Living in Machines: The Sociospatial Dynamics of a Sustainability Education Program

• In Event: Spatial and Geographic Analysis in Environmental Education Research

Abstract

Introduction & Objectives

Using ethnographic case study methodology, and geospatial methods in particular, I tell the initial story of how one school implements a sustainability education program, from retrofitting their existing school energy system to the construction of a new, “living” building and the development of a micro-farm. I focus on how the built and natural environment educates for particular conceptions of sustainability and nature by examining the socio-ecological and spatial complexity of environmental education in the context of particular school buildings and processes.

Theoretical Framework(s)

The research is grounded in ontological realism and the social constructivist epistemologies broadly articulated in critical realism (Archer & Bhaskar, 1998; Huckle, 2004). Critical realism acknowledges the existence of a natural world outside human consciousness, while also accepting that these realities are socially constructed and culturally mediated at different levels. Further, the Latour (2004, 2005) and Haraway (1991) are used to analyze differing conceptions of agency related to natural/cultural networks within the program. I pay particular attention to the spatial aspects of the nature/culture dynamic, especially how natural materials are socially and spatially appropriated in the implementation of the educational program. Lastly, I build on the work of Orr (2002) and Kellert (2005) to understand how the school environment is conceptualized and operationalized as a sustainability educator.

Modes of Inquiry & Data Sources

This research utilizes ethnographic case study methodology (Case, 1995) and nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2003, 2004) to describe how a school community understands and implements a sustainability education program. Nexus analysis focuses on the complex intersection between historical practices, discourses, and material objects in the spaces of the school at multiple scales and over time. Spatial linguistics (Blommaert, 2010; Canagarajah, 2002) and social semiotics (Hodge & Kress, 1988) are utilized to sharpen the overall social analysis within the educational change nexus.

Primary data sources include interviews and focus groups with participants, digital photography, video recordings, participant observation, document analysis, resource accounting and spatial mapping (to capture how objects are constructed and move through space and time).

Results

Initial findings from pilot study data shows that specific nature/culture hybrids are produced and changed over time during the implementation of the school’s sustainability program. These include highly localized and specific modifications in the development of a rainwater harvesting system, green roofing materials, a digital energy management system, solar, geothermal, and cleaner co-generation energy systems, algae and wind power, farm and mechanical trade classroom space, and flexible science and social studies classrooms. These changes are often a response to specific logics present among the participants in the space. These include conflicting conceptions of technological progress, agriculture and food security, spirituality, and multiple local responses to the perception of global crisis.

Scholarly Significance

Understanding the unique sociocultural, material and spatial dynamics of sustainability education is a pressing concern for the research community (Wals, 2010). The socio-spatial aspects of the nature/culture dynamic are underrepresented in sustainability education research and school design. This study seeks to add to this growing conversation.

Author

• Joseph A. Henderson, University of Rochester