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This chapter considers environmental action as an avenue for developing young people's capabilities for democratic participation as scientifically literate citizens. From the literature, we describe parallels between civic education conceptualised as civic engagement and science education approached as inquiry-based learning. We suggest six guiding principles for youth participation in local environmental action: youth as contributors, genuine participation, deliberate action, inquiry, critical reflection, and positive youth development. We illustrate these principles by applying them to local and national environmental programmes in the USA. The engagement of individual youth and the depth of their learning may vary widely even when programmes incorporate the guiding principles. We suggest future research directions around youth experiences, guiding principles, educator practices, participant characteristics, educational setting, impacts on adults and community, and culture. Such research will enhance understanding of environmental action and its contribution to science and civic learning. Keywords environmental action, youth, participation, science education, civic engagement [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses my reflections as a researcher on the use of critical discourse analysis as a research approach for understanding notions of participation within education curriculum materials. It identifies my journey through the process of identifying a suitable approach to explore my research problem, and the chapter begins by presenting the research problem that I sought to explore. The remainder of the chapter has three parts. The first part charts the conceptual and theoretical frame for a research design that meets the dual challenge of being located within a critical paradigm and developing a rigorous research approach to convince bureaucrats who might ordinarily favour quantitative forms of research. The second part of the chapter explores critical discourse analysis as a research approach that met this dual challenge. The design and outcomes of the research process provide a contribution towards making the theoretical practical in terms of critical research approaches. The final part details recommendations for researchers and practitioners interested in using critical discourse analysis to explore participation, identifying possible future directions for environmental and health education research. Keywords critical discourse analysis, citizenship education materials, discourses of citizenship, action competence, research reflexivity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This edited collection brings together voices and experiences from around the world, all charged with a similar task: to address participation in the context of environmental, health and sustainability education and to do so within a critical framework. Participation viewed from a critical perspective adds to a growing body of literature that seeks to inform and strengthen understandings of this frequently used phrase while urging resistance to ‘jargonisation' and encouraging sophisticated consideration of ‘the good, the bad and the ugly' of participation. Keywords school ground greening, student participation, research methods, participatory research, research design decisions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses pupils' participation in collaborative projects between schools and external actors in environmental education. The two case studies that are presented - from the Danish Eco School project, and The School Grounds Development Projects (run by Learning Through Landscapes) in England - are approaches to educational change in environmental education that take place within a school setting, and in both cases our interest is in the pupils' participation in school councils. The chapter focuses on the roles of pupils, teachers, and outside actors in collaborative projects, and the different, and sometimes inconsistent, understandings of the school councils as arenas for collaboration and participation. Keywords school councils, collaboration, pupil participation, environmental education, everyday actor [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite differences in terminology, environmental education and educations that address sustainability share a common aspiration of changing lifestyles. In this chapter we argue that a situated, whole school action-focused learning rather than behaviourist or cognitive/constructivist approaches to learning offers a better, though not the only, prospect for education to contribute to the development of more sustainable lifestyles/actions. While environmental awareness and values education approaches can generate more sustainable actions, these approaches seem incapable of contributing to sustainable lifestyles at a societal scale. Whole school approaches are not the only approach to sustainability education, but they appear to have significant benefits in promoting sustainable actions congruent with, for example, the UK Government's Every Child Matters Strategy in England, which promotes the principles: be safe, be healthy, achieve and enjoy, make a contribution, and be economically active. These approaches underpinned by the theoretical framework of communities of practice offer a vision for a sustainability education that has this contributory action focus. Keywords sustainability education, whole school approaches, communities of practice, communities of action, participation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, we discuss our experience of developing participatory research with children. We draw on a pilot research project with 11- to 12-year-old children, studying at an urban secondary school for 11- to 18-year-olds in central England. The project was a precursor to a recent UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) project ‘Listening to Children - Environmental Perspectives and the School Curriculum'. Keywords children's environments, participatory research, school curriculum development, local community action, urban environments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this methodology-focused chapter is to consider the issues encountered in researching participation from the perspective of those subjectivities necessary for its occurrence in education and environmental education. It is one thing to discuss dilemmas of participatory education itself as a potential dwelling point for the conceptualisation of work in environmental education. It is quite another to consider where human predispositions for such work have come from. The chapter outlines a collaborative attempt to explore how a focused search for origins of meaning in environment- related practices of teachers has become constructed and disrupted as an inquiry process. My methodological interest is in the process of the inquiry as it emerged at the intersection of narrative interpretive methods to capture and represent evolving ways of knowing, and some obvious constraints and tensions concerning some fundamental conditions through which social processes are both generated and shaped. The chapter begins with an account of the basics of research processes that have spanned more than a decade of change in our thinking about such inquiry, in order to illustrate how initial assumptions about social reality are constructed (e.g. that environmental education, almost by definition, is a participatory process), and have re-emerged as questions concerning broadened contexts of meaning-making. The chapter concludes with a view of environmental education as a social practice, centred both