Students’ relationships to knowledges, place identity and agency concerning the St. Lawrence river

ABSTRACT

Our study is framed according to a transformational-sociocritical approach to an education for sustainable development (ESD) that, in particular, considers landscapes as learning contexts of potential use for fostering engagement in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable development. In keeping with this perspective, we surveyed students aged 16–17 years from the Lower St. Lawrence region (Quebec, Canada) concerning their knowledge and perceptions of issues pertaining to the St. Lawrence, the river facing them on an everyday basis, and about their role as citizens in that connection. In respect of theoretical considerations, we propose developing the concepts of relationships to knowledge, place identity and agency. An analysis of questionnaires (N=334) has served to: bring out the learnings and issues pertaining to the St. Lawrence River that students consider to be meaningful; characterise the various identity-centred relationships with this landscape; and define the eco-civic agency of the students surveyed. The results of this analysis then provide a basis for some proposals for an ESD curriculum relating to the St. Lawrence River that is rooted in students’ concerns. While the environmental issues dealt with occur locally, the potential transfer of results into other curricula and educational contexts is also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable development
• environment
• student-centred curriculum
• secondary education
• local issues
• environmental education

Acknowledgements

This study was made possible thanks to the support of the Notre Golfe network (http://notregolfe.ca/). We also wish to thank the teachers and students who agreed to take part in this project.

Notes

1. In this study, the landscape is considered to be one element among others in a given territory. Thus, we are interested in the St. Lawrence River in terms of a landscape marking the territory inhabited by the young people whom we surveyed.

2. In addition, for each SDG, topics for use in the classroom as well as pedagogical approaches are outlined in the UNESCO guide (2017).

3. For example, numerous countries in Western, Eastern, Central and Northern Europe, etc.

4. It is important to specify from the outset that in Canada, education comes under provincial jurisdiction, meaning that each province is responsible for developing and implementing its own program of education across all disciplines, from year one of primary school to year five of secondary school.

5. The Québec Education Program offers the option of developing links with St. Lawrence River-related issues via the broad area of learning (one of five) known as ‘Environmental Awareness and Consumer Rights and Responsibilities’, which must be integrated into the design of educational activities for all secondary subject-related programs.

6. As proposed by the Québec Education Program (MELS, 2013, 2015; Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, Gouvernement du Québec [MELS], 2008), school subjects are structured in accordance with five ‘broad areas of learning’. Various programs are then grouped together under these broad areas of learning.

7. In Quebec, Secondary Cycle Two covers the period extending from the third year of secondary school (students aged 14–15 years) to the fifth year of secondary school (students aged 16–17 years), enable students to earn a high school diploma and pursue vocational or postsecondary studies at the ‘cégep’ [Quebec junior college equivalent], followed by university.

8. It is worth noting that researchers in sociology and didactics use a methodological tool called ‘assessment of knowledge’ (bilan de savoir) initially developed by Charlot et al. (1992) but which they subsequently adapted in keeping with the demands of their research contexts or in relation to specific school disciplines. In its original form, this tool did not explicitly refer to objects of knowledge. Instead, it contained open-ended questions pertaining to the act of learning and was based on a situation simulation exercise involving a written response: ‘I am … years old. Since I was born, I have learned many things, at home, at school, in the community, and elsewhere. What is important for me in all that I have learned? And now, what are my expectations?’. In science didactics, these questions have been adapted in such a way as to bear more directly on learning a particular subject matter, such as biology or physics (Therriault, Jeziorski, Bader, & Morin, 2018; Venturini & Cappiello, 2009).

9. The epistemic dimension also inquires into epistemological postures—i.e. the statuses and values that learning subjects ascribe to scientific and school knowledges.

10. Other identity-related aspects are no doubt relevant, but at this stage in our research, we have opted to use only the identity-related aspects pertaining to an ecocitizen/inhabitant of a specific territory.

11. The sample composition will be described in the section entitled ‘Main results,’ as it provides characteristic elements of the social dimension of students’ relationships to knowledges that shape the interpretation of results related to the epistemic and identity-centred dimensions.

12. A translation of the questions as they were exactly worded are provided in the appendix.

13. For further information about the dumping of sewage in the St. Lawrence River in Montreal in 2015 and Québec City in 2016 during repairs on the interceptors of wastewater plants (a controversy referred to as ‘flushgate’), see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/flushgate-sewage-dump-data-1.3320303.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministère de l’Éducation, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (Merit scholarship program for foreign students, managed by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France under Grant [ANR-16-FRQSC-0003] and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture.

Notes on contributors

Agnieszka Jeziorski

Agnieszka Jeziorski is postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherche en didactique, éducation et formation (LIRDEF), Université de Montpellier, Faculté d’éducation, 2 place Marcel Godechot, 34092 Montpellier Cedex 5, [email protected]. She is a member of the France-Quebec research program known as ‘Éducation interculturelle à l’environnement et au développement durable’ [Intercultural environmental and sustainable development education]. In her research on issues related to environmental education, citizenship and sustainable development, she mobilizes concepts of social representations, relationships to knowledges, territorial identity and agency.

Geneviève Therriault

Geneviève Therriault is a full professor in teaching practice at the secondary level in the Unité départementale des sciences de l’éducation de Rimouski (UDÉR), Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR). Her research interests centre on the study of the relationship to the knowledge of secondary school students and teachers, particularly with regard to issues related to the environment and sustainable development. She is the co-editor of a collective work ‘Rapport au(x) savoir(s) de l’enseignant et de l’apprenant: une énigmatique rencontre’ (Therriault, Baillet, Carnus & Vincent) published in 2017 by Éditions De Boeck Supérieur in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.