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- Convenors:
-
Georgeta Stoica
(Université de Mayotte (France))
Aline Tribollet (IRD)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel invites papers offering a critical examination of the environmental education practices, environmental awareness programs, Fridays for Future actions etc. We particularly welcome contributions on what we term "children empowerment" in the context of a fast-changing society.
Long Abstract:
Despite the "code red" warning from the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the Earth Summits conferences and the appearance of Anthropocene new geological epoch (Crutzen, 2002) few concrete initiatives and proposals for changes have been advanced by political representatives from different countries. It is in this context that a powerful voice appeared, that of Greta Thunberg at the Cop 24 United Nations climate change summit in 2018. The Greta Thunberg speeches have contributed to an increased awareness about environment and climate change in both children and adults. Her urgent call for actions has been sustained by millions of teenagers that support her in challenging political institutions and powerful personalities. All this in a context, where there is a need to empower future generations so that they can act and think critically about the accelerated changes (Eriksen 2016) associated with environmentalism and sustainability.
Considering that environmental education (Kopnina 2012) is left at the margins of the teaching activities at the benefit of core subjects such as Literacy and Math and that children's proposals are not taken seriously, this panel offers a critical examination of the environmental education practices but also of the actions that are happening outside of the school i.e. environmental awareness programs, scientific educational programs, Fridays for Future actions etc.
We welcome empirically informed and/or theoretical discussions that address one or more of the following themes: youth activism and climate change, children empowerment and environmental governance, NGOs and environmental protection, environmental awareness and schools curricula.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 July, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
In this paper, we will discuss the case of the marine educational areas established in the Reunion Island asking the following question : In which way the establishment of marine educational areas changed the relationship that children have with the marine environement ?
Paper long abstract:
Born in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, the "marine educational areas" represent a concept that aim at the participative management of a coastal marine area by primary school pupils under the supervision of their teacher and a scientific referent. As a reminder, it were the pupils of the Vaitahu primary school (Tahuata Island), during exchanges with scientists from the Pakaihi i te moana oceanographic campaign, who expressed their desire to be responsible for a marine area located near their school, which led to the establishment of the first educational marine area in 2012. Three years later, during the 2015 Paris Conference on Climate Change (COP 21), a partnership was signed by Ségolène Royal, Minister in charge of the environment, and Edouard Fritch, President of the French Polynesian government. This partnership has led to the development of marine educational areas with 8 pilot schools in 2016 in mainland France and overseas. Presently, there are more than 200 marine educational areas projects. In this context, the main actors are children who actively participate in educational projects set up locally by teachers in line with national programmes with the aim of educating them about the marine environment and making them responsible for their future actions to preserve nature. In this paper, we will discuss the case of the marine educational areas established in the Reunion island asking the following questions : In which way the establishment of marine educational areas changed the relationship that children have with the marine environement ?
Paper short abstract:
While a growing number of young people are becoming involved in environmental movements world wide, the majority remain silent. A European project in Bordeaux has allowed us to question what drives awareness and engagement, leading us to develop new multiscalar approaches to environmental education.
Paper long abstract:
As an anthropologist, I have long focused on citizen movements of urban youth on the African continent (Senegal, Tanzania, Togo), and my interest in citizen movements of young people in favour of the environment and climate is now part of this continuity. However, these young people, despite their large numbers, represent a minority of their generation, which tells us nothing about the majority of the others, remaining on the fringes of the commitment.Through a European project conducted with students between 13 and 20 years old in Bordeaux (France), I was able to question their interest in environmental and climate issues, and what constitutes the driving force behind awareness and civic commitment. Previously introduced to the method of ethnographic enquiry, these young people were invited to produce their own enquiry, questioning their needs, their livelihoods, their social environment, but also what directly affects their lives, and then encouraging them to open their gaze to a wider scale, and highlight what they are surprisingly connected to (Latour 2019, Eriksen 2016). A long process leading to the making of a film (18 min short film in the form of a dystopia, followed by an advocacy piece written and embodied by the young people), punctuated by workshops documenting a geopolitics of the SDGs, and others focused on pro-social behaviours such as empathy, care, mutual aid, considering with Tim Ingold (2018) that the capacity to pay attention is at the heart of education.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper the purpose is to present the results of interpretative phenomenological description (IPA) analysis of the relation between human and animal by stressing the need to raise the interest and strengthen children’s connection with wildlife from an early age through the principles of outdoor pedagogy and experiential learning.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper the purpose is to present the results of interpretative phenomenological description (IPA) analysis of the relationship between human and animal. On the other hand, the invitation to raise the interest in fauna and flora from an early age by applying the principles of outdoor pedagogy and experiential learning is suggested as the solution to strengthen children’s connection with wildlife. As many scientific studies reveal, science education in EU formal education today is methodologically limited, consisting mostly of classroom work. For these reasons, children spend less and less time in nature, so the encounter with the wildlife is much more likely to happen through television rather than in natural habitats. This leads to creating the false impression that the human and animal worlds are distant and separate. According to the results of IPA analysis, in the intersubjective relation between humans and animals, such a phenomenon of alienation is based on the subject-object model, where human takes a privileged position and animal is perceived as an object or a tool. Often, confrontation with the body of the other evokes fear, while the human usually occupies a privileged position, claiming that animals need to be restrained, scared away or eliminated. However, if the ecological thinking in the early age would not be limited to recycling or recreation – that kind of person would be able to understand the entire global ecosystem and the importance of environmental protection. A short introduction of the Lithuania case will be presented.