Network
NW 30 Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Title
Environmental and sustainability education in a time of poly-crisis: aims, knowledges, methodologies and practices
Abstract
In a time of poly-crisis, Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) faces considerable challenges. While the climate crisis is a present reality exacerbating the ongoing ecological crisis, other concerns are continuously brought to attention, including the dismantling of democracy, pandemics, wars and conflicts, the refugee crisis, the radical impact of AI, and the massive accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few. How should ESE address this situation and (re)articulate itself?
The Call
Aligned with the central theme of ECER 2026, NW30 invites researchers to consider the role of ESE research in a time of poly-crisis, regarding its aims, knowledge fields, methodologies and practices. Environmental education has, since being established as an international field in the 1960s, addressed ecological crises and increasingly the climate and biodiversity crisis as vital concerns for education. As a global education policy field, environmental education has a history going back to the Stockholm Conference in 1972, leading to the Belgrade Charter (1975) and the Tbilisi Declaration (1977), later to be transformed into the initiatives of Education for Sustainable Development, currently expressed in the formulation of target 4.7 and 13.3 of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 Transforming Our World.
The research field of ESE is diverse and heterogeneous, encompassing theoretical and empirical research, focusing on policy and practice. The present situation poses challenges at all levels, involving research, policy and educational practices. While the severity of the ecological and climate crisis intensifies, new intersecting crises emerge connected with war and violent conflicts, setbacks of democracy and mass migration in a world characterized by a massive misdistribution of wealth and resources. The situation creates a tide of existential risks and actual suffering labeling the times as one of poly-crisis. The predicaments call for international cooperation and solidarity, yet the revival of the nation states and populism foregrounds national interests, often at the expense of such co-operation. Artificial Intelligence represents new promises but may also deepen the poly-crisis, raising new concerns regarding purpose, content and methods of education and educational research.
- What is the role and function of ESE research in a time of poly-crisis?
- What kind of research is required to grasp the complexity entailed in poly-crisis?
- How can historical ESE policy, including the Belgrade Charter and the Tbilisi Declaration, constitute resources for a reconsideration of what ESE should be about? What role might education research play in bringing this about?
- In the context of poly-crisis, which aspects of the legacy from research traditions in the field remain relevant and which should be reviewed?
- How should the relationship between policy and research be conceived of in a time of poly-crisis?
- What are the implications for teaching, learning and education about environmental sustainability and environmental sustainability research in a time of poly-crisis?
- What kind of knowledge(s) are required in the field of ESE research in the present situation?
- What contributions to transforming society in sustainable directions may realistically be expected from schools and universities, and indeed beyond the walls of educational institutions?
- How can educational practices be shaped in relation to existential, emotional, ethical, and political concerns that arise from ecological breakdown?
- What may possibly be the positions of the human and the more-than-human in a reconsidered ESE?
- What are the potentials of ESE to contribute to resistance and transgressive learning?
Network 30 welcomes submissions – papers, posters, symposia, workshops, panels and ignite talks – that explore how ESE can respond, adapt and transform in an era of poly-crisis.
Contact Person(s)
Güliz Karaarslan Semiz gueliz.karaarslan-semiz(at)uni-vechta.de
Ole Andreas Kvamme o.a.kvamme(at)ils.uio.no