The Importance of “Bad Practice” in Environmental Education and Environmental Education Research

• In Event: Meanings and Conceptions of Environmental Education

Abstract

This paper relates to the theme of AERA2012, To Know is not Enough, not by suggesting what is needed besides knowledge, but instead by questioning the functions of this “not knowing”. In EE we often find an inclination toward notions of “Best Practice”, but perhaps the time is ripe for discussions of “Bad Practice”, not only as something that should be overcome by EE, but as something that serves a function in everyday life. Inspired by Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Slavoj Žižek and Action Competence, it is argued that we live in constant tension between the lofty ideals imbedded in EE, and the need to constantly turn our backs to these ideals in order to create meaning

Author

• Jonas Greve Lysgaard, Aarhus University - School of Education