Transformative Sustainability Education: Reimagining Our Future

This book lays out the principles and practices of transformative sustainability education using a relational way of thinking and being.

Elizabeth A. Lange advocates for a new approach to environmental and sustainability education, that of rethinking the Western way of knowing and being and engendering a frank discussion about the societal elements that are generating climate, environmental, economic, and social issues. Highlighting the importance of Indigenous and life-giving cultures, the book covers educational theory, transformation stories of adult learners, social and economic critique, and visions of changemakers. Each chapter also has a strong pedagogical element, with entry points for learners and embodied practices and examples of taking action at micro/meso/macro levels woven throughout. Overall, this book enacts a relational approach to transformative sustainability education that draws from post humanist theory, process thought, relational ontology, decolonization theory, Indigenous philosophy, and a spirituality that builds a sense of sacred towards the living world.

Written in an imaginative, storytelling manner, this book will be a great resource for formal and nonformal environmental and sustainability educators.

Elizabeth A. Lange is Honorary and Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Futures of the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. At three Canadian universities, she has served as a professor in adult and lifelong education with over 40 years' experience as a formal and nonformal transformative educator. She is a scholar of transformative learning, sustainability education, and transcultural learning, winning awards for her research.