The oil industry in our schools: from Petro Pete to science capital in the age of climate crisis

Abstract

Fossil fuel corporations play a significant role in promoting their interests in schools and other educational institutions, a practice that has recently been labelled as ‘petro-pedagogy.’ But this role goes beyond the production of the pro-petroleum and anti-science corporate propaganda that tends to attract the most critical attention. In this article, I present a case study of the involvement of BP, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel corporations, in primary and secondary education in the United Kingdom. As practiced by BP, petro-pedagogy constitutes a core part of a corporate education reform network that, for the past decade, has focused on promoting a neoliberal model of STEM education in schools around the world. This model, based on corporate and capitalist interests, poses a significant threat to our collective efforts to tackle the global climate crisis.

Keywords:

• Climate crisis
• corporate education reform
• fossil fuel industry
• petro-pedagogy
• STEM education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stuart Tannock

Stuart Tannock is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Education at the UCL Institute of Education