Foucauldian genealogy as research framework in environmental education policy research

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how genealogy could be deployed to provide a deeper understanding of environmental education policy discourses in environmental education policy research. Reference is made to environmental education policy processes in Botswana to demonstrate the application of genealogy and its related concept of governmentality. Both genealogy and governmentality are core to microphysics analysis of power relations in policy research. The paper makes reference to evidence drawn from data generated through document analysis, focus group discussions, interviews, and observations on environmental education policy research conducted in Botswana. A post-structural analysis of environmental education policy discourses in Botswana is historically linked to the global environmental policy discourses. It was through an in-depth analysis of the genealogies of environmental education policy discourses that it was established that the deployment of power techniques influenced decisions to introduce environmental education at both macro to micro levels.