Participation and Learning: Perspectives on Education and the Environment, Health and Sustainability

Reid, Alan and Jensen, Bjarne Bruun and Nikel, Jutta (eds.) et al. (2008).
Dortrecht: Springer; 275 pages. $169.00. ISBN 9781402064159.

Participation is a buzzword in today’s environmental education as well as in much governmental and non-governmental environmental policy and practice. It seems to carry with it a vision and hope of a better society where citizens are socially engaged and concerned, ready to devote time, ideas and cooperative work to environmental and social matters. As this vision often is implicit in politicians, teachers or environmental education researchers’ interest in participation, yet coupled with a poor understanding of the outcomes of various participatory approaches for mitigating and adapting to environmental problems, a book such as this is most welcome.

The book’s 20 chapters offer a range of different perspectives on participation and explore the concept empirically in various settings. In the opening chapters, the reader is presented with conceptual papers that investigate the word “participation” as part of a discourse that has developed over some time. The writings provide a critical and analytical framework in that they stress the need to pose some necessary questions concerning who participates, in what they participate, and the reasons and rationale (the “why”) behind such arrangements. In the remaining chapters, participation is explored and discussed in a variety of contexts. Examples from schools are presented, as in gardening projects, school councils, and the exploration of the school as part of the community—including students’ views of their experiences of participation. One chapter deals specifically with dialogue and discussions between teachers and students in classroom contexts, and through the empirical findings we learn how students might, or might not, feel comfortable in expressing contrasting views. This work is most interesting and points to the fact that we still have not fully recognized what influences and/ or limits discussions on environmental and sustainability issues in the classroom (c.f. Lundholm, Hopwood and Rickinson in review; Rickinson and Lundholm 2008; Rickinson, Lundholm and Hopwood, forthcoming).

Several chapters address and critically discuss methodology in the pursuit of research on participation; however, too few chapters address theory in relation to learning. Also, the book presents teachers’ views on developing participatory approaches, as well as dilemmas faced by other “facilitators”—so-called mediators—working in governmental and non-governmental projects to engage participants in the public domain.

This book is of true relevance to teachers, non-governmental organizations and researchers interested in knowing what participation can look like in various contexts where the voices’ of the young are favored. However, I must also raise some issues of critique and concern. As the book covers a range of different settings and contexts, and as participation is often advocated as part of the discourse in developing countries, it would have been interesting to gain more insights into this particular area. How does a politically unstable and economically insecure livelihood influence participation and participants’ views of participation? Also, with an interest in education and learning, what role does literacy play in participatory approaches? This question relates to a concern with the empirical work presented: it is descriptive, but somewhat lacking in pointing to what outcomes make participatory approaches in education worthwhile. This is acknowledged in the editors’ point on future research (page 17), where these aspects are essential.  Future research must also give greater consideration to the questions of who (age, gender), what (curriculum, school council, water management, etc.), and where (urban/rural in developed/under-developed). Also, both (developmental) psychological perspectives and social, cultural, economical and political contextual awareness are needed. Further, more consideration of adjacent, although differently labeled research areas is needed, as in the research field of democratic citizenship and the research interest in “political socialization” and the development of social science understanding.

Finally, both “learning” and “environment” in the book’s title seem somehow to become rather invisible terms in the book. Perhaps this is due to the lack of exploring what participation brings in terms of learning, and focus on what participation and learning mean in relation to the environment? This is of vital importance as there seems to be an implicit view that “top-down” approaches are bad governance for dealing with environmental problems, and bottom-up is simply “good.” However, many researchers today are interested in looking at society’s ways of dealing with the paramount challenges of climate change and naturally consider how politics, businesses and citizens can work and sustain each other when change is needed. An example of the problem of top-down versus bottom-up decision-making is a recent referendum on congestion charges in Manchester, UK. From experience and research, we know this is an efficient and quick way to reduce CO₂ emissions from local transports. However, in this case, the political decision to let the public decide on whether or not to introduce charges meant that the plan was voted down. This example raises important questions concerning the concept of participation. Further discussions and research must widen the debate by considering, for example, classical dichotomies and dilemmas such as “the individual versus the state” and “rights versus duties” when governing our common resources.

Lundholm, C., N. Hopwood, and M. Rickinson (in review). “Environmental Learning: Insights from Research into the Student Experience.” In Brody, Dillon, Stevenson and Wals, eds. International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education. Routledge.

Rickinson, M. and C. Lundholm (2008). “Exploring Students’ Learning Challenges in Environmental Education.” Cambridge Journal of Education 38(3): 341-353.

Rickinson, M., C. Lundholm, and N. Hopwood (forthcoming) Environmental Learning: Insights from Research into the Student Experience. Amsterdam: Springer.

Cecilia Lundholm

Cecilia Lundholm is a researcher in the Department of Education at Stockholm University, where she is a member of the Conceptual Development research group (www.ped.su.se/rcd), and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Lundholm’s research interests concern communication and learning about environmental and sustainability issues. She carries out projects on students’ learning in Sweden as well as internationally, addressing learning of natural as well as societal phenomena as in economics.