The Geopolitics of Environmental Education

In: Journal of educational media, memory, and society: JEMMS ; the journal of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 64-83

Abstract

This article analyzes the geopolitical imaginations promoted via environmental
education in the school textbooks of five states in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) region. In doing so, it builds bridges between critical studies
of education and political ecology. It shows that, when addressing environmental
problems, the textbooks examined depoliticize environmental problems and
sustain political and economic power structures. They do so by individualizing
responsibility for environmental problems, legitimizing political and economic
elites, associating environmental protection with wider societal goals, and externalizing
environmental problems.