All Mixed Up? Instrumental and Emancipatory Learning Toward a More Sustainable World: Considerations for EE Policymakers

Abstract

World wide, policymakers are looking for ways to use education and communication strategies to create a world that is more sustainable than the one currently in prospect. They often find themselves trapped between instrumental (behavior change) and emancipatory (human development) uses of such strategies. This study sheds light on this apparent divide by investigating four exemplary cases representing both orientations and mixes thereof. One outcome of the study is that EE policymakers but also EE professionals first need to reflect on the kind of change challenge that is at stake. Only then are they able to determine what kind of education, participation, communication, or mix thereof is most appropriate, what kinds of results can best be pursued, and what monitoring and evaluation system can best be employed.