Postgraduate Course: Education for Environmental Citizenship (EDUA11215)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | There is evidence that educators find it difficult to nurture long-standing identities of environmental citizenship with learners. This is an important problem facing responses to issues of ecological crises/sustainability. The problem can be analysed positively through at least two perspectives: the supposed development of identities of environmental citizenship; and the limitations on the educator in socio-cultural and institutional settings.
This course will offer ideas for reflection among those who are interested in environmental, outdoor and sustainability education. The central questions will include:
Why isn't environmental citizenship just citizenship?
Can education influence environmental behaviour?
What places matter in education 'for' the environment?
How do we consider a diverse range of learner identities and relationships in this approach to education?
To assist with this reflection, we will engage in narrative enquiry and in the critical evaluation of case studies of pedagogy for environmental citizenship. |
| Course description |
The course will address these four questions and the important links between them:
1. To what extent can identities be 'environmental'?
We will examine basic understandings of the concept of identity, and examine the relevance or otherwise of contact with natural environments, ecopsychology, biophilia, deep ecology, and Significant Life Experience research.
2. To what extent is it possible to influence environmental behaviour through education?
We will examine a range of models from environmental education and environmental campaigning that claim to represent the relationships between a learner's knowledges, beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviours.
3. To what extent is it possible to be a local and/or global citizen?
We will examine critical and less critical models of citizenship and environmental citizenship, as well as ways of thinking about 'local' and 'global' identities and the interaction between these. It will also consider research into the the importance of 'place' in environmental/sustainability education.
4. To what extent does environmental / sustainability education (and education research) consider a diverse range of learner identities and relations?
We will consider whether these fields are dominated by the assumption that learners are white, male, modern-Western, middle class, secular, heterosexual, and so on. In addition to considering more inter-sectional possibilities, it also looks at the significance of inter-generational learning
To reflect on the above questions, the course will engage in narrative enquiry and in the critical evaluation of case studies of pedagogies for environmental citizenship.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
16/01/2023 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
This course is delivered over 5 consecutive days. Please refer to Online Timetable for course dates.
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1 x 4,000 word assignment based on a short narrative inquiry research task |
| Feedback |
The course is highly interactive and discursive. Feedback/forward will be constantly present from peers and tutors. Students will receive formative feedback on an assignment plan and formative and summative feedback on their completed assignment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Articulate and evaluate contested concepts of environmental citizenship and identity in late modernity, and critique a range of approaches to interrogating environmental identity and its sources as well as related published research;
- Plan, execute and evaluate a narrative enquiry, and reflect on being a participant in such an enquiry;
- Plan and evaluate learning experiences that are informed by concepts of environmental citizenship and identity;
- Critically contextualise one's own and others' practices in the socio-cultural and institutional fields that present opportunities and limitations to the development of education for environmental citizenship;
- Evaluate a range of case study pedagogies for environmental citizenship in the light of the above.
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Reading List
Boeve-de Pauw, J. & Van Petegem, P. (2011). The effect of Flemish Eco-Schools on student environmental knowledge, attitudes and affect. International Journal of Science Education, 33(11), 1513-1538.
Brown, J., Ross, H. & Munn, P. (2012). Democratic citizenship in schools. Teaching controversial issues, traditions and accountability. Edinburgh: Dunedin Press.
Chase, S. E. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In N.K. Denzin and Y.S Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed) (pp. 651-679). London: Sage.
Dobson, A. & Bell, D. (Eds.) (2006). Environmental Citizenship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gruenewald, D. A. & Smith, G. A. (Eds.) (2008). Place-Based education in the global age: Local diversity. New York: Routledge.
Gray-Donald, J. & Selby, D. (2008). Green frontiers: Environmental educators dancing away from mechanism. Rotterdam: Sense.
Jacobson, S. K., McDuff, M. D. & Monroe, M.C. (2006). Conservation education and outreach techniques. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McKenzie, M., Hart, P., Bai, H. & Jickling, B. (2009). Fields of green: Restorying culture, environment, and education. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Peter, M. A., Britton, A. & Blee, H. (Eds.) (2008). Global citizenship education: Philosophy, theory and pedagogy. Rotterdam: Sense.
PIRC. (2011). The common cause handbook: A guide to values and frames for campaigners, community organisers, civil servants, fundraisers, educators, social entrepreneurs, activists, funders, politicians, and everyone in between. Y Plas: Public Interest Research Centre.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research methods and methodology, based on a narrative inquiry assignment
Skills of evaluation of educational programmes, based on interrogation of case studies
Assessment of urban locations as environmental education sites
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| Special Arrangements |
Non-standard timetable. See course delivery information. |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course will take place over two weekends, usually one in semester 1 and one in semester 2. Please see the online Programme level timetable for details - http://www.ed.ac.uk/education/institutes/etl/outdoor-education/timetable |
| Keywords | outdoor,environment,sustainability,education,citizenship,pedagogy,identity,modernity,narrati |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Sam Harrison
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Malgorzata Litwinska
Tel: (0131 6)51 6363
Email: |
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