Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux region

In Environmental Education Research’s history, the journal has published several Special Issues with a focus on research in a specific geographic and socio-cultural setting for environmental and sustainability education (ESE) whilst also exploring concrete issues of wider transnational and international relevance:

•	Volume 10, Issue 3: ‘Environmental education research and social change: Southern African perspectives’ (Lotz-Sisitka 2004)
•	Volume 12, Issue 1: ‘Environmental education in three German-speaking countries: research perspectives and recent developments’ (Nikel and Seybold 2006)
•	Volume 16, Issue 1: ‘Democracy and Values in Environmental and Sustainability Education: Research Contributions from Denmark and Sweden’ (Læssøe and Öhman 2010)

The purpose of assembling another regionally focused Special Issue, bringing together contributions from Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg is twofold. On the one hand, we wanted to present and discuss traditions as well as recent developments in ESE research, policy and practice in the Benelux countries in order to explore the specificities of the ESE (research) field in this geographical and socio-cultural context. On the other, we explicitly aimed to gather a collection of contributions that also addresses a topic of general relevance: the interrelatedness of education and societal transformation in the face of sustainability challenges. On both these dimensions we hope to trigger further exchanges and invite readers in other parts of the international ESE research scene to engage critically with the research perspectives, key issues and questions presented in the Special Issue.

In our introductory paper we elaborate on the specificity of ESE research, policy and practice in the Benelux region and frame the central topic of the interrelatedness of education and societal transformation in the face of sustainability challenges (see Van Poeck, König, and Wals 2018). Although only a few names of scholars from the three countries are probably familiar for the readers of Environmental Education Research, ESE research in the Benelux region is an emerging, growing and diverse research field scattered across a varied research environment. Theories and findings produced there are very diverse as well, in particular in relation to how our focal topic – the relation between education and societal transformation – is approached. With this Special Issue, we want to provide an overview of this diverse and interdisciplinary research scene. From a diversity of theoretical and methodological perspectives, Benelux ESE researchers have elaborately addressed questions regarding education’s role in building a more sustainable society, a topic that obviously has relevance and attention far beyond the ESE research scene in this particular region. After all, the role of education in tackling societal problems is the subject of an enduring discussion in educational scholarship in general. Social and political problems, it is argued, are often translated into issues that need an ‘educational solution’ (Simons and Masschelein 2006), pre-eminently in the context of sustainability issues (Postma 2004; Van Poeck, Vandenabeele, and Bruyninckx 2014). A sustainable world emerges then as a challenge that can be met by learning the proper solutions, desirable attitudes, correct behaviour, necessary competences, etc. However, critics argue, sustainability issues cannot be approached as if they were solely a matter of more or better education (e.g. Biesta 2012). Considering that these issues are often very uncertain and controversial (both in factual and normative terms) and drastically affect our planet and its inhabitants it is argued that, first and foremost, sustainability issues raise democratic challenges (e.g. Lundegård and Wickman 2012; Sund and Ohman 2014). Others, however, emphasise that the seriousness and urgency of the socio-ecological crisis require that education makes an effort to effectively equip learners with the knowledge, insights, attitudes, skills and behaviour that are regarded necessary to contribute to a more sustainable world (e.g. Kollmuss and Agyeman 2002) and to foster capacities or competences that can help people in becoming critical, emancipated, self-actualised members of society who are able to actively contribute to the search for more sustainable ways of living (Wiek, Withycombe, and Redman 2011).

The articles in this collection reflect the diversity of stands and viewpoints in the wider academic debate. By presenting how Benelux ESE researchers address this topical subject of discussion from a variety of perspectives, we aim to nourish further debate and dialogue within the ESE (research) community in this region and between ESE researchers in Benelux countries and the international research scene. Framing questions that can give shape to such debate and dialogue – and that are, either implicitly or explicitly, addressed by the papers in this collection – are, for instance:

•	What is the scope of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and research areas from within which ESE researchers address the relation between education and societal transformation in the light of sustainability issues?
•	What are the contributions, merits, challenges, pitfalls … of diverse approaches to ESE research (e.g. analysing the impact of educational practices, determining vital competences and effective ways to acquire these, developing theories of social or transformative learning, etc.) in view of a better understanding of the relation between education and societal transformation in the light of sustainability issues?
•	How can ESE research focused at the intersection of education and societal transformation contribute to the long-lasting debate about the tension between normative, instrumental, solution-oriented ESE versus pluralistic, democracy-oriented ESE?
•	How can we map/present/understand/critique the diversity of theoretical conceptualisations of education in relation to sustainability transition as a process in which the political and the pedagogical are intertwined?
•	How do tendencies and evolutions in educational policy affect the relation between education and societal transformation in the light of sustainability issues?

