Paper short abstract:

In this work in progress I look at environmental education provided by a Christian faith-based organisation (FBO) in England. Through ethnography, immersed in the environmental studies program, I describe how one FBO responds to the climate crisis with learning embedded in hope and Christian values.

Paper long abstract:

My work in progress is an ethnographic approach to Environmental Sustainability Education (ESE) in the UK: Environment Education was first mentioned at the UN IGC in Tbilisi in 1977. We have been educating our children and our communities since then. We are as educated as we have ever been, yet as closest to environmental disaster (Komatsu et al, 2020). Something isn’t working or hasn’t worked. I am using an ethnographic approach, to describe what ESE provided by FBOs (Faith-based organisations) looks like. My literature review identified a gap in research as well as a lack of attention to faith-based Environmental Education in general. My ethnographic research focusing on a Christian based environmental education group in England, for adult learners, suggests that those who take it up, become more environmentally active as they grow in confidence. The faith-based environmental education embedded in Christian values, that I look at, appears to be transformative, and encourages a sense of gentle activism. Christian Environmental Education works for those who sign up to Christian values. It is clearly a breeding space for hope and encourages those taking part towards action. FBOs offer spaces and places at the heart of many communities (in England) and can play an important role in dealing with the climate crisis. FBOs have become increasingly active on the environmental front from Pope Francis’s influential encyclical Laudato Si (2015) which speaks against a misguided anthropocentrism and advocates an integral ecology, to the presence of the first ever faith-pavilion at COP 28 (2023).