Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The continued marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges and practices in environmental education sustains curricula and pedagogies grounded in Western worldviews. This exclusion reinforces limited or deficit-oriented perceptions of Indigenous cultures, environments, and epistemologies. Therefore, this study draws on the theory of critical consciousness to examine the need for Indigenous peoples and educators to become critically aware of the forces shaping their educational experiences and to use this awareness to transform their lives and teaching practices for a sustainable future. To illustrate how this transformation might occur, a qualitative study was conducted with ten Nigerian secondary school teachers who engaged with the design and implementation of a decolonisation model for environmental education. Findings show that seven participants successfully adopted the model, and several demonstrated notable shifts in their perspectives during the process. The study offers two key contributions: a conceptual framework for understanding decolonisation in environmental education and a practical decolonisation model for teachers. These contributions have broader relevance for educational reform and environmental education in countries with similar contexts to Nigeria and in marginalised communities in the Global North, where learners are often alienated from their local realities in favour of globalist perspectives.
Source: Education Sciences
Author: Sandra Ajaps
Institution: University of Manchester
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
Funder: York University
OpenAlex ID: W7125972041