What moves us also moves policy: the role of affect in mobilizing education policy on sustainability

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of affect in influencing whether and how education policy on sustainability is circulated, adopted or resisted. Drawing on empirical data from K-12 education across Canada, the paper examines the mobility of sustainability in education policy in relation to i) collective affective conditions, ii) the mediating influences of affective bodily encounters, and iii) affect as a target of apparatuses of power. The analysis suggests how collective conditions of precarity or environmental responsibility, policy actors’ attachments to nature and relationships with other policy actors, and the affective mediations of technologies of power such as eco-certification programs, all contribute to mobilizing sustainability in education policy in the schools, divisions, and ministries under study. The article offers insights for sustainability initiatives in education and for research attending to the affective mobilities of education policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Affect
• policy mobility
• education policy
• sustainability education
• environmental education

Acknowledgments

This publication draws on research from the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN), supported by a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant No 895-2011-1025, Principal Investigator Dr. Marcia McKenzie). For more information visit www.sepn.ca. We would like to thank research assistants and associates involved in data collection; SEPN team members involved in the research design; and the administrators, teachers, staff, and students who participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Key informants included members of teachers’ unions and sustainability education teaching specialist associations, as well as regional school eco-certification staff.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Grant No 895-2011-1025].

Notes on contributors

Viviana O. Pitton

Viviana O. Pitton is a Research Associate with the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN) at the University of Saskatchewan. She holds an Ed.M. and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has published on topics related to educational policies, neoliberalism, and globalization.

Marcia McKenzie

Marcia McKenzie is a Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Director of the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (www.sepn.ca), and leads the Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education (MECCE) project, a six-year global partnership project to advance the quality and quantity of climate change education, training, and public awareness. She is co-author/editor of four books, including Place in Research: Theory, Methodology, and Methods (Routledge, 2015); and Critical Education and Sociomaterial Practice (Peter Lang, 2016); and is co-editor of the Palgrave book series Studies in Education and the Environment.