Local Pathways to Environmental, Sustainability and Climate Change Education Policies: A Comparative Case Study of Three Large School Districts

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Sustainability, Climate Change, and the City

Proposal

Cities, connected in a global world through networks and technology, have been taking a leading role in tackling environmental and climate change issues (Brandtner & Suarez, 2020; Leffel, 2022). Their work is important giving that more than half of the world population lives in urban areas. Moreover, in environmental, sustainability and climate change education policy research, there is a growing body of research focused on analyzing subnational or local policies (McKenzie & Aikens, 2020; Aikens & McKenzie, 2021; Pizmony-Levy, 2021; Verschueren, 2021). This inquiry is essential because of these urban networks, but also since some education systems are fragmented and have decentralized decision-making. This study therefore explores how similar environmental, sustainability and climate change education policies unfold in three fundamentally distinct subnational locations in the United States. Two of them are urban, one is suburban.

Over the past two decades, a growing number of school districts in the United States have enacted such policies through the implementation of efforts to simultaneously reduce the district’s carbon footprint and provide related educational programming. This article compares the factors and actors that shaped these policies in three large school districts. The findings are based on a qualitative analysis of archival documents, as well as 53 semi-structured interviews with policy makers at the state and district level and educational non-profit organizations. Grounded in an Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier, 1988) to untangle the policy process, the study finds that the policies in the New York City Public Schools and Denver Public Schools follow an expected path influenced by external factors such as the city’s sustainability plan, public opinion, and support from a broader environmental education movement. In contrast, gubernatorial influence, and joint action of the sustainability team, parents and students forged an unexpected pathway at Prince William County Public Schools.

This study makes several significant contributions to both theory and practice. First, the study underlines the importance of local and urban efforts in sustainability and climate change and how this spills over into policy making in education systems. Second, the article exposes new actors in education policy who make an impact on local school districts and show the permeability of the boundaries of education policy making. Third, it expands the empirical application of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) in the context of environmental and sustainability education policies at the subnational level. By applying the ACF to the educational policy domain, this research highlights the framework's utility in analyzing complex, multi-actor policy processes in decentralized settings. Lastly, the study provides a nuanced understanding of how local contexts shape the development and implementation of environmental, sustainability and climate change education policies, offering practical insights for policymakers and educators. The diverse pathways identified—ranging from formal municipal directives to grassroots advocacy—illustrate that effective climate education policies require tailored approaches that consider local political, social, and environmental contexts.

Author

• Carine Verschueren, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign