The Geopolitics of Environmental Education: An Analysis of School Textbooks in the MENA Region
Publisher: Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society
Author(s): Tobias Ide, Abdulkhaleq Alwan, Khalil Bader, Noureddine Dougui, Maysoun Husseini, Elarbi Imad, Farouk Gaafar Abdel Hakim Marzouk, Amany M. Taha Moustafa, and Riem Spielhaus
Date: 2018
Topics: Climate Change, Conflict Causes, Governance, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Armenia, El Salvador, Haiti
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.