Using Lucie Sauvé’s environmental education typology: a systematic synthesis of citations

Abstract

Lucie Sauvé’s environmental education (EE) typology is a well-known framework and a theoretical starting point for critical analysis of the discourses and practices in the field. Over 15 years after its publication, the typology continues to circulate across diverse educational contexts and scholarly cultures. This study contributes to understanding how the EE typology is used in scholarly cultures and what keeps it in circulation. Through a systematic search of citing articles and a novel citation analysis, we explored the purpose and content of citations to Sauvé’s EE typology in 84 peer-review journal articles. The citation analysis revealed that scholars mostly use it to support conceptual or empirical claims about the diversity of approaches in EE, rarely attempting to problematise or enhance this framework. The study brings awareness of the benefits and limitations of using the EE typology and provides transferrable insights to reflect on the life of conceptual frameworks.

Keywords:

• Citation analysis
• systematic review
• citation function
• environmental education
• pedagogic models

Disclosure statement

There is no potential conflict of interest from any of the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14731329.v1

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ana I. Benavides Lahnstein

Benavides Lahnstein is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum, London, UK and an Associate Lecturer at the Open University. Her research interests are environmental education, science education, and citizen science. She has contributed to and led research in project-based learning for science education, innovative science education teaching practices, teachers’ conceptions of environmental education, community environmental education in sustainability school projects, and environmental citizen science.

Gonzalo Peñaloza

Gonzalo Peñaloza is a researcher at Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Unidad Monterrey, México. His research interests focus on exploring the borders between science and cultural context in formal and non-formal learning environments, through theoretical and empirical studies. He is trying to understand how science education contributes to foster critical thinking, and how biology education interacts with religion, culture, politics, and society.