Abstract
This paper explores potential tensions in transformative learning and environmental and sustainability education (ESE) between, on the one hand, pluralistic approaches, and, on the other hand, promotion of societal change to address urgent issues. We stipulate that design of ESE inevitably contributes to a bounding of the plurality of facts and values that are acknowledged in a given learning process. Based on a frame analysis of the Swedish Green Flag initiative, we argue that such bounding by design is a key aspect of how ESE practitioners handle tensions between pluralism and urgency, either consciously or unconsciously. Given its inevitability and importance, we assert that bounding by design is insufficiently theorized in ESE literature, which might partly explain that practitioners perceive pluralistic ideals as challenging. In the empirics, we discern three justifications for bounding by design: (i) certain facts or degree of scientific consensus; (ii) objectives decided by elected bodies; and (iii) decisions taken by student and teacher representatives. We point to the theory of libertarian paternalism and a typology of democratic legitimacy as conceptual tools that can guide further scrutiny of pluralistic ESE and support practitioners in undertaking conscious and transparent bounding by design.
Highlights
A central thought figure in research and policy related to environmental and sustainability education (ESE) is the connection between pluralistic means and sustainability ends
It is an articulation of an ESE research-practice interface, as it identifies principles and findings in Swedish ESE research that Green Flag adheres to, providing a backdrop for frames elicited in the other empirics
This tension is discernible as a certain conceptual dissonance between the Our philosophy document and some of the examined Green Flag teaching materials; as ambiguity among respondents regarding the presence of objective foundations for moral judgements on sustainability issues; and as reported uncertainty and hesitation among teachers regarding pluralistic teaching and student participation
Summary
A central thought figure in research and policy related to environmental and sustainability education (ESE) is the connection between pluralistic means and sustainability ends. Several premises underpin this thought figure, including the complexity and uncertainty of sustainability issues, adherence to certain democratic values and the potential for learning, agency and an increased concern for common rather than individual goods by involvement of multiple perspectives. Sustainability issues are characterized as complex and uncertain, and as grave and urgent, demanding radical societal changes as well as pluralistic and participatory approaches This combination of ideas is present in the discourse on transformative learning related to sustainability, the focus area of this special issue. The authors assert that “The transformative, transgressive forms of learning described all require engaged forms of pedagogy that involve multi-voiced engagement with multiple actors” (p. 6)
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