Stewardship and beyond? Young people’s lived experience of conservation activities in school grounds

Citation

Ruck A & Mannion G (2021) Stewardship and beyond? Young people’s lived experience of conservation activities in school grounds. Environmental Education Research, 27 (10), pp. 1502-1516. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1964439

Abstract
This article provides ethnographic insight into the more-than-human relationships enacted through young people’s participation in school grounds conservation activities. As a response to the escalating biodiversity crisis, conservation appears well-placed to facilitate young people’s development of an environmental ethic of care, and a capacity to work towards addressing environmental issues. Proponents of posthuman pedagogies, however, argue that the ‘stewardship’ perspective underlying these activities fails to achieve the radical shift in human-environment relations required in response to the Anthropocene, given its apparent reinforcement of a perceived human/nature binary, and narrow ‘solutions’-based approach. Considering these critiques, this article demonstrates that where there is openness to unplanned more-than-human encounters and the enactment of young people’s own ‘lived curricula’, conservation activities can nonetheless enable forms of ‘collective thinking with the more-than-human world’ that transcend any underlying ‘stewardship’ perspective. We therefore point to the potential role of conservation activities within posthuman responses to the Anthropocene, provided such openness is maintained.

Keywords
Conservation; anthropocene; more-than-human; stewardship; school grounds; posthuman

Journal
Environmental Education Research: Volume 27, Issue 10

People

Professor Gregory Mannion

Professor, Education