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It's Just Research, Ep. 8: Towards critical and transformative environmental pedagogies

23 July 2024

Supporting educators to teach in transformative ways, challenging conventional education and the status quo.

In this episode we talk to Dr John Owens, a Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy and Dr Melissa Glackin a Reader in Science & Environmental Education about their research and practice within the fields of environmental education and climate crisis.

How can educators be well equipped to teach environmental education? There are various good resources being produced, explains Dr Owens, however having access to resources is not the same as having opportunity to use them in a meaningful way. Dr Owens goes on to talk about his research into the ‘capability approach’, a toolkit for thinking and investigating wellbeing, social arrangements, social justice, and the freedom that people have.

Thinking about relationships, power, culture is fundamental to understanding the climate crisis itself.– Dr John Owens

Dr Glackin encourages us to think about we engage with the environmental crisis on a human level, to feel it in our gut, not simply receive information into our mind. She talks about the importance of an embodied response, allowing an emotional engagement with environmental issues.

It's only in the last 100 years or so where we have been trapped in these rooms, where we are supposed to make the connections mentally to nature rather than physically.– Dr Melissa Glackin

Her work on transformative pedagogies aims to identify the qualities of a meaningful education more broadly, not only within the climate crisis. She suggests, qualities such as being open to alternative views, incorporating different types of knowledge, viewing students as agents of change, re-orienting towards justice, among others.