CRITICAL THEORY IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: A SITUATED REVIEW OF EMERGING CRITICAL PROCESSES FOR MEDIATING LEARNING-LED CHANGE

Abstract

Critical theory is explored from origins in a process theory of social development after Marx, and into a diversity of discourses that have shaped critical work in education today. Within this broader picture, the emergence of critical theory in a South African context of environmental education is examined as developing narratives informing learning-led change.  The study reviews how critical pedagogy proliferated in education imperatives with little evidence of the desired transformation.  Immanent critique is used to track two intermeshed streams of critical theory namely, imperatives to facilitate emancipatory change and a democratizing shift to participatory inclusion (empowerment). Here the study notes how contextual reflexivity receded and an early emphasis on critical literacy was muted as critical pedagogy emerged as democratic processes of self-empowerment and transformative learning through participatory action research.

The review concludes with a brief examination of some process theories of learning in an attempt to reconcile narrowing disjunctures and to better situate environmental education as more open-ended critical processes of co-engaged learning.