Katrien Van Poeck
Biographic Data
| ID | 1574201 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katrien Van Poeck |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katrien |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Poeck |
| SIGNATURE | VAN POECK K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4244-5596 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 176 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The educative potential of encountering and attending to losses in sustainability transitions
People are increasingly experiencing losses in their lifestyles, habits, and environments, not only due to unsustainability and climate change but also due to sustainability transitions (STs). Encountering the latter can lead to “transition pain” and resistance to STs, but it is still underexplored empirically in environmental and sustainability education. With transactional learning theory based on Dewey and the concept of conflicting attachment…
Studying feelings in action: An analytical framework for empirical analyses of affect in sustainability transitions
Research on feelings and emotions has gained importance for understanding sustainability transitions in recent years. However, a central question remains unanswered: How precisely does affect influence the creation of change in sustainability transitions and which conditions shape this relation? This paper calls for detailed in-situ studies in which affect can be linked to changes in habits and practices. It proposes an analytical framework based…
Field robots for weed control? Analyzing socio-technical change by looking at farming practices
The digitalization of agriculture is bringing about far-reaching socio-technical changes. This article analyzes these changes by looking at farming habits. Transactional theory of learning is introduced as an analytical perspective for investigating farmers' consideration processes and experimentation with potential habit changes related to the use of digital technologies. The analytical perspective is applied to a case study of robotic weed cont…
Teaching controversial sustainability issues at the junior high-school level: An explorative study of teaching traditions and associations with ways of teaching
Education about controversial sustainability issues is vital for society’s ability to handle problems like climate change in a democratic manner. How teachers educate about these issues should, ideally, be evidence-based. However, teachers’ ideals and attitudes about education also play a role in how they teach. The aim of this questionnaire study with Swedish junior high-school teachers’ (n=378) was to explore whether, and how, different teachin…
Facilitating learning in view of sustainability transitions
This paper presents and illustrates an analytical approach for developing knowledge on facilitating learning processes that can enable sustainability transitions. Theoretically, it combines and integrates inspiration from dramaturgical analysis, transactional pragmatism and didactical theory. It conceptualises the facilitation of learning in terms of scripting, staging and performance and focuses on how a setting and the people acting within/upon…
Anthropocosmism: An Eastern humanist approach to the Anthropocene
This paper addresses the discussion on the Anthropocene in environmental education research.It aims to enrich and widen the debate about the appropriateness of humanist approaches to environmental education and sustainability.In response to criticism about anthropocentric responses to human-made environmental destruction, the authors introduce a version of Eastern humanism: Tu Weiming's 'Anthropocosmism' .This idea of a non-anthropocentric humani…
When teaching habits meet educational innovation: Problematic situations in the implementation of sustainability education through ‘open schooling’
In the face of the global sustainability crisis, schools and teachers are called on to transform education and implement educational innovations to strengthen sustainability education. One of these innovations is ‘open schooling’: educational practices that involve students in identifying, exploring, and tackling real-world sustainability problems in the school environment and the local community. Such – often externally driven – innovations can …
Pluralistic environmental and sustainability education – a scholarly review
In this scholarly review we critically discuss the last 30 years of research on pluralism in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). Pluralism has been a focal point for a vast amount of theoretical and empirical studies in the research field. Since the journal Environmental Education Research (EER) was established, 158 articles have been published that to some extend refer to pluralism or pluralistic ESE. In this review we analyse the …
The existential tendency’ in climate change education: An empirically informed typology
Climate change education (CCE) brings about existential concerns of students. Teachers in turn are confronted with didactic demands to take into account the existential challenge climate change elicits. However, conceptual haziness about how to understand ‘the existential’ in CCE complicates didactic research on the topic, impedes researchers to get a nuanced understanding of ‘the existential’ in CCE, and, thus, hinders the development of empiric…
Teaching action-oriented knowledge on sustainability issues
Knowledge about sustainability problems as it is typically taught does not per se lead to action for tackling these problems. Environmental and sustainability education researchers have argued for teaching more action-oriented knowledge. This article addresses the ‘didactical work’ required for teachers to do so, both in preparing and implementing lessons. The authors employ transactional didactic theory and the analytical method Practical Episte…
Agency in action: Towards a transactional approach for analyzing agency in sustainability transitions
What can we learn from Covid-19 as a form of public pedagogy
This paper aims to investigate the corona-crisis as a large-scale, unplanned and unintended global experiment of ‘public pedagogy’. An investigation is focused on touching upon emergent questions such as: What does our experience of the crisis brought about by the emergence of this specific virus tell us about our assumptions of learning and of public engagement with an issue as a form of public pedagogy? We bring into play transactional theory o…
Wicked problems: A mapping review of the literature
The term ‘wicked problems’ is today widely used in the sustainability literature, but there is no consensus on its theoretical underpinnings or its utility for research. This paper reports on a mapping review of the wicked problems literature for which we analyzed a sample of 55 papers regarding 1. whether and how the term ‘wicked problems’ is used as a theoretical concept, 2. what meanings are associated with the concept, 3. what epistemological…
Learning to find a way out of non-sustainable systems
Exploring the role of learning in sustainability transitions: A case study using a novel analytical approach
Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article’s theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition studies. Proceeding from this theoretical perspective, a two-stage empirical analysis is conducted u…
The Risk and Potentiality of Engaging with Sustainability Problems in Education—A Pragmatist Teaching Approach
This article engages in the discussion about education's role in relation to sustainability problems, a debate characterised by a tension between two legitimate concerns: a concern about the instrumentalisation of education, and a concern for the urgent need of widespread engagement and mobilisation for coping with the consequences of severe socio-ecological problems. The authors argue for an approach that takes both concerns seriously. Drawing o…
Opening up the black box of learning-by-doing in sustainability transitions
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux countries: Research, policy and practices at the intersection of education and societal transformation
As an introductory article of a Special Issue on Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in the Benelux region, this paper provides an overview of ESE research, policy and practice in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. It discusses the different contributions in this collection with regard to how the central theme of this issue, the relation between education and societal transformation, is approached in each paper. The main charac…
Balancing the urgency and wickedness of sustainability challenges: Three maxims for post-normal education
In this response article, we explain why sustainability issues are often interpreted as ‘wicked’ or unstructured problems and focus on the consequences for education and societal transformation in view of sustainable development. Drawing on Funtowicz and Ravetz’ (1993 Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz. 1993. “Science for the Post-Normal Age.” Futures 2 (7): 739–755.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) fourfold ‘facts are uncertain, values in dispute, …
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux region
peer reviewed
Environmental and sustainability education in a post-truth era. An exploration of epistemology and didactics beyond the objectivism-relativism dualism
This article focuses on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in the context of the topical post-truth debate. It aims to progress theoretical research as well as empirical investigations on how ESE practices can avoid the pitfalls involved in an objectivist as well as a relativist approach to teaching and learning. After elaborating the problems implied in both these approaches, the article explores concepts developed in science and t…
Creating space for ‘the political’ in environmental and sustainability education practice: A Political Move Analysis of educators’ actions
Literature about education’s role in realising a more sustainable world emphasises the importance of acknowledging democratic and political challenges in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). This article offers an empirically grounded theoretical and methodological contribution to future research on how ‘the political’ is introduced, handled and experienced in ESE practice. It presents an analytical method, ‘Political Move Analysis’,…
An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: Mapping a Moving and Intertwined Landscape
Van Poeck, K., J. Læssøe, and T. Block. 2017. An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: mapping a moving and intertwined landscape. Ecology and Society 22(2):33. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09308-220233
The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research – an introduction to a virtual special issue
This article introduces the themes of a virtual special issue (VSI) of Environmental Education Research (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focused on policy research in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The broad purpose behind preparing the VSI was to consider the challenges involved in linking particular concepts of environment and sustainability with key themes in educational policy, and how this remains a hea…
The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research
Environmental Education Research has developed a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focusing on studies of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) policy. The VSI draws on key examples of research on this topic published in the Journal from the past two decades, for three reasons. First, to provide readers with a series of snapshots into the genealogy of ESE policy research in this field. Sec…
Opening up the black box of learning-by-doing in sustainability transitions
Learning from sustainable development: Education in the light of public issues
Education for sustainable development plays an increasing role in environmental education policy and practice. In this article, we show how sustainable development is mainly seen as a goal that can be achieved by applying the proper processes of learning and how this learning perspective translates sustainability issues into learning problems of individuals. We present a different perspective on education for sustainable development and emphasize…
Learning to find a way out of non-sustainable systems
