Environmental Education in Times of Crisis. Where Is It When It Is Most Necessary?

Abstract

This article analyzes the disappearance of environmental education from public policies and their funding lines, precisely at a historic time that, now more than ever, would call for its strengthening. For this reason, it is important to analyze the power dynamics that lie beyond the discourse justifying the austerity policies that lead to a disappearance of EE. To this end, we approach the field’s trajectory by applying Bourdieu’s theory, from a socio-biographical approach based on the life trajectory of nine environmental educators, a survey addressed to the Galician professional field, and a discussion group. The analysis of the point of origin and access to the field reflects the political and militant dimensions that characterize an anti-hegemonic field which is constantly an object of subjugation and adaptation to less incisive models by certain forces. To this respect, the ambivalent relation with the public administration has fostered both conquests, as well as important compromises in its trajectory.

Educational hazards? The politics of disaster risk education in Rio de Janeiro

“…Beyond this, a key precept of both behaviourist and transformative approaches is experiential environmental education: to learn about the manifold ecological, geological, and developmental processes that lead to hazards and disasters, and how society can promote local safety ( cf. Wisner, 2006; Núñez, Castro, and Cartea, 2017). In the case of floods and landslides in Latin America, such environmental education must undoubtedly incorporate disaster creation via settlement on deforested land, processes often initiated by developers or politicians external to the immediate locale.…”

Una mirada de las estrategias de enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera desplegadas por profesores practicantes chilenos

“…Por su parte, a lo largo de la década del 2000, la educación ambiental en Latinoamérica se ha entendido cada vez más como un campo político (Bourdieu, 2011) donde diferentes agentes sociales evidencian distintas posiciones políticas y operativas. Esto implica comprenderla en su complejidad genealógica, frente a representaciones lineales e historicistas que no ignoran los enfrentamientos, conflictos y luchas que la constituyeron (Meira, 2009) y la abordan desde una doble perspectiva: por un lado, establecen sus límites y la posición relativa que ocupa socialmente y, por otro, apuntan a su estructura interna para interpretar las causas de su vulnerabilidad y subordinación a la dinámica de otras personas, a pesar de los avances realizados en el pasado (Núñez, Castro y Cartea, 2017).…”