Environmental and sustainability education in the Caribbean: Crucial issues,critical imperatives

Abstract

The development, quality and impact of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in the Caribbean have received increased attention from a growing body of education researchers over the past few decades. This is not surprising given that the region has been grappling with various environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues, and education remains widely regarded as a key mode of response by a range of stakeholders, networks and commentators. Drawing on local to wider perspectives and initiatives, formal and non-formal ESE activities have been undertaken, to enhance knowledge and awareness, develop values, hone skills, and promote behaviours consistent with sustainable development. Whilst this increased engagement is significant and heartening, I argue that there is still scope for a renewal of focus in ESE in the Caribbean, honing in on four main areas: climate change education, the environment and violence nexus, teacher education, and universities as models of and for sustainability. These areas are consistent with regional sustainability imperatives and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as ripe for deeper research-practice interlinkages. An overview of existing fields of educational inquiry in the Caribbean is offered, along with the four foci for further and future research, with the hope that new, emerging and established academics (as well as practitioners) work productively together to engage these crucial issues and critical imperatives for ESE.     

The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research – an introduction to a virtual special issue

This article introduces the themes of a virtual special issue (VSI) of Environmental Education Research (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focused on policy research in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The broad purpose behind preparing the VSI was to consider the challenges involved in linking particular concepts of environment and sustainability with key themes in educational policy, and how this remains a heavily contested practice. Examples drawn from two decades of studies published in the journal show how these might be illustrated, addressed, problematized and possibly transcended. The introduction traces how ESE researchers have dealt with key trends, complexities and issues in the policy-practice-research nexus both conceptually and empirically. It also illustrates how researchers within the field might reimagine and reinvigorate policy research on ESE, and how working with researchers from other fields who offer different perspectives, ideas and expertise might aid the cross-fertilisation of a complex terrain of ideas, policy and practice. In so doing, we hope the accompanying VSI inspires renewed interest into the (at times, fickle) relationship between ESE, and the dual worlds of possibility and tension that take place both within, and surrounding, their fields of policy and research.     

Self-study of a Professional Organization in Pursuit of a Shared Enterprise

This study examines the work of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices special interest group of the American Educational Research Association from the perspectives of its members with a focus on its development, scholarship, mentorship, practice, and community, and with the major goal of informing its future work. The nested multi-layered research design, framed in sociocultural theory, was enacted in collaboration with an internationally and multidisciplinary diverse group of members over a two-year period. A five-phase research process entailed use of multiple data sources and methods, and researchers with multiple levels of analysis and interpretation. Findings indicate that a sense of community, a nexus of personal and professional development, and collective shaping and engagement are important components for growth despite challenges encountered. The study may be useful to other professional organizations interested in self-review and the sustainability of their organization.     

The research-teaching nexus from the Portuguese academics’ perspective: a qualitative case study in a school of social sciences and humanities

This paper reports on a study conducted as part of an action-research project—INTEGRA I&E—aiming to promote the research and teaching (R&T) nexus at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of a Research University in Lisbon, Portugal (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, ISCTE-IUL). This study set out to investigate a multi-informant perspective of the academics’ rhetoric (conceptions, perception of barriers/facilitators and consequences) concerning the nexus, which can be considered at different levels of the curricular and organizational structure. Focus groups were conducted with 26 professors and 8 researchers from six different disciplinary areas and, afterwards, recorded and transcribed. A content analysis was used to categorize and quantify participants’ responses. Four themes emerged: practices linking R&T, barriers, facilitators and consequences of the nexus. Different levels of analysis were identified for each theme, namely, the level of ISCTE-IUL, Research Centers, Departments, Courses and Classes. Some disciplinary differences were also encountered. This study contributes with a multi-informant and multi-level perspective of academics’ conceptions of the R&T nexus in a Portuguese research-oriented university.     

Perceptions of the teaching-research nexus: a framework for analysis

This paper reports on the perceptions that senior academic administrators hold on the relationship between the research and teaching components of academic work. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with senior academic administrators from the humanities, sciences, social sciences and professional areas. The findings indicate a strong belief in a symbiotic nexus between teaching and research. Indeed, the data reveal many important, but often subtle, interconnections between these two components of academic work. A three-level nexus between teaching and research is suggested: the tangible nexus, the intangible nexus and, the global nexus. These findings form part of a wider investigation into the nature of academic work in Australian universities and are proposed as a suitable framework for further research.     

