Transformative Learning in Formal and Nonformal Global Contexts: Place-Dependent Instantiations of Sustainability Education

• In Event: Adapting Education and Teachers in the Face of the Environmental and Climate Crises

Proposal

As people adapt to living within the Anthropocene, education becomes an increasingly important lever for strengthening communities and improving resilience to the impacts of global climate change. Sustainability Education (SE) is used here as an umbrella term that encompasses many related fields and global traditions that include Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Education, and Human Rights Education amongst others. Though their initial aims only partially overlap and their instantiations are place-dependent, the goal of these related fields, and thus of SE itself, is the same. To promote a more just and verdant planet.

SE is concerned with the intersections of climate change, poverty, and inequality to motivate broad climate literacy such that educational experiences in both formal and nonformal contexts are built upon an understanding of the drivers and impacts of climate change, and that center the development of values that are aligned with safeguarding the Earth for future generations (Oziewicz, 2023). We live in a time of socio-ecological precarity, where Western capitalism has disconnected people and culture from nature (Nxumalo et al., 2022; Sauvé, 1996), advanced unsustainable extractive and colonial relationships with Indigenous peoples and the land (McKenzie et al., 2023), and promoted hegemonic approaches to "sustainable development” that can reproduce capitalist ideals or are overly tech-centric (Huesemann, 2003; Jickling & Wals, 2008). By contrast, education offers a path forward that supports relational onto-epistemologies that promote justice, build capacity within communities, and inspire public action that is context appropriate and locally produced (Bang et al., 2022; McKenzie et al., 2023; Nxumalo et al., 2022). This vision of education is by definition transformational.

This paper summarizes two in-progress systematic literature reviews that highlight the ways in which sustainability education empowers current and future generations to meet climate and development challenges by drawing on the strengths of their places and backgrounds. Specifically, in what ways is education used to advance community resilience and empowerment in formal and nonformal contexts?

Based on constructivist approaches to learning, transformational learning theory describes the processes by which learners are encouraged to critically examine, question, and revise their understandings of ideas (Taylor & Cranton, 2012; Mezirow, 1997). Within sustainability, transformative learning emphasizes the importance of culturally responsive pedagogies, including collaboration and experiential learning (Rodriguez & Barth, 2020). This approach is particularly useful for topics related to climate change and sustainable development in which learners can challenge and reevaluate problematic assumptions including those related to social, economic, and environmental issues (Kalsoom & Khanam, 2017).

Methodology:

Following PRISMA Guidelines (Page et al., 2021), an exhaustive search of the literature was conducted in spring and summer 2024 using a systematic search of major, peer-reviewed databases along 2 key topics: nonformal entrepreneurship education as a response to climate pressures and the failures of sustainable development, and preparation of pre-service teachers in building capacity through their formal classrooms. Replicable keyword searches were used as were strict inclusion and exclusion criteria in each search. Multiple rounds of screening of increasing depth occurred. Exclusion codes were kept for all papers that were not included in the final samples. All papers that were included were subjected to a full-text deep read for data extraction and analysis.

Findings:

Nonformal Entrepreneurial Education in the Global South

The initial round of database searches returned 847 papers that described locally-facilitated entrepreneurial efforts in Global South countries. After screening, 29 were included in the final sample, and several key themes emerged. First, these entrepreneurial ventures are subsistence in nature meaning that they were started in response to too few government jobs and an unstable economy for the poorest communities in these countries. These communities are also the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Second, empowerment, after income generation, was the next most common motivator for starting a venture, but also a leading outcome of the entrepreneurial activities itself, particularly for women. Similarly, this review found that community-driven entrepreneurship led to improved community resiliency and community empowerment, and that objectives and impacts of entrepreneurship training and education functions as a form of sustainability education in these places.

Sustainability Education for Pre-Service Teachers

Initially, 330 papers were returned in the search, and 58 papers describing sustainability education training for pre-service teachers were retained. Again, several themes related to transformative learning emerged. For instance, most papers (72%) describe active learning pedagogies including place-based approaches that utilize problem- or inquiry-based learning. The purpose of these pedagogies were improved self-efficacy for teachers and learners, meaningful and permanent understanding of complex ecological and social issues, improved pedagogical content knowledge for teachers, and climate literacy development for both teachers and their learners. These goals were also outcomes of the studies, meaning that when teachers were engaged in sustainability education, their climate literacies and self-efficacy for teaching about these topics improved. Little data about student outcomes were available and remains an area in need of future research.

Conclusions:

Climate-related education for teachers is a clear example of SE. Less obvious is entrepreneurial education in nonformal contexts. Yet, the aims of both are the same. First, both occurred because of the pressures of global climate change and the need to equip and empower people now, while investing in future generations. Second, both forms of education can be viewed as a form of resistance, or resilience, to local and national governments. For instance, current political approaches to solving the global climate crisis have yielded results smaller and slower than theorized, shifting responsibility for climate solutions to younger generations. Building capacity in teachers and learners is increasingly urgent. Likewise, in many countries, there are too few available government jobs, those that provide economic stability and social mobility. In response, subsistence entrepreneurs seek to develop their own communities and build economic and social resilience where their governments and “sustainable development” have failed. Finally, education to achieve these aims – building capacity in schools for community resilience, or building capacity through entrepreneurship to improve community resilience – focuses on local issues, needs, and impacts.

Regardless of where and for what purpose SE occurs, it must be local and community-based, culturally-sustaining, and empowering.

Authors

• Samantha Lindgren, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Armando Jose Torres, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Paapa Nkrumah-Ababio,, University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign

• Aigul Rakisheva, UIUC