The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research
Environmental Education Research has developed a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focusing on studies of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) policy. The VSI draws on key examples of research on this topic published in the Journal from the past two decades, for three reasons. First, to provide readers with a series of snapshots into the genealogy of ESE policy research in this field. Sec…
Taking stock of the UN Decade of education for sustainable development: The policy-making process in Flanders
In this paper, we address the implementation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Flanders, a sub-national entity of Belgium. Our analysis shows how the policy-making process in Flanders is inextricably intertwined with three developments in environmental and educational policy: the increasing impact of ESD policy and discourse on environmental education, the framing of social and political problems as learning probl…
Environmental and sustainability education in a post-truth era. An exploration of epistemology and didactics beyond the objectivism-relativism dualism
This article focuses on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in the context of the topical post-truth debate. It aims to progress theoretical research as well as empirical investigations on how ESE practices can avoid the pitfalls involved in an objectivist as well as a relativist approach to teaching and learning. After elaborating the problems implied in both these approaches, the article explores concepts developed in science and t…
The Risk and Potentiality of Engaging with Sustainability Problems in Education—A Pragmatist Teaching Approach
This article engages in the discussion about education's role in relation to sustainability problems, a debate characterised by a tension between two legitimate concerns: a concern about the instrumentalisation of education, and a concern for the urgent need of widespread engagement and mobilisation for coping with the consequences of severe socio-ecological problems. The authors argue for an approach that takes both concerns seriously. Drawing o…
Creating space for ‘the political’ in environmental and sustainability education practice: A Political Move Analysis of educators’ actions
Literature about education’s role in realising a more sustainable world emphasises the importance of acknowledging democratic and political challenges in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). This article offers an empirically grounded theoretical and methodological contribution to future research on how ‘the political’ is introduced, handled and experienced in ESE practice. It presents an analytical method, ‘Political Move Analysis’,…
Revisiting the democratic paradox of environmental and sustainability education: Sustainability issues as matters of concern
In this article, we address the democratic paradox in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) by drawing on Bruno Latour’s conceptual distinction between ‘matters of fact’ and ‘matters of concern’ and the notion of attachments that goes with it. We present an analysis of three cases (nature excursions, workshops that promote ecological behavioural change and making documentary films) focusing on how diverse educational practices deal wit…
Teaching action-oriented knowledge on sustainability issues
Knowledge about sustainability problems as it is typically taught does not per se lead to action for tackling these problems. Environmental and sustainability education researchers have argued for teaching more action-oriented knowledge. This article addresses the ‘didactical work’ required for teachers to do so, both in preparing and implementing lessons. The authors employ transactional didactic theory and the analytical method Practical Episte…
Agency in action: Towards a transactional approach for analyzing agency in sustainability transitions
Exploring the role of learning in sustainability transitions: A case study using a novel analytical approach
Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article’s theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition studies. Proceeding from this theoretical perspective, a two-stage empirical analysis is conducted u…
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux region
peer reviewed
Education as a response to sustainability issues. Practices of environmental education in the context of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
status: Published
When teaching habits meet educational innovation: Problematic situations in the implementation of sustainability education through ‘open schooling’
In the face of the global sustainability crisis, schools and teachers are called on to transform education and implement educational innovations to strengthen sustainability education. One of these innovations is ‘open schooling’: educational practices that involve students in identifying, exploring, and tackling real-world sustainability problems in the school environment and the local community. Such – often externally driven – innovations can …
Balancing the urgency and wickedness of sustainability challenges: Three maxims for post-normal education
In this response article, we explain why sustainability issues are often interpreted as ‘wicked’ or unstructured problems and focus on the consequences for education and societal transformation in view of sustainable development. Drawing on Funtowicz and Ravetz’ (1993 Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz. 1993. “Science for the Post-Normal Age.” Futures 2 (7): 739–755.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) fourfold ‘facts are uncertain, values in dispute, …
The existential tendency’ in climate change education: An empirically informed typology
Climate change education (CCE) brings about existential concerns of students. Teachers in turn are confronted with didactic demands to take into account the existential challenge climate change elicits. However, conceptual haziness about how to understand ‘the existential’ in CCE complicates didactic research on the topic, impedes researchers to get a nuanced understanding of ‘the existential’ in CCE, and, thus, hinders the development of empiric…
