Emerging Institutionalization of ESE in NYC K-12 Public Schools

• In Event: Thinking global, educating local: sustainability education in New York City

Proposal

Although Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) has been discussed internationally for more than 40 years (UNESCO & UNEP, 1977; WCED, 1987), only recently is there evidence of emerging institutionalization on the ground. In New York City (NYC), the case study in this paper, a chancellor’s regulation requires since 2009 the appointment of a sustainability coordinator in every K-12 public school. This level of institutionalization as found in NYC is to my knowledge unique. This study therefore examines the factors that have facilitated and marked the emerging institutionalization of ESE in NYC over the past decade.

The paper offers at least three contributions to the literature. First, it adds to the growing body of policy studies within ESE. Since the 1970s, policy research in this field has been largely non-empirical; empirical articles mostly focused on teaching and learning mandates, rather than the policy process and implementation (Aikens, et al., 2016). Second, the paper advances policy studies of ESE in a large urban context. This is important given the continued growth and diversity of urban school districts (Ardoin, et al., 2013). Third, the application of both social movement as well as institutional and organizational theories is novel in empirical studies in the field of ESE. I draw on Davis, McAdam, Scott & Zald’s (2005) approach to social movements in which political opportunity structures, or changes in the political environment are a central tenet. Scholars have shown that these structures impact the strategy and organization of the movement and also define its success. I also employ Scott’s (2014) analytic framework and the three pillars of institutions to structure the markers of institutionalization into the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive dimensions. I use a qualitative case study design that relies on multiple sources of information: policy documents, reports and twenty semi-structured interviews with experts from mayoral agencies, including the Department of Education (DOE), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The study finds that two main political opportunity structures have given rise to the institutionalization of ESE: mayoral control of the DOE on the one hand, and NYC’s sustainability plans since 2007 on the other hand. As such, the appointment of sustainability coordinators in every public school is a spillover effect of sustainability initiatives in other mayoral agencies and a consequence of mayoral power over the DOE. I further explore the three pillars of institutionalization, which provide legitimacy to the ESE movement within the DOE. In the regulative dimension, I find the Chancellor’s regulation, its weak coercive mechanisms, the formalization of leadership, and the centralization of funding opportunities and resources. In the normative dimension, I find a bricolage of elements: professionalization of sustainability coordinators through training, managerialism or the quasi-governmental role NGOs play in providing teacher training and educational programs for students as external vendors of the DOE, and relational mechanisms that bring together different stakeholders. Lastly, in the cultural-cognitive dimension, I focus on the framing of sustainability and the strategic adapting of frames to fit new contexts to allow a broad range of actors to negotiate action.

Author

• Carine Verschueren, Teachers College, Columbia University