The political dimension in environmental education curricula: Towards an integrative conceptual and analytical framework

Abstract

The risk of neutralizing the political dimension in environmental education through the depoliticization of its thematic objects, its intended learning, and its educational purposes, is a curricular phenomenon identified by recent research in the field. The aim of this article is to develop a conceptual and analytical framework to identify clarification of the political dimension. The framework on the political dimension as part of environmental education provides political learning entry that help to avoid the vanishing of this dimension. Nevertheless, this is not without themes and cannot be decoupled from its educational aims. Therefore, establishing a conceptual and analytical framework considering environmental themes, political learning and educational purposes together can effectively support the curricular construction of environmental education's political dimension. Thus, we define six environmental issue metathemes by politicization and depoliticization trends that cross them; draw on environmental and political education research to identify political learning components in an environmental education context; and discuss linking political learning to possible educational purposes. We believe that within the dialectic of politicization/depoliticization that crosses the thematic subjects, learning and purposes of environmental education's political dimension, the path leading to the democratic subjectification of learners guarantees its non-neutralization.

Putting climate change at the heart of education: Is England's strategy a placebo for policy?

“…Recent research has highlighted the widespread depoliticisation or neutralisation of the political dimension of environmental education (e.g. Håkansson et al, 2019; Slimani et al, 2021).…”

Alfabetización crítica de políticas alimentarias: Conceptualizando la participación de las comunidades en políticas alimentarias municipales

“…Para Szabady (2014): centrarse en el individuo como sujeto de la elección de alimentos en los discursos alimentarios no sólo resta importancia al papel de los poderosos intereses de la agroindustria en la creación de un sistema alimentario que sirva a sus fines económicos, sino que también ha creado un entorno en el que las críticas a menudo se centran estrictamente en las acciones en el punto de compra, en lugar de generar cambios fundamentales en la cadena de producción. (p. 638) En segundo lugar, las dimensiones políticas suelen quedar fuera de los currículos y programas de formación en AA, lo que conlleva un riesgo pedagógico, como se ha documentado en el campo de la educación ambiental (Rose & Lourival, 2019;Slimani et al, 2021). Al despolitizar los currículos se corre el riesgo de que los estudiantes den por sentado el "conflicto" medioambiental y de que las escuelas tiendan a "restar importancia a lo político y a reproducir una homogeneidad política" (Slimani et al, 2021, p. 3).…”

Writing Fictional Short Stories About the Anthropocene: Effects on Students’ Futures Thinking

“…Environmental education constitutes a reservoir of educational practices that make it possible to politicize the challenges of the Anthropocene (Holfelder, 2019;Håkansson et al, 2019), even if its development in the form of education for sustainable development since the 2000s has been criticized for the importance given to the economic dimension to the detriment of the social and environmental dimensions (Jickling and Sterling, 2017;Kopnina, 2020). The themes studied (e.g., disagreements, controversies and conflicts in resource management), the ways of learning (e.g., collective action on a territory or deliberation on issues) and the learning objectives (in terms of knowledge or education for citizenship) all form part of an education in politics (Holfelder, 2019;Slimani et al, 2021).…”