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux countries: Research, policy and practices at the intersection of education and societal transformation
As an introductory article of a Special Issue on Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in the Benelux region, this paper provides an overview of ESE research, policy and practice in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. It discusses the different contributions in this collection with regard to how the central theme of this issue, the relation between education and societal transformation, is approached in each paper. The main charac…
The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research – an introduction to a virtual special issue
This article introduces the themes of a virtual special issue (VSI) of Environmental Education Research (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focused on policy research in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The broad purpose behind preparing the VSI was to consider the challenges involved in linking particular concepts of environment and sustainability with key themes in educational policy, and how this remains a hea…
Learning from sustainable development: Education in the light of public issues
Education for sustainable development plays an increasing role in environmental education policy and practice. In this article, we show how sustainable development is mainly seen as a goal that can be achieved by applying the proper processes of learning and how this learning perspective translates sustainability issues into learning problems of individuals. We present a different perspective on education for sustainable development and emphasize…
Taking stock of the UN Decade of education for sustainable development: The policy-making process in Flanders
In this paper, we address the implementation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Flanders, a sub-national entity of Belgium. Our analysis shows how the policy-making process in Flanders is inextricably intertwined with three developments in environmental and educational policy: the increasing impact of ESD policy and discourse on environmental education, the framing of social and political problems as learning probl…
Revisiting the democratic paradox of environmental and sustainability education: Sustainability issues as matters of concern
In this article, we address the democratic paradox in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) by drawing on Bruno Latour’s conceptual distinction between ‘matters of fact’ and ‘matters of concern’ and the notion of attachments that goes with it. We present an analysis of three cases (nature excursions, workshops that promote ecological behavioural change and making documentary films) focusing on how diverse educational practices deal wit…
Education as a response to sustainability issues. Practices of environmental education in the context of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
status: Published
The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research – an introduction to a virtual special issue
This article introduces the themes of a virtual special issue (VSI) of Environmental Education Research (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focused on policy research in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The broad purpose behind preparing the VSI was to consider the challenges involved in linking particular concepts of environment and sustainability with key themes in educational policy, and how this remains a hea…
The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research
Environmental Education Research has developed a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focusing on studies of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) policy. The VSI draws on key examples of research on this topic published in the Journal from the past two decades, for three reasons. First, to provide readers with a series of snapshots into the genealogy of ESE policy research in this field. Sec…
Creating space for ‘the political’ in environmental and sustainability education practice: A Political Move Analysis of educators’ actions
Literature about education’s role in realising a more sustainable world emphasises the importance of acknowledging democratic and political challenges in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). This article offers an empirically grounded theoretical and methodological contribution to future research on how ‘the political’ is introduced, handled and experienced in ESE practice. It presents an analytical method, ‘Political Move Analysis’,…
An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: Mapping a Moving and Intertwined Landscape
Van Poeck, K., J. Læssøe, and T. Block. 2017. An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: mapping a moving and intertwined landscape. Ecology and Society 22(2):33. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09308-220233
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux countries: Research, policy and practices at the intersection of education and societal transformation
As an introductory article of a Special Issue on Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in the Benelux region, this paper provides an overview of ESE research, policy and practice in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. It discusses the different contributions in this collection with regard to how the central theme of this issue, the relation between education and societal transformation, is approached in each paper. The main charac…
Balancing the urgency and wickedness of sustainability challenges: Three maxims for post-normal education
In this response article, we explain why sustainability issues are often interpreted as ‘wicked’ or unstructured problems and focus on the consequences for education and societal transformation in view of sustainable development. Drawing on Funtowicz and Ravetz’ (1993 Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz. 1993. “Science for the Post-Normal Age.” Futures 2 (7): 739–755.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) fourfold ‘facts are uncertain, values in dispute, …
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux region
peer reviewed
