This symposium is organised by the scientific research network ‘Public Pedagogy and Sustainability Challenges’. The network brings together educational theorists, sustainability education researchers, political scientists and researchers in the field of sustainability transition governance from Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Ireland and South-Africa. They share an interest in the relation between education and societal transformation and want to deepen and widen the understanding of the public role of education in the face of sustainability challenges through interdisciplinary research collaboration. The aim of the network is to progress theory development and empirical research on public pedagogy with a focus on sustainability challenges and to address questions such as: How can education play a democratic role in addressing sustainability challenges? What are vital conditions or obstacles to make this possible? What does this imply for designing sustainability education practices? What are the theoretical, methodological and empirical implications of researching sustainability education as public pedagogy?  

Working with these questions, three important considerations are taken into account: 1) Sustainability challenges are severe and urgently require radical action (e.g. IPCC, 2018); 2) Sustainability challenges can often be characterised as ethical and political challenges for which no clear-cut, uncontested solutions exist (e.g. Ashley, 2005; Van Poeck, Östman & Öhman, forthcoming) and 3) Education should not be reduced to an instrument to solve societal problems (e.g. Biesta, 2006; Säfström, 2011; Todd, 2011; Masschelein & Simons, 2013). The tension between these three assumptions bring about interesting issues for further conceptualising public pedagogy in the context of sustainability challenges. It raises questions as to what constitutes ‘the public’ in the face of sustainability issues, for instance, or what characterises public pedagogy as ‘pedagogy’ – and not, for example, communication or activism. The main challenge seems to be how to relate the key concepts ‘public’, ‘pedagogy’ and ‘sustainability’.

This symposium aims to progress the understanding of public pedagogy in the face of sustainability challenges by addressing key research challenges identified in this research network: the need for further conceptual clarification on the relationship between public pedagogy and sustainability issues, the need for empirical research on the topic and the need for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. It is a symposium in two parts. This first part gathers contributions from Belgium, Sweden, South-Africa, Ireland, Denmark and Norway. Vandenabeele and Decuypere draw on a case study of an urban gardening project and the work of Stengers and de Certeau in search of a ‘navigational approach’ to ESE practices that is neither focused on problem-solving, nor on individual transformation but on the situated attachments people maintain to a particular milieu. Van Poeck, Östman, Lotz-Sisitka and Dempsey explore the tension between a radical pedagogical perspective and a radical view on the urgent need for a transition towards a more sustainable world from a methodological and empirical. They discuss the potential of cross-fertilisation between different modes of investigating the relationship between education and societal change in the face of sustainability issues. Håkansson, Læssøe and Wildemeersch’ contribution is grounded in the observation of increasing conflicts between ‘social’ and ‘ecological’ concerns and focuses on the learning taking place in the emerging commons movement, in particular on social learning processes enhancing new attachments to the earth. Hansson, Öhman and Thunblad draw on the work of Dewey and Rosenblatt to explore museums as sites of public pedagogy. They focus on the role of aesthetic experience in teaching and learning sustainability issues in museum education.

Ashley M. 2005. Tensions between indoctrination and the development of judgement: the case against early closure. Environmental Education Research 11(2), 187–197. Biesta, G. 2006. Beyond learning. Democratic education for a human future. Boulder: Paradigm. IPCC 2018. Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. Masschelein, J. & Simons, M. 2013. In defence of the school. A public issue. Leuven: E-ducation, Culture & Society Publishers. Säfström, C.A. 2011. Rethinking Emancipation, Rethinking Education. Studies in Philosophy & Education 30(2), 199–209. Todd, S. 2011. Educating Beyond Cultural Diversity: Redrawing the Boundaries of a Democratic Plurality. Studies in Philosophy & Education 30, 101–111. Van Poeck, K., Östman, L. & Öhman, J. (in press) Sustainable Development Teaching: Ethical and Political Challenges. London: Routledge.