Transformative education: towards a relational, justice-oriented approach to sustainability

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Zack Walsh
  • Jessica Böhme
  • Brooke D. Lavelle
  • Christine Wamsler

Purpose: This paper aims to increase related knowledge across personal, social and ecological dimensions of sustainability and how it can be applied to support transformative learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides a reflexive case study of the design, content and impact of a course on eco-justice that integrates relational learning with an equity and justice lens. The reflexive case study provides a critical, exploratory self-assessment, including interviews, group discussions and surveys with key stakeholders and course participants. Findings: The results show how relational approaches can support transformative learning for sustainability and provide concrete practices, pathways and recommendations for curricula development that other universities/training institutions could follow or learn from. Originality/value: Sustainability research, practice and education generally focuses on structural or systemic factors of transformation (e.g. technology, governance and policy) without due consideration as to how institutions and systems are shaping and shaped by the transformation of personal agency and subjectivity. This presents a vast untapped and under-studied potential for addressing deep leverage points for change by using a relational approach to link personal, societal and ecological transformations for sustainability.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
Volume21
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)1587-1606
Number of pages20
ISSN1467-6370
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11.12.2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Claire Whitmer and Olivia Bronson for contributing to the eco-course curriculum. Thanks to Thomas Bruhn for providing feedback on drafts, and thanks to all who participated in the course.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Zack Walsh, Jessica Böhme, Brooke D. Lavelle and Christine Wamsler.

    Research areas

  • Anti-oppression pedagogy, Contemplative pedagogy, Eco-justice, Relational ontology, Sustainability education, Systems thinking
  • Ecosystems Research

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. The effect of organic acids and alcohols on precipitation of phosphate using calcined seashell powder
  2. Characterization of the microstructure evolution in IF-Steel and AA6016 during plane-strain tension and simple shear
  3. Current and New Research Perspectives on Dynamic Facial Emotion Detection in Emotional Interface
  4. “Normality” Revisited: Fieldwork and Family
  5. Interfaces Ludiques
  6. Article 32 Date of Application
  7. Effects of pesticides on community structure and ecosystem functions in agricultural streams of three biogeographical regions in Europe
  8. The theory of socio-cultural evolution
  9. Creativity in the opportunity identification process and the moderating effect of diversity of information
  10. How does collaborative freshwater governance affect legitimacy? Comparative analysis of 14 cases of collaboration in Aotearoa New Zealand between 2009 and 2017
  11. Sustainability in Business: Integrated Management of Value Creation and Disvalue Mitigation
  12. Comparative effectiveness of three versions of a stepped care model for insomnia differing in the amount of therapist support in internet-delivered treatment
  13. Democratic Horizons
  14. Towards a Sustainable Use of Phosphorus
  15. The causal effects of exports on firm size and labor productivity
  16. Alternating forms of lock-in: Publishing digital news in the path of a free content culture.
  17. Influence of ISO 9001 on the configuration of production planning and control
  18. DASC-PM v1.1
  19. The Influence of Terrorism on Expatriate Performance: a Conceptual Approach
  20. Towards a comparative international history of dockers
  21. The Boundary Objects Concept: Theorizing Film and Media.
  22. Auditors' Perceptions of Client Firms
  23. After Occupy
  24. Keeping in touch
  25. Noninteracting force/motion control of defective manipulation systems
  26. Existenzgründungen junger Handwerksmeister