The ideal research‐teaching nexus in the eyes of academics: building profiles

Research and teaching are supposed to be closely related in universities. Among academics the belief in a symbiotic relationship is strong. However, it is unclear what form this relationship can take. Several authors have presented categories and dimensions to clarify this relationship and the aim of this project was to contribute to this discussion by understanding what academics’ ideal research‐teaching nexus would look like. The ideal images of 30 academics were investigated using a mental visualisation assignment. Respondents were encouraged to describe in detail what for them the linkage between research and teaching would look like in the ideal situation. Five profiles of the research‐teaching nexus could be distinguished: teach research results; make research known; show what it means to be a researcher; help to conduct research; and provide research experience. These profiles are related to dimensions proposed earlier in the literature on the research‐teaching nexus.     

How to Strengthen the Connection between Research and Teaching in Undergraduate University Education

This paper explores how to strengthen the research-teaching nexus in university education, in particular, how to improve the relation between policy and practice. The focus is on courses and curricula for undergraduate students. From a review of policy documents and research literature, it appeared that the research-teaching nexus can be shaped according to two dimensions. One concerns an emphasis on either the research content and products, or the research processes and problems; the other concerns the role of students as either learning existing insights, or as 'participants in research' who contribute to insights which are new to the field (e.g., by conducting research themselves). It is concluded that if a university chooses to strengthen the research-teaching nexus in undergraduate curricula, this implies involving students more often in the role of participants in research.     

The research-teaching nexus in nurse and teacher education: contributions of an ecological approach to academic identities in professional fields

In developing graduates for the knowledge society lecturers in higher education may seek to strengthen links between research and teaching. Much of the previous work on the research-teaching nexus is within traditional universities and subject disciplines. In aiming to deepen understanding of the research and teaching nexus this paper focuses on the academic identities of higher education lecturers working in newer higher education institutions and in the professional fields of nursing and of teacher education. A qualitative study, informed by professional identity construction as an ecological concept, was conducted. The findings align with previous studies concerning similarities between lecturers in nurse and teacher education, but they contrast with previous studies concerning differences between these two groups of lecturers. Similarities include the priority given by professional educators to their responsibility for preparing new clinical practitioners; the research-led model as the lecturers’ main approach to the research-teaching nexus; and their difficulties in coping with current demands in academic work. Differences between the two groups of lecturers include the way that ‘practitioner identity’ is positioned within their current academic identities and the way that they position initial education within the wider professional field. These differences indicate different kinds of connections between teaching and research. The paper proposes an ecological approach to understanding the research-teaching nexus.     

论新桂系统治广西时的乡村权力文化网络

20世纪30年代,新桂系在广西开展的乡村建设运动使广西乡村形成了新的权力文化网络,冲击了广西乡村传统的权力文化网络。     

Making the hidden curriculum visible: sustainability literacy in higher education

Despite strong political support for the development of sustainability literacy amongst the UK graduates, embedding sustainability in the higher education curriculum has met with widespread indifference, and in some cases, active resistance. However, opportunities exist beyond the formal curriculum for engaging students in learning about sustainability. Previous research has highlighted the potential of the university campus for experiential, place-based learning about and for sustainability. This has been conceptualised as the ‘informal’ curriculum, consisting of extra-curricular activities and student projects linking estates and operations to formal study. However, the impact of the so-called ‘hidden curriculum’ (the implicit messages a university sends about sustainability through the institutional environment and values) has been overlooked as a potential influence on student learning and behaviour. This article reports on a small-scale research project which utilised a phenomenographic approach to explore students’ perceptions of the ‘hidden sustainability curriculum’ at a leading sustainability university. The findings suggest that helping students deconstruct the hidden campus curriculum may enhance aspects of sustainability literacy; developing students’ understanding about sustainability and creating solutions to sustainability issues, enabling evaluative dialogue around campus sustainability and also self-reflection, which could be transformative and translate into pro-environmental behaviour change. This research is transferable to other contexts.     

