within each case contribute to the renegotiation or disruption of such dominant discourses. In so doing, this work offers novel insight into the intricacies and nuances that exist within environmental education and engagement programmes, and the ways in which they are navigated by educators and learners alike. The original contribution to knowledge provided is a conceptualisation of how such programmes, while marred with contradictions and complexities, can nevertheless contribute to transformative change through what I term ‘good enough environmental education’.
| Date of Award | 1 Nov 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Melissa Glackin (Supervisor) & Heather King (Supervisor) |