The eco-club: a place for the becoming active citizen?

Abstract

This paper makes a twofold contribution. Firstly it presents a typology of eco-clubs that can be used to contextualise eco-club observations by researchers and can support management of eco-clubs by practitioners. Secondly it explains how participation in eco-clubs provides a space for a child to both enact and develop as a citizen, a place for being-as-becoming. It shows how children navigate adult behaviours in these settings and how these experiences afford opportunities for the development of attributes including critical and analytical thinking that are commonly associated with citizenship education in England. In conclusion the paper makes links between these unintended outcomes and the liberal underpinnings of educational institutions in England.

Keywords:

• Citizenship Education
• Action Competence
• Critical thinking
• Environment Clubs

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank William Scott for his support in preparing this article; and for his encouragement and teaching before, during and after the doctoral study on which it is based. The author also wishes to acknowledge the support and encouragement of her supervisors, Elisabeth Barratt Hacking and Stephen Gough during the doctoral study.

Notes

1. https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/accreditation-and-awards/International-School-Award last accessed on the 14th of May 2015.

2. http://eco-schools.org.uk/aboutecoschools Last accessed on 15 May, 2015 at 11.15.

3. Ofsted is the regulatory body in the UK that inspects schools to monitor their progress.

4. Words quoted from the Wise Owl in ‘How Elephant got her Trunk’ from the Tinga Tinga Tales Series of Children’s books.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a University Research Scholarship at The University of Bath.