Education and Pro-Environmental Behaviour: The Role of the Educated Person in Environmental Sustainability
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Abstract
In an era of growing environmental challenges, the responsibility of the educated person has never been more critical. This position paper investigates the vital role education plays in fostering pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) and promoting environmental sustainability, through the lens of Eco-Critical Pedagogy. The global environmental crisis has sparked renewed interest in how educational attainment influences sustainable lifestyle choices. This paper argues that education formal, informal, and non-formal empowers individuals to understand environmental issues, critique unsustainable systems, and engage in transformative actions. Through ecological literacy, ethical reasoning, and active ecocitizenship, educated individuals serve as key agents in challenging dominant exploitative paradigms and shaping a just, sustainable future. Eco-Critical Pedagogy for the educated person, eco-critical pedagogy offers a powerful role: not merely as an informed citizen, but as a critical thinker, ethical actor, and environmental advocate. By confronting dominant ideologies and reimagining sustainable futures, the educated individual becomes instrumental in reshaping public discourse and environmental policy. In essence, eco-critical
pedagogy empowers education to function not just as a transmission of environmental knowledge, but as a tool for liberation, restoration, and ecological justice. The paper outlines the multiple roles the educated person can play as a change agent,
advocate, professional influencer, and ethical steward and offers recommendations to strengthen their impact at the personal, community, and policy levels. It concludes by advocating for a radical shift in education systems toward critical, justice-driven, and ecologically grounded learning that empowers learners to participate meaningfully in sustainability and environmental transformation.
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