Intercultural Education for the Environment and Sustainable Development (EIEDD)

Intercultural Education for the Environment and Sustainable Development (EIEDD) – Relationships with Scientific Knowledge and Local Communities, and Eco-Civic Engagement Among High School Seniors in France and Quebec (2017–2020)

Numerous studies in science, environmental, and sustainable development education have identified a sense of fatalism and disengagement among young people in the face of the environmental crisis. Yet we know that to engage young people in school and as citizens, we must take into account their identities and aspirations and better connect education to the communities where they live.

With a view to promoting sustainable development (SD) in these regions and to fully address the concerns of young citizens from diverse cultural backgrounds who live there, this research project on intercultural education in science, the environment, and sustainable development (EIEDD) aims to develop an innovative Franco-Quebecois theoretical framework and test it to document how 16-year-olds perceive the sustainable development challenges facing a river in their local area. To this end, four case studies will be conducted in parallel in very different cultural and environmental contexts. Data will be collected through questionnaires (N=300) and individual interviews (N=100) to identify “typical profiles” of young people regarding their relationship to scientific knowledge and their local environments, as well as their attitudes and practices regarding eco-citizen engagement in light of the social, political, economic, ethical, or ecological issues they associate with the sustainable development of the river in question.

Two case studies will be conducted in Quebec and two in France. In each of these contexts, the first will involve young people from a sensitive multicultural neighborhood, while the second will focus on young people from a rural community whose governance is guided by the principles of sustainable development, in order to identify common or contrasting cultural elements—whether more local or more global—in France and Quebec. In France, the study areas will be located along the Seine, and in Quebec, along the St. Lawrence River, building on the research conducted by the teams led by Jean-Marc Lange and Barbara Bader. In a second phase, the young people interviewed will develop an interdisciplinary framework of priority issues they associate with the river’s sustainable development and will propose civic actions with the support of science and history-geography teachers, local stakeholders, and members of the research team. These interdisciplinary representations and eco-citizen initiatives will be co-developed and disseminated virtually across the four cultural contexts involved.

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Develop an original conceptual and analytical framework that integrates the concepts of “relationship to scientific knowledge,” “relationship to territories,” and “eco-citizen engagement” among high school seniors.

To identify “typical profiles” of 16-year-old Quebecers and French youth regarding the sustainable development of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec and the Seine River in France, based on four case studies.

In each region—in France and Quebec—working with the young people interviewed and two teachers per school, support the collaborative development of interdisciplinary representations of a sustainable development issue and define the ways in which young people engage in eco-citizenship based on their relationship to scientific knowledge and the regional, identity-related, and cultural dimensions identified.

Research funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC)

Overview of EIEDD Research