Environmental and sustainability education in a post-truth era. An exploration of epistemology and didactics beyond the objectivism-relativism dualism
This article focuses on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in the context of the topical post-truth debate. It aims to progress theoretical research as well as empirical investigations on how ESE practices can avoid the pitfalls involved in an objectivist as well as a relativist approach to teaching and learning. After elaborating the problems implied in both these approaches, the article explores concepts developed in science and t…
Exploring the role of learning in sustainability transitions: A case study using a novel analytical approach
Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article’s theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition studies. Proceeding from this theoretical perspective, a two-stage empirical analysis is conducted u…
The Risk and Potentiality of Engaging with Sustainability Problems in Education—A Pragmatist Teaching Approach
This article engages in the discussion about education's role in relation to sustainability problems, a debate characterised by a tension between two legitimate concerns: a concern about the instrumentalisation of education, and a concern for the urgent need of widespread engagement and mobilisation for coping with the consequences of severe socio-ecological problems. The authors argue for an approach that takes both concerns seriously. Drawing o…
Opening up the black box of learning-by-doing in sustainability transitions
What can we learn from Covid-19 as a form of public pedagogy
This paper aims to investigate the corona-crisis as a large-scale, unplanned and unintended global experiment of ‘public pedagogy’. An investigation is focused on touching upon emergent questions such as: What does our experience of the crisis brought about by the emergence of this specific virus tell us about our assumptions of learning and of public engagement with an issue as a form of public pedagogy? We bring into play transactional theory o…
Wicked problems: A mapping review of the literature
The term ‘wicked problems’ is today widely used in the sustainability literature, but there is no consensus on its theoretical underpinnings or its utility for research. This paper reports on a mapping review of the wicked problems literature for which we analyzed a sample of 55 papers regarding 1. whether and how the term ‘wicked problems’ is used as a theoretical concept, 2. what meanings are associated with the concept, 3. what epistemological…
Learning to find a way out of non-sustainable systems
Pluralistic environmental and sustainability education – a scholarly review
In this scholarly review we critically discuss the last 30 years of research on pluralism in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). Pluralism has been a focal point for a vast amount of theoretical and empirical studies in the research field. Since the journal Environmental Education Research (EER) was established, 158 articles have been published that to some extend refer to pluralism or pluralistic ESE. In this review we analyse the …
The existential tendency’ in climate change education: An empirically informed typology
Climate change education (CCE) brings about existential concerns of students. Teachers in turn are confronted with didactic demands to take into account the existential challenge climate change elicits. However, conceptual haziness about how to understand ‘the existential’ in CCE complicates didactic research on the topic, impedes researchers to get a nuanced understanding of ‘the existential’ in CCE, and, thus, hinders the development of empiric…
Teaching action-oriented knowledge on sustainability issues
Knowledge about sustainability problems as it is typically taught does not per se lead to action for tackling these problems. Environmental and sustainability education researchers have argued for teaching more action-oriented knowledge. This article addresses the ‘didactical work’ required for teachers to do so, both in preparing and implementing lessons. The authors employ transactional didactic theory and the analytical method Practical Episte…
Agency in action: Towards a transactional approach for analyzing agency in sustainability transitions
Anthropocosmism: An Eastern humanist approach to the Anthropocene
This paper addresses the discussion on the Anthropocene in environmental education research.It aims to enrich and widen the debate about the appropriateness of humanist approaches to environmental education and sustainability.In response to criticism about anthropocentric responses to human-made environmental destruction, the authors introduce a version of Eastern humanism: Tu Weiming's 'Anthropocosmism' .This idea of a non-anthropocentric humani…
When teaching habits meet educational innovation: Problematic situations in the implementation of sustainability education through ‘open schooling’
In the face of the global sustainability crisis, schools and teachers are called on to transform education and implement educational innovations to strengthen sustainability education. One of these innovations is ‘open schooling’: educational practices that involve students in identifying, exploring, and tackling real-world sustainability problems in the school environment and the local community. Such – often externally driven – innovations can …
Studying feelings in action: An analytical framework for empirical analyses of affect in sustainability transitions
Research on feelings and emotions has gained importance for understanding sustainability transitions in recent years. However, a central question remains unanswered: How precisely does affect influence the creation of change in sustainability transitions and which conditions shape this relation? This paper calls for detailed in-situ studies in which affect can be linked to changes in habits and practices. It proposes an analytical framework based…
Sociology (22 works) · Environmental Education and Sustainability (21 works) · Sustainability (21 works) · Ecology (15 works) · Environmental education (14 works) · Pedagogy (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · Sustainability in Higher Education (14 works) · Engineering (11 works) · Engineering ethics (11 works)