on how teachers construct their school experiences and what this may mean for practical realities such as participation or participatory action within the institutions of education. Keywords environmental education, research, methodology, participation, learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite good intentions, participatory research and pedagogy can masquerade as an open process but still impose agendas that support particular versions of what constitutes appropriate thought, behaviour, and action. This chapter draws together two studies with some explication of feminist post-structural notions of the self in order to suggest ways in which feminist post-structural analyses might produce different readings of student responses to participatory pedagogies that have environmental change as their aim. Conceiving of the subject as discursively constituted opens up the self to both an interrogation into its construction and its possible reconstitution. It also opens up new ways of understanding student agency and helps bring to light how the discursive production of the self can limit students' ability to challenge dominant discourses and take up counter-hegemonic ones. Furthermore, a feminist post-structural analysis of power resists the tendency to ‘blame the victim' when teachers or students do not ‘get it right'. Keywords environmental education, post-structuralist feminist analysis, classroom interaction, subject positioning, agency, participation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter contributes to the debate on participatory education through examining some of the intentions and dispositions that underwrite teachers' ways of thinking and acting in educational settings. Rather than looking at participation directly, the study on which the chapter is based attempted to generate understandings of how certain teachers become disposed towards the participatory interests that are almost synonymous with environment-related education. My interest is in the assumptions and predispositions that underlie teachers' notions of what counts as participatory learning within their genealogies of context, and so this chapter explores, the aims and methods for elucidating teachers' stories of their actions within their theories of context. Keywords environmental education, participation, learning, teacher's thinking, intentionality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter focuses on participation in the context of European and Nordic debates about whether education should be understood as an end in itself, as in the humanistic tradition, or instrumentally, to bring about social change. In the case of the latter, environmental education, health education, and education for sustainable development can each be understood as denoting initiatives and efforts that are driven by a shared ideal of improving the world we live in now, and for the future. As such, they are often seen as overruling education in the former, humanistic sense, particularly in relation to its legitimate purposes and modes. Whilst acknowledging this trans-educational function, this chapter sets out to recover the relevance of general education to ‘adjectival educations' like environmental education, health education, and education for sustainable development, and vice versa, that is, in relation to efforts to educate pupils in a broader, humanistic sense. It asks what, after all, is the aim of our educational efforts, and how are we to assess their success and outcomes, particularly if we are to prevent ‘adjectival educations' from being reduced to instruments of ideology or policy when the overarching goal is to foster deeper and more meaningful participation in education. Keywords participation, co-determination, democracy, general education, adjectival education [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter proposes a transgression of narrow fixations on top-down versus bottomup approaches to citizen participation. Even though there is good reason to attack top-down approaches, I argue that when, for example, environmental sociologists turn their criticism of the top-down into an idealisation of the bottom-up, they are stuck with a simplistic model. Moreover, when confronted with the quest for sustainable development, an emancipatory conception of participation can neglect the tension between participation as a defence of democratic rights, and participation as a tool for promoting learning processes that aims to replace narrow interests with a collective responsibility for a sustainable future. In this context, this chapter takes a closer look at a new kind of professional agent faced with this tension and charged with implementing participative processes on sustainable development. These professional agents are conceptualised as ‘mediators', and their role is differentiated into ‘networkers', ‘interpreters', and ‘facilitators'. Based on examples from Denmark, this chapter outlines four dilemmas with which these kinds of mediating change agents have to cope and the qualitative differences between them. Keywords democracy, sustainability, mediators, dilemmas, green guides [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What specific qualities make participation genuine, and how do they link with a democratic view of education, cooperation, and empowerment? This chapter explores these themes, linking reflections on existing theoretical perspectives on the ‘ownership of participation' with professional experience on educational development initiatives in a number of countries around the world (mainly Thailand, Namibia, and Denmark). In particular, the chapter argues that while the process of developing ‘mental ownership' is a neglected aspect of successful participatory approaches in development efforts as well as in education, there is good reason to consider the hypothesis that the level of mental ownership that a participatory initiative is able to generate among participants, corresponds with the experienced quality of the participatory approach. In so doing, the chapter discusses the potential value of generating mental ownership in participation for improving the quality of different approaches to innovation in education, and illustrates wider debates on the need to democratise environmental education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and whether educational goals should be principally regarded as addressing adaptation or emancipation (e.g. Hellesnes 1982). Keywords mental ownership, psychological ownership, environmental education, action-competence models [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter starts with an autobiographical account of my experience of creating communication programmes within sustainable development projects in rural Africa. It charts the evolution of a participatory approach before turning to investigations into the way people learn in such settings. I then apply the resulting view of learning as a complex process of dialogue primarily relying on known and trusted sources to other rural communication programmes. Noting that accounts of these projects have largely relied on empirical evidence, the second part of the chapter represents a search for appropriate theoretical underpinning. I show that the concepts of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and legitimate peripheral participation are relevant to the project experience, while possible limitations in these approaches are tackled by the application of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). In conclusion, I note that the principles of situated learning and activity theory resonate strongly with real-world examples of education for sustainable