Revisiting the research–teaching nexus in a managerial context: exploring the complexity of multi-layered factors

Drawing on in-depth interviews and classroom observations with 14 academics from the field of applied sciences, this case study provides empirical evidences on the research–teaching nexus in the context of Chinese research universities by examining the multi-layered factors at the individual, institutional and organisational levels. The study sketches out several substantive social structures, including performative incentives, research culture and institutional emphases, that have significantly shaped the research–teaching nexus in a managerial context. Teaching beliefs that are rooted in traditional Chinese culture, however, have been identified as an essential factor to strengthen the research–teaching nexus. This study concludes that a more supportive environment based on the cultural beliefs of teaching can be created to alleviate the growing tensions between research and teaching.     

Complicating the concept of culture

This essay argues against a simple, reified view of culture as a set of ideas and norms belonging to a group or nation, and considers the implications of a more complicated concept for discussion of world culture and the global/local nexus. Most anthropologists define culture as the making of meaning, with an emphasis on the process itself as contested. It follows that world culture is locally produced in social interaction, and that meanings are then reconstructed in the global/local nexus. Power matters, particularly the hidden power to make resources for meaning making widely available, and to make them attractive and scientifically persuasive. How actors succeed in claiming particular ideas as global and how the locals strategically respond are questions where anthropologists can contribute to understanding the global/local nexus and the exercise of power within the world polity.     

Characterizing undergraduate engineering students' understanding of sustainability

Engineering professionals in Australia and internationally are coming under increased pressure to practise engineering more sustainably. In response to this pressure, the Institution of Engineers, Australia, has updated the procedure for accreditation of the engineering baccalaureate to ensure inclusion of sustainability learning. In order to graduate, Australian engineering students must now 'understand sustainability'. This paper reports on a theoretical synthesis of the literature on sustainability and understanding, and an empirical investigation into sustainability conceptions held by a group of chemical engineering undergraduate students at the University of Sydney. During the theoretical synthesis we examined what it might mean for a student to understand sustainability by deriving a suite of sustainability principles and describing the component parts of an expert-like understanding of sustainability. In the empirical investigation, students' written responses to the question 'In your own words, what is sustainability?' were analysed using a modified version of the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The SOLO analysis revealed broad structural variation in the way our students understood sustainability.     

“GodMode is his video game name”: situating learning and identity in structures of social practice

In this paper, we report on the structural nexus of one youth??s gaming practices across contexts and over time. We utilize data from an ethnography of youth science and technology learning, as well as expertise development, across settings and developmental time. We use Ole Dreier??s theory of persons to understand how this youth is able to develop considerable gaming expertise. Additionally, we explicate the learning practices embedded in the structural nexus of this youth??s gaming and we examine associated issues of learning and identity. We problematize the lack of continuity between his formal schooling experiences and the structural nexus of his gaming practices as situated in a variety of other contexts and we reflect on the implications for the design of STEM gaming experiences in formal school environments.     

Finding Nexus: connecting youth work and research practices

Participation in educational and social research helps to develop understanding of how young people learn and to consider wider aspects of their lives to enable their voices to be heard and acted upon. Research also facilitates the articulation and sharing of methodologies across a range of professional practices. We assert that theory and practice in educational youth work offers a position of strength from which to undertake research. In making this assertion, we suggest cross‐disciplinarity between youth work and research practices in order to build research mindedness among youth workers who, through this nexus, are well‐placed to engage in practice based research. Drawing on discourses about young people, youth work and youth participation, we identify five elements of youth work practice that can be aligned with research processes: reflexivity; positionality and bias; insider cultural competence; rapport and trust; power relationships. The article examines how these elements are present in youth work and a range of research settings. We identify youth work methods and dispositions as enhancing research capacity which could also be useful in building participatory research methods in disciplinary areas beyond education. Yet, in making these connections, we also identify a range of factors that show this nexus as complex and contestable. Reflecting on the lessons learned from our experiences as youth work practitioners and academic researchers, we propose that finding nexus, which in this instance is between youth work and research paradigms, could inform educational research practices and contributes to developing a meaningful praxis.     

