Confrontation avec le contexte disciplinaire institutionnalisé : réflexion critique des approches écosystémiques de la santé sur la base des expériences des jeunes chercheurs au Canada, en Afrique occidentale et central

Feagan, Mathieu; Koné, Brama; Brou, Nicolas; Houenou, Y.; Kouassi, Édouard; Spiegel, Jerry

doi:10.4000/vertigo.14963

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…After taking the training course in Montreal in 2010, I attended the London 2010 Ecohealth conference, where I met more ecohealth students, many of whom were involved in the International Association for Ecology and Health (IAEH) Student Section. Following the conference, I attended a debrief and planning meeting, which led to my involvement with an international group of ecohealth practitioners writing about ecohealth in relation to policy questions (see Koné et al 2011 andFeagan et al 2014). The following year I organized a meeting for ecohealth "alumni" (previous participants in ecohealth training) to pool ideas for improving the training course, and we participated in helping deliver parts of the ecohealth training course offered at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George in June 2011.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological consciousness and the limits of the Academy: a case study approach to ecohealth training and research

Feagan¹

2021

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This dissertation explores the concept of ecological consciousness through a case study approach examining recent attempts to use graduate training and research to better address issues of ecological sustainability and human health. Since the 1970s, there has been a growing number of graduate training programs designed to equip a new generation of graduates with the kind of awareness necessary to address the global ecological crisis. Despite these efforts, the crisis on the whole continues to worsen. Although scholars have pointed to the challenges that ecological consciousness poses for graduate training and research, few studies have examined these challenges from the point of view of graduate students themselves. To better understand the opportunities and constraints of graduate training and research, this dissertation uses the framework of ecological consciousness to analyze the experiences of an international group of twenty-six graduate students and professionals trained in ecosystem approaches to human health (ecohealth) in Canada, West and Central Africa, and Central America. Drawing on systems thinking, Indigenous knowledges, and historical materialism, I argue that ecological consciousness means using different ways of knowing to challenge the disciplining tendency of academic knowledge production and open space for a wider ecology of knowledge to develop and express itself. Methodologically, this project is informed by institutional ethnography, building on the diverse experiences and insights of interviewees to make sense of the layered contextual frames of the university, the state, and international development research projects. Despite an orientation toward transformative practices, interviewee experiences reveal strong pressures to fit within top-down, disciplinary processes already governing the administration of training and research, thereby limiting the possibilities for ecological consciousness. I conclude by offering certain theoretical possibilities for how ecological consciousness can support collective action upon the disciplinary employment structures, which graduate students and professionals have a key role in transforming.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological consciousness and the limits of the Academy: a case study approach to ecohealth training and research

Feagan¹

2021

Preprint

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“…In this way, approximately 160 pages of single-spaced transcripts were mapped around six core categories (meanings of ecohealth, experiences of the training course, navigating ecohealth principles through graduate school and professional practice, field work experiences, perspectives on the future of the communities of practice and roles), with numerous themes and subthemes listed with reference to the specific interviewee passages from which they are derived. For the purposes of this article, two of these categories are discussedexperiences of ecohealth training and perspectives on the future of ecohealth communities of practicewith the other categories being discussed in other publications (Feagan et al, 2014). This grounded theory approach was set, however, within a wider methodological framework of institutional ethnography (Smith, 2005;Campbell and Gregor, 2004).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dakubo (2010) a former student of ecohealth traininghas suggested a need for a more critical lens when it comes to putting into practice the principles of ecohealth, given the power dynamics between academic research teams and nonacademic communities. Similarly, Feagan et al (2014) argued that the dominant disciplinary structure of academic knowledge production continues to shape what community participation can look like in ecohealth fieldwork, suggesting that greater attention is needed in confronting the institutional context of ecohealth research within the university, to improve its practice in the field.…”

Section: Ecohealth and The Communities Of Practice Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…] the more I got into my project, the more I was reading, I was looking at a lot of stuff that was not in [the official department heading], even though that's my department, so I think the biggest challenge was trying to bring it back to that all the time. These experiences suggest that the challenge of responding to the intersectoral and interdisciplinary realities of sustainability issues is also about confronting the disciplinary norms of existing departmental and professional structures, which seek to confine practices to fit within their current parameters (Feagan et al, 2014).…”

Section: Interviewee Responses To Ecohealth Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fostering the next generation of sustainability leadership

Feagan

2018

IJSHE

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Purpose This paper aims to explore graduate student experiences of ecohealth communities of practice in Canada, West and Central Africa and Central America, to better understand the role of student knowledge in advancing innovative practices in transdisciplinary, participatory and equitable research approaches. Design/methodology/approach This ethnographic analysis builds on observations of graduate student participants in ecohealth communities of practice activities, along with 26 in-depth interviews conducted in 2011 with graduate students and professionals trained in ecosystem approaches to health. Interviews are transcribed by the author, and coded and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Findings Although ecohealth communities of practice open new space for students to experiment with innovative practices in transdisciplinary, participatory and equitable research approaches, the surrounding disciplinary, top-down structure of academic and professional careers continue to pose significant obstacles to how students can take up the principles of ecohealth in practice. Through their collective experiences of these obstacles, students have considerable knowledge about the opportunities and constraints that the ecohealth communities of practice afford; however, this student knowledge has not yet been systematized or adequately mobilized. Practical implications Student knowledge gained through shared experiences of ecohealth communities of practice appears to be a critical, necessary and underused component in working on systemic change in the structure of sustainability leadership in higher education. However, more research is needed to understand how greater emphasis could be placed on putting students in charge of confronting the conditions of their own training, to collectively produce alternatives that challenge dominant structural norms. Originality/value The ethnographic approach re-centers student voices within debates about the relevance of ecohealth communities of practice for realizing the aims of transdisciplinary, participatory and equitable research approaches within the context of international sustainability challenges and graduate training.

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Confrontation avec le contexte disciplinaire institutionnalisé : réflexion critique des approches écosystémiques de la santé sur la base des expériences des jeunes chercheurs au Canada, en Afrique occidentale et central

Cited by 2 publications

References 12 publications

Ecological consciousness and the limits of the Academy: a case study approach to ecohealth training and research

Ecological consciousness and the limits of the Academy: a case study approach to ecohealth training and research

Fostering the next generation of sustainability leadership

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