The first paper in this Special Issue is an introductory article in which the guest editors Katrien Van Poeck, Ariane König and Arjen Wals outline the specificity of ESE research, policy and practice in the Benelux region and discuss the different contributions in this collection with regard to how the relation between education and societal transformation is approached. The main characteristics of the ESE research fields in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg are described as well as how ESE policy and practice are organised in these countries. Next, different conceptualisations of the relation between educational and political spaces as well as of the place of democracy in relation to ESE are presented and employed for positioning and discussing the varied articles in this issue.

Jelle Boeve-de Pauw and Peter Van Petegem’s article presents an investigation of the effectiveness of the eco-schools project in Flanders, Belgium. The results show that the project clearly has an educational impact and highlight the importance of the approach to didactics for environmental education, the making of environmental education policy in the schools, and the presence and use of natural green elements at the school campuses.

Helen Kopnina engages with the question how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be critically taught. She presents case studies of existing sustainability programs in higher education institutions in The Netherlands where she, as a lecturer, integrated sustainable development in her teaching practice. As a result of the courses, she concludes, the students were able to develop a certain degree of critical, imaginative, and innovative thinking about sustainable development in general and the SDGs in particular.

In their article on ‘higher education for sustainable development (HESD) in Flanders’, Wim Lambrechts, Luc Van Liedekerke and Peter Van Petegem develop a theoretical framework based on John Dewey’s work on democracy and education. Their study shows how, over time, HESD in Flanders evolved from a focus on environmental management on campus, followed by a normative interpretation of what HESD should look like, towards a more transformative approach in light of citizenship and democratic ideals.

Katja Andersen’s paper presents the results of textbook research on sustainability-related school tasks in science education in Luxembourgish primary schools. Her analysis shows that there is considerable unrealised potential for implementing sustainability issues: she found very little sustainability-related content in the textbooks, the topics raised mostly relate to sustainability only indirectly, and action-based and task-based learning – important means for nurturing citizens who are able to engage in transforming prevailing ways of thinking and doing that can no longer be sustained – are undervalued.

Maarten Crivits, Michiel de Krom, Thomas Block and Joost Dessein present a case study of a regional farm education network in Belgium. Along the lines of three agricultural policy discourses, they reveal three analytically distinct educative practices: the recreational, agriculturist and emancipatory educative setting. Thus showing that farm education is a multifaceted practice, the authors reflect on the potentialities and pitfalls to foster agency to re-balance conflicting interests towards sustainable development.

Philipp Sonnleitner, Ariane König and Tea Sikharulidze describe a case study of how the computer-based problem-solving tool ‘the Genetics Lab’ is applied in a course on sustainability in the University of Luxembourg. They conclude that in a more competence- based approach, taking systems thinking as a central competence to be built in sustainability education, existing approaches to sustainability education can be substantially complemented by such tools that allow experiential learning opportunities for individuals or in groups and can be used to develop reflective capacities in the face of uncertainty.

Jifke Sol, Merel van de Wal, Pieter Jelle Beers and Arjen Wals present a case study on social learning in the Dutch national ‘Duurzaam Door’ (Moving Forward Sustainably) Policy Programme. They analyse the dynamics of social learning in regional sustainability networks in the Netherlands and pay particular attention to the interrelated role of trust, commitment, reframing and reflexivity. The study resulted in a better understanding of the role and the dynamics of these emergent properties and revealed which actors and roles can foster the effectiveness of social learning in regional transitions towards more sustainable ways of living. Reflexivity in particular proves to be a critical property at moments that can make or break the process.

Convinced that learning and knowledge development and designing actions regarding complex sustainability issues are no longer purely academic activities, François Mélard and Pierre Stassart report on a community-based project in Belgium on the controversial coexistence between wind farms and red kite in which they were involved as practitioners and members of a citizens’ wind energy co-operative. They argue that transdisciplinary environmental research and the art of diplomacy may be central to the emergence of reflexive governance within transition processes that strive to be sustainable.

Danny Wildemeersch’ article analyses the contribution of critical pedagogy to the reflection on ESE by reflecting on a case on a Belgian citizen movement that sensitises the public on the issue of silence. Investigating scholarly discussions in ESE literature and exploring Rancière’s notion of equality of intelligence and Arendt’s concept of plurality helped him to take a stance in the tension between individual and social transformation, to connect it to the democratic practices of citizen’s movements and to redefine good practices of critical environmental and sustainability education.