The teaching:research nexus : a model for institutional management

Teaching and research lie at the heart of higher education. The interaction between teaching and research has therefore attracted the attention of both researchers and policymakers. Much has been written about this relationship, looking in particular at the perceived mutual benefits between teaching and research. This paper presents some findings from a research project which, using a comparative approach, aimed to examine the nature of the teaching:research nexus and, in particular, to consider the response of institutional management. Based on the observations collected through the project, a new model is proposed for institutional management of the teaching:research nexus. This model is based on a range of contextual factors, classified as ideological or environmental, and two contrasting approaches to institutional management of the relationship between teaching and research, active and passive. This model offers a new approach to understanding the operation of the teaching:research nexus within institutions of higher education.     

Undergraduate experiences of the research/teaching nexus across the whole student lifecycle

ABSTRACT

There is currently much interest in the interconnections between research and teaching in Higher Education. This relationship is usually termed ‘the research/teaching nexus’ (RTN). However, within this wide body of literature, there has been little attempt to explore the emergent experiences of students across the entire length of their degree programme. Drawing on the results of a three-year qualitative study that followed 40 students through their whole student lifecycle, this paper explores how undergraduates in an English university experienced the RTN, how those experiences developed over time, and how these changes can be variously enabled or constrained. Situating the findings in the context of the ‘post-truth’ society and the uncertainty of employment futures, the paper highlights how the nexus can also often serve to exclude students as much as it includes.     

Skills development,employment and sustained growth in Ghana: Sustainability challenges

Against a backdrop of some two decades of sustained economic growth in Ghana, this paper argues that there are a series of sustainability challenges related to technical and vocational skills development (TVSD) that need to be addressed. This paper analyses several sustainability dimensions of TVSD related to: promoting the sustainability of education-for-all achievements through expanding post-basic education and TVSD; identifying sustainable financing mechanisms for an expansion of TVSD; promoting and sustaining equitable access; ensuring that expansion in quantity does not lead to a compromise on the achievement and sustainability of quality and relevance issues; promoting the sustainability of TVSD expansion by widening opportunities for lifelong learning; creating an enabling environment for skills utilization through sustainable employment growth.     

Introducing sustainability into university curricula: an indicator and baseline survey of the views of university teachers at the University of Valencia

Many higher education institutions have assumed the role of diffusing knowledge, values, attitudes and behaviours that favour sustainability. A key objective in such work is training university teachers to apply sustainability criteria to their respective disciplines. While university teachers' active participation is essential to achieving this goal, their ideas about and predispositions towards introducing sustainability into curricula are not always understood or appreciated. In this paper, we report on a questionnaire survey at the University of Valencia, Spain, on the current baseline situation for introducing sustainability across the university's curricula. We also report on a measure to periodically review the situation, including progress of and/or decline in introducing sustainability into diverse subject areas, focusing on a series of indicators grouped under the common name ‘π Indicator’. Key findings from the survey include the widespread support for introducing sustainability across the university's curricula; however, as might be expected, significant differences occur in how questions are addressed by staff from various disciplines, including how they relate to departmental perceptions, interpretations and performance of sustainability‐related teaching.     

Harmonizing ecological sustainability and higher education development: Wisdom from Chinese ancient education philosophy

Abstract

Ecological sustainability can be considered the primary goal of higher education development, as it provides an ontological way to think about what it means for higher education’s long-term development. Given the widespread concern of ecological sustainability, it’s urgent to interpret and deconstruct ecological sustainability in Chinese higher education from indigenous and original perspectives. By drawing on the wisdom from Chinese ancient education philosophy which provides unique enlightenment for ecological sustainability, this paper discusses the harmonization of ecological sustainability and higher education development. In the light of the connotation of contemporary ecological sustainability and the new development of Chinese higher education, the paper also constructs a dynamic model of ecologically sustainable development in Chinese higher education. The aim is to initiate more philosophical dialogues between ancient and modern education, and to provide a new way of conceptualizing Chinese ancient education philosophy in the postmodern times.