development and suggest that although hitherto separate, they might become more closely aligned - albeit with a few words of caution. Keywords learning, participation, development, communication, activity theory, practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter examines the emergence of participatory education as both a central feature and a terrain of ambivalence within the developing landscape of environmental education in South Africa. From its roots in nature experience activities through to more socially critical forms of environmental education, participatory imperatives in this area have yet to address sufficiently the conceptual and practical challenges inherent in pedagogies of participation. We argue that more recent developments reveal similar anomalies, such that participatory education in South Africa has now become an idealised and techniqued logic of practice. Keywords environmental education, participation, reflexivity, situated culture, social learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter takes up two questions essential to participatory environmental education: What experiences prepare children to be aware of their environment and to take action on its behalf? And, how can communities support children's environmental learning and action? I suggest answers to these questions based on an ecological approach to psychology and show how research on the significant life experiences of people committed to environmental education and action can be understood within this framework. I also argue that environmental education can most productively encourage children to know, value, and protect the diversity of life on this planet if it builds on a theoretical foundation that embeds human development in an ecological context. Keywords community development, children's agency, ecological psychology, environmental learning, environmental citizenship [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on theoretical discussion and the vitality of an empirically-based case study, this chapter documents, explores, and reflects on processes of learning about health through participation and action. The study is positioned within the democratic health-promoting schools tradition which emphasises a critical approach to the issue of student participation and the importance of taking action as part of learning about health. The chapter begins with discussion of the health-promoting schools initiative in Europe as exemplified by the European Network of the Health Promoting Schools, the position of the concept of participation within the frames of the health-promoting schools approach, and its implications for the ways we look at learning. Then, a model distinguishing two different qualities of participation, (token and genuine), is considered. Keywords learning, student participation, health education, health-promoting schools, action competence [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter explores ideas of participation by considering some of the issues surrounding frameworks for environmental learning. We begin by reviewing a recent analysis of a range of categories of interest in environmental learning. This indicates that the people and groups who promote or encourage environmental learning can have widely differing assumptions about both its purposes and processes, and about participation by learners in both their learning and thence in any social action they might take. We develop this analysis by examining how that which might be expected of the learner and the teacher/instructor in such environmental learning processes, and in ensuant participatory social and/or environmental change, can vary markedly across categories. Keywords environmental learning, categories of interest, participation, conservation NGOs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter draws together a range of critical perspectives on the concepts and practices of participation. Starting with recent debates about the tyrannical and transformational possibilities of participatory approaches in the field of development, we explore echoes of these critiques in education, with a focus on learning and teaching about the environment and sustainable development. The chapter illustrates how three major perspectives on participatory learning - behaviourist, cognitive, and situative - help differentiate current understandings and can inform individualised and shared expectations of participatory approaches to environment-related learning. The chapter also sets out a series of questions to aid critical investigation of examples of participatory forms of environmentrelated learning, outlining an evaluative framework that highlights three key dimensions to participatory activities - practice, theory, and meta-theory. We conclude the chapter with an extended example of the application of the framework, and discuss a range of issues for participatory work in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the development of learner competences, and citizen engagement with participatory learning that aims to foster wider and deeper participation in civil society. Keywords learning, development, participation, learning theory, evaluation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is with some reticence that I write these comments on the ‘the ladder of children's participation' for this metaphor was introduced by me long ago in order to problematise an issue that now has a significant body of practice and critical reflection. But my colleagues, the editors of this volume, suggested that because the ladder is still used a great deal as a model it might be useful to stand back and make a few comments about the ways it has been interpreted. The ladder probably drew so much attention because when it was first published in Children's Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship by UNICEF in 1992, there was very little written of a conceptual nature on the theme of children's participation in their programmes, projects, or organisations. The book was simply meant to stimulate a dialogue on a theme that needed to be addressed critically. But many people have chosen to use the ladder as a comprehensive tool for measuring their work with children rather than as a jumping-off point for their own reflections. Keywords participation, youth, children, models, citizenship [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the last decade shows an increasing shift away from the development and advancement of environmental education (EE) in policy-making at local, national, European and international levels, the selfsame years bear witness to the growing influence of the concepts of `sustainable development΄ (SD) and `education for sustainable development΄ (ESD) across these scales (UNESCO, 1997, 2005; USD, 2004). For example, in England, in 2000, ESD became part of the revised version of the National Curriculum as a cross-curricular approach, the time at which, we might also note, any reference to EE in formal curriculum policy ceased ((DfEE); 2000b; QCA, 2002). In Denmark, since 1995, in a policy document called ˵Et grønt islæt″ (`A Green Approach to Education and Training΄), teachers have been required to integrate ˵a green way of thinking″ into the teaching of all subjects ((MVU)). While in Germany, most prominently, pilot model school projects based on the ESD approach, ˵Gestaltungskompetenz für nachhaltige Entwicklung″ (that is, the necessity of developing a citizen΄s ˵modelling competence″ for sustainable development) have been undertaken as part of state-wide education initiatives from 1999 to 2004 ((BLK); de Haan & Harenberg, 1999). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]