Broadening epistemologies and methodologies in climate change education research

Climate change education and research: possibilities and potentials versus problems and perils?

“…Brownlee, Powell, and Hallo 2013;Kunkle and Monroe 2019;Howell and Allen 2019), education and educational researchers must consider why different approaches to CCE seem to take root, blossom and/or whither, and in this, maintain a focus on whether and how they actually foster learning (see also McBean and Hengeveld 2000;Walsh and Cordero 2019;Lawson et al 2019;Ignell, Davies, and Lundholm 2019;Topp, Thai, and Hryciw 2019;Ouariachi et al 2019). This may also be contrasted with those programs or initatives feeding, generating or disrupting climate inaction, despair or amotivation (Pruneau, Khattabi, and Demers 2010;Dillon 2019), be that at the time of the 'educational event', and/or within lifelong or lifewide learning, such as when we consider research on the short and longer term effects of the capacity or limitations to a program, activity, life experience or the action competence it promises (Busch, Henderson, and Stevenson 2019).…”

“…It is our view that the articles in this journal on the issue of CCE are some of those worth considering in 2019, as they offer a diversity of scholarly thinking and research about climate change and education that supports both a pluralistic and experimental approach. Taken together, they illustrate a range of possible foci and approaches to education and education research too (Busch, Henderson, and Stevenson 2019), from what may be regarded as the 'traditional' (e.g. measurements and surveys of conceptions and practices, construct analysis, policy evaluation and critique, ethnographies and interviews, applications of theory, model development, action research) to the 'avant garde' (e.g.…”

“…So to achieve this, we might also need to move away from a single to multiple sense of literacy, from concerns with micro to macro scales, and from relying on short to longer term studies. While as these collections show, there are plenty of single program evaluations to wider phenomenological and policy-level critiques (including their intersections and interactions) available, and they do illuminate the multipliers and diminishers for the (dis)connections between education, economic and environmental policies and practices (Busch, Henderson, and Stevenson 2019).…”

“…the intended and unintended outcomes of the currrent provision and reach of climate change education on those involved in it, as well as those beyond it, and what and how to assess, evaluate and research climate change education (see Hicks and Bord 2001;Schreiner, Henriksen, and Kirkeby Hansen 2005;Selby 2009;Swim et al 2009;Bangay and Blum 2010;Taber and Taylor 2009;Marcinkowski 2009;Pruneau, Khattabi, and Demers 2010;Anderson 2012;Selby and Kagawa 2013;Chang 2014;Wibeck 2014;Shepardson et al 2017;Young 2018;Busch, Henderson, and Stevenson 2019;Gleason 2019;Krasny and DuBois 2019;McKenzie 2019, UNESCO 2019bMonroe et al 2019;Reid 2019a, UNESCO 2019b.…”

“…Berger, Gerum, and Moon 2015;UNFCCC 2018;UNESCO 2019;Benavot et al 2019). Compounding this, the focus of most educators' professional accreditation, development, evaluation, and research and development over recent decades has remained on other matters, the legacy and promulgation of which, it has been widely argued, continues to contribute to the deepening climate crisis, as do the funding and policy priorities of many education ministries, providers, practitioners, and research associations (Fortner 2001;Kagawa and Selby 2010;Hamilton 2011;Blum et al 2013;Branch 2018;Busch, Henderson, and Stevenson 2019;cf. OECD 2019).…”