Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T18:36:30.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Transformation in Response to the Environment Crisis: The Role of Education and Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Eureta Janse van Rensburg
Eureta Janse van Rensburg*
Affiliation:
Department of Education, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In this paper I examine two activities which are often attributed with a role to play in social transformation, namely environmental education and research, for their potential to contribute to collective change. I do so by drawing on the results of a recent empirical study in southern Africa, in which I distinguished four orientations to research in/and environmental education. In exploring the transformatory roles of research and environmental education, as conceptualised in these four orientations, I conclude that the most prevalent orientations reveal modernistic assumptions which limit their potential to contribute to social transformation.

The decision to interpret the results by focusing on social transformation grew out of what I regarded as the most significant dimensions of the context of the study. These are the global and regional calls for social transformation in response to the environment crisis, the dramatic political changes in parts of southern Africa, the need to improve education in the region, and finally, less obvious global epistemological shifts in the conceptualisation of science, education and social research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 10 , 1994 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

References

Agenda 21. Chapter 36.3, 1993, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 06 1992. Quoted in UNESCO-UNEP (ibid).Google Scholar
ANC (African National Congress), 1994, A Policy Framework for Education and Training, Education Department, ANC, Braamfontein, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. 1991, Fundamentals of Educational Research, Falmer Press, London.Google Scholar
Ashley, M. 1989, Ideologies and Schooling in South Africa, South African Teachers' Association, Cape Town.Google Scholar
Beck, U. 1992, Risk Society. Towards a New Modernity, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Capra, F. 1983, The Turning Point. Science, Society and the Rising Culture, Fontana, London.Google Scholar
Council for the Environment, 1993, The Development of a Core Syllabus for Environmental Education in South Africa, Council for the Environment, Pretoria, South Africa.Google Scholar
Doll, W.E. 1989, Foundations for a post-modern curriculum, Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, pp.243–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, J. 1991, Questions about research that makes a difference, Convergence, vol. 24, no. 3, pp.71–77.Google Scholar
Fien, J. 1993, Education for sustainable living. An international perspective on environmental education, Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 13, pp.7–20.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1972, in Grundy, S. 1987, Curriculum: Product or Praxis, Falmer Press, London, pp.5–20.Google Scholar
Hartshorne, K. 1992, Crisis and Challenge, Oxford University Press, Cape Town.Google Scholar
HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council), 1993, Global Change and Social Transformation, Notice of conference held on 22-23 11, in Pretoria, South Africa.Google Scholar
Huckle, J. 1991, Education for Sustainability. Assessing Pathways to the Future, Australian Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 7, pp.43–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IUCN. 1980, World Conservation Strategy, IUCN/UNEP/WWF, Gland, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Janse van Rensburg, E. & Irwin, P. 1993, Database of Research in Environmental Education in Southern Africa, Unpublished mimeograph, Department of Education, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R. 1992, Pierre Bourdieu, Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kastenholz, H.G. & Erdmann, K.-H. 1994, Education for responsibility within the framework of UNESCO, Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 15–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohli, W. 1991, Postmodernism, critical theory and the new pedagogies, Education and Society, vol. 9, no. 1, pp.39–46.Google Scholar
Lather, P. 1991, Feminist Research in Education: Within/Against, Deakin University Press, Geelong, Victoria.Google Scholar
Merchant, C. 1983, The Death of Nature. Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution, Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Milbrath, L. A. 1984, proposed value structure for a sustainable society. The Environmentalist, vol. 4, pp.113–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Namibian Ministry of Education and Culture, 1993, Annual Report on Education, 1993, Government Press, Windhoek.Google Scholar
Nielsen, K. 1992, On the status of critical theory, Interchange, vol. 23, no. 3, pp.265–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Donoghue, R. Convener, 1993a., Environment, development and environmental education. An Environmental Education Policy Initiative (EEPI) working document of sources for policy and curriculum initiatives in formal education, SHARE-NET/EEPI, Howiek, South Africa.Google Scholar
O'Donoghue, R. 1993b, Clarifying Environmental Education: A Search for CLEAR ACTION in Southern Africa, Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 13, pp.28–38.Google Scholar
O'Donoghue, R. & Janse van Rensburg, E. (Eds) 1994, Gold Fields Participatory Course in Environmental Education: Core Text. Unpublished course materials, Department of Education, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.Google Scholar
Popkewitz, T.S. 1984, Paradigm and Ideology in Educational Research. The Social Functions of the Intellectual, Falmer Press, New York.Google Scholar
Popkewitz, T.S. 1991, A Political Sociology of Educational Reform, Teachers College, New York.Google Scholar
Robinson, V. 1992, Why doesn't education research solve educational problems? Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 24, no. 2, pp.8–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robottom, I. 1991, Technocratic environmental education: A critique and some alternatives, Journal of Experiential Education, vol. 14, no. 1, pp.20–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robottom, I. & Hart, P. 1993, Towards a meta-research agenda in science and environmental education, International Journal of Science Education, vol. 15, no. 5, pp.591–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robottom, I. & Hart, P. 1993b, Paradigms and the ideology of environmental education research. 1993b. Chapter 2 in Research in Environmental Education. Engaging the Debate, Deakin University Press, Geelong, Victoria.Google Scholar
Rowan, J. A. 1981, dialectical paradigm for research. Chapter 9 in Reason, P. and Rowan, J.. (Eds) Human Inquiry. A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research, John Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Sterling, S. 1993, Environmental education and sustainability: A view from holistic ethics. Chapter 4 in Fien, J.. (Ed.) Environmental Education. A Pathway to Sustainability, Deakin University Press, Geelong, Victoria.Google Scholar
Taylor, J., O'Donoghue, R. & Clacherty, A. 1993, A critique of the proposed Council for the Environment National Core Syllabus for Environmental Education in South Africa, Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 13, pp.39–44.Google Scholar
UNESCO-UNEP 1993, Teaching global change through environmental education, UNESCO-UNEP Environmental Education Newsletter, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1–4, UNESCO, Environmental Education Unit, Paris.Google Scholar
Quinlan, T. 1993, Environmental impact assessment in South Africa: good in principle, poor in practise? South African Journal of Science, vol. 89. pp. 106–110.Google Scholar
Wertsch, J.V. 1991a, Voices of the Mind. A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wertsch, J.V. 1991b, Beyond Vygotsky: Bahktin's contribution. Chapter 3 in Voices of the Mind. A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action, pp.46–66, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar