THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2014/2015
- ARCHIVE as at 1 September 2014

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Moray House School of Education : Education

Postgraduate Course: Education for Environmental Citizenship (EDUA11215)

Course Outline
SchoolMoray House School of Education CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Course typeStandard AvailabilityAvailable to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) Credits20
Home subject areaEducation Other subject areaNone
Course website None Taught in Gaelic?No
Course descriptionThere 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.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?Yes
Course Delivery Information
Delivery period: 2014/15 Flexible, Available to all students (SV1) Learn enabled:  Yes Quota:  None
Web Timetable Web Timetable
Class Delivery Information Timetable to be confirmed, but generally several one or two day blocks across one or two semesters.
Course Start Date 15/09/2014
Breakdown of 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 )
Additional Notes Please refer to online timetable for course dates.
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
No Exam Information
Summary of Intended 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
Assessment Information
1 x 4,000 word assignment based on a short narrative inquiry research task
Special Arrangements
Non-standard timetable. See course delivery information.
Additional Information
Academic description Not entered
Syllabus 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.
Transferable 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

Reading list Not entered
Study Abroad Not entered
Study Pattern Structured independent study prior to each day and tutorial discussion based in part on the studied material. Some tutorials are outdoors and some concern the assignment.
Keywordsoutdoor, environment, sustainability, education, citizenship, pedagogy, identity, modernity, narrati
Contacts
Course organiserDr Hamish Ross
Tel: (0131 6)51 6410
Email: hamish.ross@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Susan Scott
Tel: (0131 6)51 6573
Email: Susan.Scott@ed.ac.uk
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