Postgraduate Course: Education for Environmental Citizenship (EDUA11215)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| 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 course focuses on the supposed learner in environmental / sustainability education and addresses the following questions:
1. To what extent can identities be 'environmental'?
This section 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?
This section 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?
This section 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?
This section considers 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 these questions, the course will engage in narrative enquiry (the assignment), in the critical evaluation of case studies of pedagogies for environmental citizenship, and in participants' own experiences, throughout.
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| Course description |
Each section will address one of these five questions, although there are important links between these questions:
1. To what extent can identities be 'environmental'?
This section 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?
This section 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?
This section 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?
To reflect on these 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 |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Flexible |
| Course Start Date |
14/11/2014 |
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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| 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 |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students will be able to:
Articulate and evaluate contested concepts of environmental citizenship and identity in late modernity
Critique a range of approaches to interrogating environmental identity and its sources, and critique 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 their 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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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 |
Timetable to be confirmed, but generally several one or two day blocks across one or two semesters. |
| Keywords | outdoor, environment, sustainability, education, citizenship, pedagogy, identity, modernity, narrati |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hamish Ross
Tel: (0131 6)51 6410
Email: hamish.ross@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Susan Scott
Tel: (0131 6)51 6573
Email: Susan.Scott@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2014 The University of Edinburgh - 12 January 2015 3:51 am
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