Teaching in the age of environmental emergencies: a “utopian” exploration of the experiences of teachers committed to environmental education in England

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores, grounded on life history interviews, the work of a set of fifteen teachers in England who self-identify as actively engaging with environmental issues and action at different school levels and across a wide range of subjects. One of the core aims of this paper was to construct, based on these teachers’ voices and experiences, a different vision for the future of environmental education in this age of environmental emergencies. Drawing on Levitas’ Utopia as a method framework – which proposes a concrete and systematic approach to creating alternative visions to systems that are deemed inadequate to flourishing –, this study then outlines participant teachers’ practices around teaching in an age of environmental emergencies, including supporting young people’s activisation and projects, cross-disciplinary and complexity-thinking, and pushing for long-term school-wide approaches. It also explores the significant professional and emotional labour that goes into supporting their students’ meaningful engagement with this area within the mainstream education sector, also providing us insight into what teaching in an age of environmental emergencies could look like.