Katrien Van Poeck and Leif Östman introduce an empirically constructed analytical method for investigating how educators’ actions open-up or close down a space for ‘the political’ in learners’ meaning-making: ‘Political Move Analysis’. They identified a variety of ‘politicising’ and ‘de-politicising moves’ through which educators engage in very diverse teaching practices which differently affect the direction of people’s meaning-making.

We close the Special Issue with a response article. In line with our focus on the relation between education and societal transformation in the light of sustainability issues we invited a reflective essay from the perspective of sustainability studies to provide critical reflections, questions and a discussion of the articles in this collection, thereby addressing the relation and possible synergy of ESE research and sustainability research. We believe that engaging in an interdisciplinary academic dialogue contributes to a more in-depth exploration and thorough conceptualisation of the relation between education and societal transformation in view of sustainable development. By including such a response article, we hope to nourish such a fruitful dialogue. Thomas Block, Gert Goeminne and Katrien Van Poeck start from pleads in sustainability science literature that contemporary socio-ecological problems demand a new kind of research, post-normal science, that would allow to deal more adequately with the uncertain facts, disputed values, urgently needed decisions and high stakes characterising sustainability issues. Considering these four important aspects, they introduce a heuristic for ‘post-normal education’ and deploy it for discussing the articles in this collection and for reflecting on ESE research in general.

Guest Editors

Katrien Van Poeck is a post-doctoral researcher at the multi-disciplinary Centre for Sustainable Development of Ghent University (Belgium). She coordinates the centre’s research track on ‘Sustainability education’ that mainly focusses on experiential learning in the context of urban sustainability transitions and on sustainability in higher education. Furthermore, she coordinates two international research networks on sustainability education: ‘SEDwise – Sustainability education – Teaching and learning in the face of wicked socio-ecological problems’ and ‘Public pedagogy and sustainability challenges’. She has published several journal articles, book chapters and conference papers on ESE in which she empirically analyses practices and policy-making drawing on insights developed in educational theory, political theory and science and technology studies. Her research focuses at the interrelatedness of educational and political processes and challenges. Critically examining education’s role in building a more sustainable world fostered her interest in questions of democracy, controversy, citizenship and public involvement in the light of sustainability issues. She empirically analyses ESE practices and policy-making and aims to contribute to further theoretical conceptualisation of the relation between education and sustainability politics. Thereby, she is particularly interested in the relation between ESE research, policy and practice.

Arjen Wals is Professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability at Wageningen University in The Netherlands and the Carl Bennet Guest Professor in Education for Sustainable Development at IDPP, Gothenburg University and at the Gothenburg Centre for Environment and Sustainability (GMV) in Sweden. Wals also holds the UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development. His teaching and research focus on designing learning processes and learning spaces that enable people to contribute meaningfully sustainability. A central question in his work is: how to create conditions that support (new) forms of learning which take full advantage of the diversity, creativity and resourcefulness that is all around us, but so far remain largely untapped in our search for a world that is more sustainable than the one currently in prospect? In 2014, he was the lead author of an article published in Science on the role of citizen science in bridging science education, environmental education and sustainability. Current research focusses on: T-learning in times of climate change and on the development of whole school approaches to sustainability. He maintains a blog at www.transformativelearning.nl.

Ariane König is a Senior Researcher at the University of Luxembourg. Her research and teaching centre on sustainability science as transformative social learning process for the co-creation of knowledge, technologies, social norms and practice. She has recently edited the book Sustainability Science: Key Issues (Routledge 2018), positing a novel conception of transformative sustainability science for refashioning the interface of research, policy and practice for societal sustainability transformations. König is a member of the national Conseil Supérieur pour un Développement Durable and of the European Statistical Advisory Committee. Before coming to Luxembourg König was employed at the Universities of Harvard and Oxford, where she conducted research and taught in post-graduate and executive training courses on technology governance. Prior to this, she learnt about the co-production of technologies and social practice as employee in a leading multinational life science corporation. She was a scientific consultant for the OECD, the European Commission, and EU research consortia. Ariane König was conferred her Bachelor, Master and Ph.D. Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, Emmanuel College.

Funding

This work was supported by Ghent University’s funding for the International Thematic Network SEDwise.

Guest editors
Katrien Van Poeck
Ghent University, Belgium
[email protected]
Arjen E. J. Wals
Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Gothenburg University, Sweden
Ariane König
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg