Arjen E J Wals
Biographic Data
| ID | 2188469 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arjen E J Wals |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arjen E J |
| FAMILY NAME | Wals |
| SIGNATURE | WALS A E J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wageningen University & Research |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 169 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 28 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Co-developing professional learning practices in support of a whole school approach to sustainability-oriented education
This multimedia article explores a Norwegian Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme co-developing professional learning practices concerning a Whole School Approach (WSA) to sustainability-oriented education. Eleven teachers from four upper-secondary schools participated as co-developers in a year-long CPD and research combined programme, which also involved multiple school leaders, university-based educators, and researchers. Conven…
Characteristics and challenges of teaching and learning in sustainability-oriented Living Labs within higher education
Purpose This study aims to bring together the available scattered knowledge about teaching and learning in Living Labs within higher education, and to explore their potential for supporting students’ sustainability-oriented transformative learning. Design/methodology/approach A literature review was conducted, applying a realist approach. A sample of 35 articles was analyzed qualitatively, mapping the data according to the realist constructs “con…
Enabling shared values for sustainability transformation
Design and evaluation of a sustainable blended study programme in higher education
Introduction Blended learning, i.e., a mix of online and in-class education, can be deployed for enhancing the educational quality and resilience in higher education (HE). It may also contribute to HE’s sustainability objectives by lowering the carbon emissions of students commuting to campus. In this study, pedagogical design principles for sustainable blended learning and teaching are developed and evaluated taking into account these opportunit…
Creating a sense of community and space for subjectification in an online course on sustainability education during times of physical distancing
Purpose This study aims to demonstrate which course elements were responsible for community building, fostering subjectification and learning for being in an online course on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) during the COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing. Design/methodology/approach The study investigates a graduate-level course on Environmental Education for Sustainable Living that due to COVID-19 had to be taught mainly on…
Cultivating students’ sustainability-oriented learning at the interface of science and society
Purpose By envisioning the learning environment as an eco-social system, this study aims to map interrelated enablers of students’ sustainability-oriented learning (SoL) in the context of a university course at the interface of science and society. Design/methodology/approach A case-study approach was used to delineate what enables student learning in a university-wide transdisciplinary Master of Science course. A sample of 102 students, universi…
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux countries
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…
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux region
peer reviewed
Can we meet the sustainability challenges? The role of education and lifelong learning
Education and lifelong learning are increasingly being mobilised to address the global environmental crisis and accompanying sustainability challenges. This article discusses the many roles of education about and for sustainable development, drawing on evidence and arguments put forward in the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report, Education for People and Planet . It highlights specific viewpoints, values and ways of thinking that best charact…
Reframing the future
Regional sustainability networks in the Netherlands are rooted in regional culture and have an emphasis on social learning and effective collaboration between multiple actors. The national ‘Duurzaam Door’ (Moving Forward Sustainably) Policy Programme regards these networks as generative governance arrangements where new knowledge, actions and relations can co-evolve together with new insights in governance and learning within sustainability trans…
Radical ruralities in practice
Critical case-studies of non-formal and community learning for sustainable development
The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
An analysis of the literature supporting the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and a sample of its key products suggests that it failed to acknowledge or challenge neoliberalism as a hegemonic force blocking transitions towards genuine sustainability. The authors argue that the rationale for the Decade was idealistic and that global education for sustainability citizenship provides a more realistic focus for such an initiative. T…
Sustainability in higher education in the context of the UN Desd
Self-directed lifelong learning in hybrid learning configurations
Present-day students are expected to be lifelong learners throughout their working life. Higher education must therefore prepare students to self-direct their learning beyond formal education, in real-life working settings. This can be achieved in so-called hybrid learning configurations in which working and learning are integrated. In such a learning configuration, learning is typically trans-boundary in nature and embedded in ill-structured, au…
International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education
Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change
Climate change represents a complex set of challenges, in part because it is marked by risks that are not easily observed and identified - risks that humans have significant difficulty estimating. A large body of research has shown that the construction of human risk perception is a complex, multi-faceted process. Determining viable mitigation and adaptation strategies toward climate change risks therefore necessitates models that appropriately r…
An analysis of the methodological underpinnings of social learning research in natural resource management
Learning Our Way to Sustainability
Should environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) try to change students’ behaviours or should it focus on capacity building and critical thinking? The latter is more likely to lead to a citizenry that can examine new challenges and act wisely. New forms of learning are entering the arena of EE and ESD such as ‘social learning’, learning by mirroring one’s own ideas, views, values and perspectives with those of o…
Developing competence profiles for educators in environmental education organisations in the Netherlands
This qualitative study explores the meanings and possible merits of introducing competence profiles for enhancing professional development in the environmental education sector in the Netherlands. It presents the three most important environmental education jobs and their underlying competencies alongside their core professional challenges, as identified by environmental educators and experts in the Netherlands. The jobs are: education practition…
Resilience in learning systems
In this paper, we address the challenge of translating the concept of resilience into effective educational strategies. Three different cognitive dimensions (ontological, epistemological and axiological) that underpin assumptions held about the nature of nature, the nature of knowing and the nature of human nature are identified. Four case studies from higher education in the USA, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK are presented, which illustrate…
Between knowing what is right and knowing that is it wrong to tell others what is right
This contribution provides an 'outside' commentary on several of the articles provided in this special issue on environmental education and education in the context of sustainability in Denmark and Sweden. Although there is no uniform position or shared single outlook expressed in the articles in this special issue, there are some re-current tendencies that may have received less attention elsewhere in the world but clearly are in need of further…
Social Learning Towards a Sustainable World
Globalization and environmental education
This study contends that environmental education is being significantly altered by globalizing forces, witnessing the effort to convert environmental education into education for sustainable development. This internationally propagated conversion can be challenged from many vantage points. This study identifies anomalies that have arisen as international organizations such as UNESCO have championed this conversion, and discusses issues arising fr…
Competencies for rural development professionals in the era of HIV/Aids
The impact of HIV/AIDS on food security and rural livelihoods is still insufficiently understood. It is evident, however, that rural development professionals need to respond to the changes that have taken place in rural areas due to the pandemic. This article explores competencies that they need in order to deal with the complex HIV/AIDS issues related to their work with farming families. Initially 45 rural development professionals from develop…
Between knowing what is right and knowing that is it wrong to tell others what is right
This contribution provides an 'outside' commentary on several of the articles provided in this special issue on environmental education and education in the context of sustainability in Denmark and Sweden. Although there is no uniform position or shared single outlook expressed in the articles in this special issue, there are some re-current tendencies that may have received less attention elsewhere in the world but clearly are in need of further…
The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
An analysis of the literature supporting the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and a sample of its key products suggests that it failed to acknowledge or challenge neoliberalism as a hegemonic force blocking transitions towards genuine sustainability. The authors argue that the rationale for the Decade was idealistic and that global education for sustainability citizenship provides a more realistic focus for such an initiative. T…
Case studies, make‐your‐case studies, and case stories
Additional informationNotes on contributorsKim E. Walker ** Corresponding author: Kim E. Walker, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK * Corresponding author: Kim E. Walker, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
Reframing the future
Regional sustainability networks in the Netherlands are rooted in regional culture and have an emphasis on social learning and effective collaboration between multiple actors. The national ‘Duurzaam Door’ (Moving Forward Sustainably) Policy Programme regards these networks as generative governance arrangements where new knowledge, actions and relations can co-evolve together with new insights in governance and learning within sustainability trans…
Sustainability” in higher education
Radical ruralities in practice
Critical case-studies of non-formal and community learning for sustainable development
Resilience in learning systems
In this paper, we address the challenge of translating the concept of resilience into effective educational strategies. Three different cognitive dimensions (ontological, epistemological and axiological) that underpin assumptions held about the nature of nature, the nature of knowing and the nature of human nature are identified. Four case studies from higher education in the USA, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK are presented, which illustrate…
School‐based Research and Development of Environmental Education
This article provides a case of school‐based research and development of environmental education. In collaboration with an external researcher, four teachers from a secondary agricultural school used an action research model in critically examining their own teaching practice and materials with the intention of developing the environmental dimension of their teaching. Jointly they became engaged in a process of problematising their own teaching p…
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux region
peer reviewed
Developing competence profiles for educators in environmental education organisations in the Netherlands
This qualitative study explores the meanings and possible merits of introducing competence profiles for enhancing professional development in the environmental education sector in the Netherlands. It presents the three most important environmental education jobs and their underlying competencies alongside their core professional challenges, as identified by environmental educators and experts in the Netherlands. The jobs are: education practition…
Your View of Nature is Not Mine
This paper describes a multidisciplinary action research project that aimed to develop a theoretical framework and four exemplary teaching modules for elementary and secondary school that promote a pluralistic view on nature. In a 2-year study, researchers from three disciplines (pedagogy, sociology and philosophy) collaborated with curriculum developers and textbook authors. This paper presents the theoretical framework that was developed during…
Enabling shared values for sustainability transformation
Environmental and sustainability education in the Benelux countries
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…
On the danger of blurring methods, methodologies and ideologies in environmental education research
When deciding what to cook, there are certain questions to be borne in mind including: who the meal is for; what food is available; and what cooking utensils and equipment one has. Other, more indi
School‐based Research and Development of Environmental Education
This article provides a case of school‐based research and development of environmental education. In collaboration with an external researcher, four teachers from a secondary agricultural school used an action research model in critically examining their own teaching practice and materials with the intention of developing the environmental dimension of their teaching. Jointly they became engaged in a process of problematising their own teaching p…
“Sustainability” in higher education
It is higher education’s responsibility to continuously challenge and critique value and knowledge claims that have prescriptive tendencies. Part of this responsibility lies in engaging students in socio‐scientific disputes. The ill‐defined nature of sustainability manifests itself in such disputes when conflicting values, norms, interests, and reality constructions meet. This makes sustainability – its need for contextualization and the debate s…
Your View of Nature is Not Mine
This paper describes a multidisciplinary action research project that aimed to develop a theoretical framework and four exemplary teaching modules for elementary and secondary school that promote a pluralistic view on nature. In a 2-year study, researchers from three disciplines (pedagogy, sociology and philosophy) collaborated with curriculum developers and textbook authors. This paper presents the theoretical framework that was developed during…
Sustainability” in higher education
Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability
Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability
Case studies, make‐your‐case studies, and case stories
Additional informationNotes on contributorsKim E. Walker ** Corresponding author: Kim E. Walker, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK * Corresponding author: Kim E. Walker, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
On the danger of blurring methods, methodologies and ideologies in environmental education research
When deciding what to cook, there are certain questions to be borne in mind including: who the meal is for; what food is available; and what cooking utensils and equipment one has. Other, more indi
Competencies for rural development professionals in the era of HIV/Aids
The impact of HIV/AIDS on food security and rural livelihoods is still insufficiently understood. It is evident, however, that rural development professionals need to respond to the changes that have taken place in rural areas due to the pandemic. This article explores competencies that they need in order to deal with the complex HIV/AIDS issues related to their work with farming families. Initially 45 rural development professionals from develop…
Globalization and environmental education
This study contends that environmental education is being significantly altered by globalizing forces, witnessing the effort to convert environmental education into education for sustainable development. This internationally propagated conversion can be challenged from many vantage points. This study identifies anomalies that have arisen as international organizations such as UNESCO have championed this conversion, and discusses issues arising fr…
Social Learning Towards a Sustainable World
Resilience in learning systems
In this paper, we address the challenge of translating the concept of resilience into effective educational strategies. Three different cognitive dimensions (ontological, epistemological and axiological) that underpin assumptions held about the nature of nature, the nature of knowing and the nature of human nature are identified. Four case studies from higher education in the USA, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK are presented, which illustrate…
Between knowing what is right and knowing that is it wrong to tell others what is right
This contribution provides an 'outside' commentary on several of the articles provided in this special issue on environmental education and education in the context of sustainability in Denmark and Sweden. Although there is no uniform position or shared single outlook expressed in the articles in this special issue, there are some re-current tendencies that may have received less attention elsewhere in the world but clearly are in need of further…
Learning Our Way to Sustainability
Should environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) try to change students’ behaviours or should it focus on capacity building and critical thinking? The latter is more likely to lead to a citizenry that can examine new challenges and act wisely. New forms of learning are entering the arena of EE and ESD such as ‘social learning’, learning by mirroring one’s own ideas, views, values and perspectives with those of o…
Developing competence profiles for educators in environmental education organisations in the Netherlands
This qualitative study explores the meanings and possible merits of introducing competence profiles for enhancing professional development in the environmental education sector in the Netherlands. It presents the three most important environmental education jobs and their underlying competencies alongside their core professional challenges, as identified by environmental educators and experts in the Netherlands. The jobs are: education practition…
Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change
Climate change represents a complex set of challenges, in part because it is marked by risks that are not easily observed and identified - risks that humans have significant difficulty estimating. A large body of research has shown that the construction of human risk perception is a complex, multi-faceted process. Determining viable mitigation and adaptation strategies toward climate change risks therefore necessitates models that appropriately r…
An analysis of the methodological underpinnings of social learning research in natural resource management
International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education
Sustainability in higher education in the context of the UN Desd
Self-directed lifelong learning in hybrid learning configurations
Present-day students are expected to be lifelong learners throughout their working life. Higher education must therefore prepare students to self-direct their learning beyond formal education, in real-life working settings. This can be achieved in so-called hybrid learning configurations in which working and learning are integrated. In such a learning configuration, learning is typically trans-boundary in nature and embedded in ill-structured, au…
The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
An analysis of the literature supporting the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and a sample of its key products suggests that it failed to acknowledge or challenge neoliberalism as a hegemonic force blocking transitions towards genuine sustainability. The authors argue that the rationale for the Decade was idealistic and that global education for sustainability citizenship provides a more realistic focus for such an initiative. T…
Can we meet the sustainability challenges? The role of education and lifelong learning
Education and lifelong learning are increasingly being mobilised to address the global environmental crisis and accompanying sustainability challenges. This article discusses the many roles of education about and for sustainable development, drawing on evidence and arguments put forward in the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report, Education for People and Planet . It highlights specific viewpoints, values and ways of thinking that best charact…
Reframing the future
Regional sustainability networks in the Netherlands are rooted in regional culture and have an emphasis on social learning and effective collaboration between multiple actors. The national ‘Duurzaam Door’ (Moving Forward Sustainably) Policy Programme regards these networks as generative governance arrangements where new knowledge, actions and relations can co-evolve together with new insights in governance and learning within sustainability trans…
Radical ruralities in practice
Critical case-studies of non-formal and community learning for sustainable development
Sociology (27 works) · Political science (25 works) · Pedagogy (24 works) · Environmental Education and Sustainability (21 works) · Sustainability (21 works) · Environmental education (16 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Sustainability in Higher Education (16 works) · Environmental ethics (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works)