Education for sustainability (EfS): practice and practice architectures

Abstract

This paper reports some findings from an investigation of educational practice in ten (formal and informal) education for sustainability (EfS) initiatives, to characterise exemplary practice in school and community education for sustainability, considered crucial to Australia's future. The study focused on rural/regional Australia, specifically New South Wales sites in the Murray-Darling Basin (crucial to Australian agricultural economy, under substantial environmental threat, undergoing significant social and demographic change). The research used and explored new developments in practice theory, aiming to achieve innovative rich characterisations of individual and extra-individual (cultural, discursive, social, material) aspects of practice. The study aimed to derive implications for theory, policy and practice in relation to sustainability and EfS, practice theory, education, and more specifically education for the professions (including the initial education and continuing professional development of educators).There has been a debate over some years about whether environmental educationand, one might equally say, education for sustainability (EfS) -can be regarded as successful when and if it produces changes in people's knowledge but not in their

Educating with resilience in mind: Addressing climate change in post-Sandy New York City

“…We view new practices that emerge following or in response to disturbance as practice innovations (Biggs, Westley, & Carpenter, 2010), which entail new ways of combining existing meanings, skills, technologies, and social relationships (Pantzar & Shove, 2010;Kemmis & Mutton, 2012). Applying practice theory enables us to explore how practices that incorporate environmental learning, rather than EE programs more narrowly, change in response to disturbances such as those related to climate change.…”

Civic ecology practices: insights from practice theory

“…However, practice theory scholars diverge on the elements of practice worthy of study (Gram-Hanssen 2011). For example, authors variously describe the elements holding practices together as understandings, procedures, engagement, and items of consumption (Warde 2005); know-how and embodied habits, institutionalized knowledge and explicit rules, engagements, and technologies (Gram-Hanssen 2011); practical understanding, rules, teleo-affective structures, and general understandings (Schatzki 2002); sayings, doings, and relatings (Kemmis and Mutton 2012); or material, skill, and image (Pantzar and Shove 2010). This lack of agreement suggests that rather than a unified theory, practice theory is most useful as a critical or analytical approach to the study of consumption and other human activities (Schatzki 2000, Gram-Hanssen 2011.…”

“…To address this issue, these authors suggest using the related activity theory, with its emphasis on transformation of material and cultural artifacts leading to change in activity or practice (Engeström et al 1999), and the theory of expansive learning, which focuses on reflection as a means to expand learning situated in activity (Engeström 1987). However, a number of empirical studies drawing on practice theory do describe the emergence of practices and how they evolve over time, generally through examining how the elements holding practices together change (Shove and Pantzar 2005, Pantzar and Shove 2010, GramHanssen 2011, Kemmis and Mutton 2012. Such studies are closely linked to research focusing on transitions to more environmentally friendly lifestyles and on the creation and spread of social innovations.…”

“…Further, participation in the production of practices or innovations may be one means by which practices become significant and meaningful for participants. For example, Kemmis and Mutton (2012) describe how the actions, discourses, and interpersonal relationships formed through organic gardening became meaningful for, and thus valued by, the participants. In that positive meanings associated with practices may facilitate participation, this research would suggest an alternative to approaches that attempt to influence environmental behaviors through negative messaging where little attention is paid to positive meanings or to the elements holding a practice together, and in fact the desired behaviors may have threatening meanings for target audiences leading to unwillingness to adopt them (cf.…”

Läkare, lärande och interaktion i hälso-och sjukvårdspraktiker

“…Kemmis menar att det finns extra-individuella förhållanden som möjliggör och upprätthåller praktiker och som existerar oavsett enskilda personers aktiviteter (Kemmis & Mutton, 2012). Dessa extraindividuella förhållanden eller arrangemang tillsammans med det som sker i praktikens projekt ingår i Kemmis centrala koncept praktikarkitekturer.…”