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It’s Not That Simple Anymore: Engaging the Politics of Culture and Identity Within Environmental Education/Education for Sustainable Development (EE/ESD)

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Schooling for Sustainable Development Across the Pacific

Part of the book series: Schooling for Sustainable Development ((SSDE,volume 5))

Abstract

A continuing problem for environmental education/education for sustainable development (EE/ESD) lies in the rhetoric-reality gap between its socially critical charter and the dominant educational paradigm. Sweeping cultural goals of EE/ESD discourse remain as troubling paradoxes to educational systems reframed within a tidal wave of globalized economic priorities that demand particular kinds of educational accountability. In this chapter, we explore new ways to think about the complexities of shifting learning environments in directions long since contemplated by environmental educators. Recognizing that EE has always advocated for fundamental change in educational thinking and practice, we (re)conceptualize the principle that once defined this change in behavioral terms. We do this by interrogating the more recent focus on values and ethics using concepts of culture and identity. In this refocusing, we posit a counternarrative to discourses of EE/ESD as a way to rethink the participation gap within education relative to environment and sustainability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada

    Paul Hart & Catherine Hart

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  1. Paul Hart
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  2. Catherine Hart
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Correspondence to Paul Hart .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education and Human Development, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

    John Chi-Kin Lee

  2. Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Rob Efird

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Hart, P., Hart, C. (2014). It’s Not That Simple Anymore: Engaging the Politics of Culture and Identity Within Environmental Education/Education for Sustainable Development (EE/ESD). In: Lee, JK., Efird, R. (eds) Schooling for Sustainable Development Across the Pacific. Schooling for Sustainable Development, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8866-3_2

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