Education for a liveable future: what kind of practice is good enough for the task at hand?
Education is often positioned as a solution to current societal problems. In particular, schools, teachers and non-formal learning institutions are saddled with the responsibility to address socio-ecological crises[1], in the form of climate change, environmental destruction and linked social injustices. Yet, education has also been argued to exist as a forceful form of normalisation that functions to uphold current systems[2] of extraction that position humans as fundamentally separate from, and superior to, nature[3].
In this talk, Sophie will reflect on findings from her recently completed (2024) PhD study Education for a Liveable Future: an exploration of three environmental education programmes that seek to bring about change. The study explored first hand how education programmes seek to transform dominant systems, noting the tensions and contradictions that are inherent in such practice. With this in mind, Sophie will draw together empirical findings and wider theoretical literature to develop her conceptualisation of how education can play a role in societal change, including how research might recognise and engage with such practice.
[1] Dunlop, L., & Rushton, E. A. C. (2022). Putting climate change at the heart of education: Is England’s strategy a placebo for policy? British Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1083– 1101. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3816
2 tevenson, R. B. (2007). Schooling and environmental education: contradictions in purpose and practice. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701295726
3 Haluza-Delay, R. (2013). Educating for Environmental Justice. In B. Stevenson, Robert, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. E. J. Wals (Eds.), International Handbook of Research on Environment Education (pp. 394–403). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813331-53
Sophie completed her PhD in Environmental Education at King’s College London in 2024. She has since worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Queen Mary University, exploring sustainable food system transformations, and has recently begun work as a Research Fellow within the Centre for Food Policy at City St. George’s University of London, working on the Joined up Landscapes Project. She is a social scientist with particular interest in research on socioecological system change in ways that foreground participation and justice. Her research explores environmental education and learning, socioecological change, and food and farming systems.
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