Title: Education for the environment : a critical ethnography
Abstract: This thesis is centred upon a critical ethnographic portrayal of the pedagogical reasoning andnactions of Steven, an Australian teacher, as he planned and taught an education for thenenvironment programme based upon the People and the Environment semester unit of the Yearn11-12 geography syllabus in Queensland. Critical ethnography is similar to interpretivenethnography in its sensitivity to the experiences of research participants but differs from itnthrough the use of a priori theory to provide an explanatory understanding of humannexperience. The goal of explanatory understanding is sought through an examination of thendynamic interaction of personal and contextual influences on Steven's pedagogical reasoning.nGiddens' theory of structuration is used in this task in two ways. The first is as a social actionntheory to interpret the influences on Steven's pedagogical reasoning. The second is as a socialnaction theory in the development of a language and practice of possibility in environmentalneducation.A language and practice of possibility are necessary for teachers to be able to seek the socialntransformation objectives of environmental education in the face of the many ideological andnmaterial barriers in the contexts of their teaching. These barriers operate to reproduce the socialnand economic systems that are the root causes of environmental problems. Literature onnenvironmental education, critical curriculum theorizing and social action theory are integrated innChapter 2 in order to develop a critical curriculum theory for environmental education whichncontains within it a language of possibility. This theory is described in this study as qcriticalneducation/or the environmentq. Five defining characteristics of the practice of critical educationnfo r the environment are identified. These focus upon the development of a criticalnenvironmental consciousness, critical thinking and decision making skills, a criticalnenvironmental ethic, and the social action skills of political literacy through the use of anpedagogy of critical praxis. A process of ideology critique is used to contrast critical educationnfor the environment with other approaches, especially liberal education for the environment.nThe latter seeks the social transformation goals of critical education for the environment butndoes so from within a liberal framework of personal values and lifestyle changes, thus ignoringnthe structural changes that critical environmental educators argue are necessary to facilitate andnsupport personal transformation.Research on teachers' thinking is reviewed in Chapter 3. This chapter criticises the failure ofnmuch research on teachers' planning, beliefs and personal practical knowledge to consider theninfluence of social structures and dominant ideologies in determining pedagogical action. Thenrole of these contextual influences is important in both the conceptual and methodologicalnframeworks of this study. qEnvironmental education perspectiveq is developed as a constructnfor investigating the interaction of the teacher's environmental beliefs and educational valuenorientation within particular pedagogical contexts. Critical ethnography is used as a researchnmethod because it enables an examination of the influence of social processes wider thannindividual subjectivity. Structuration theory is used as a bridge between the micro-sociologicalnfocus of research on teachers' thinking and the macro-sociological focus of critical curriculumnresearch to explore how Steven sought to translate the qlanguage of possibilityq in education fornthe environment into learning experiences for his students. n n
Publication Year: 1992
Publication Date: 1992-01-01
Language: en
Type: dissertation
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 18
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