Encouraging the development of regenerative cultures in the field of education: an approach centered on expansive learning.

Authors

  • Prof. Université Côte d'Azur
  • Prof. Université Laval

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51657/jdjbyh14

Keywords:

Expansive learning, Regenerative culture, Sustainable development, Formative intervention

Abstract

In the face of the climate and collective well-being urgency in the contemporary world, it is possible to question the ontological and epistemological approach of the educational and productive system in our societies. The reconceptualization of our relationship with the living requires a transformation of practices that can be considered from the perspective of expansive learning. In this article, we analyze the collective design process of a group of secondary school teachers engaged in creating teaching and learning sequences incorporating sustainable development goals (SDGs). We draw on the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to analyze the design process. The formative intervention implemented with these teachers helps identify manifestations of contradictions present when integrating a sustainable development approach into disciplinary learning. Levers to overcome these contradictions are also identified. The results of this formative intervention, which led to a guide for interdisciplinary activities on the SDGs, are also presented.

Author Biographies

  • Prof., Université Côte d'Azur

    Margarida Romero is a full professor at Université Côte d´Azur in France and an associate professor at Université Laval in Canada. After starting her career at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, where she was awarded the best doctoral thesis in psychology, she continued her career in Canada and France, where she set up the Laboratoire d’Innovation et Numérique pour l’Education (LINE), a research unit in the learning sciences. She coordinates the #Scol_IA Working Group on the educational challenges of artificial intelligence in education and co-directs the international MSc SmartEdTech program. Her research focuses on the study of transversal competencies, particularly in relation to computational thinking and creative problem-solving.

  • Prof., Université Laval

    Full professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning Studies at Université Laval, Sylvie Barma is interested in science and technology teachers who question and renew their teaching practice. She is former director of the Centre of Research and Intervention for Student and School Success.

    After a long experience as a high school science teacher, she participated in the writing of the Quebec Science curriculum. Her experience as a practitioner and as a curriculum writer is being put to good use in her research. Her research focuses on the contextual and systemic dimension of innovation in teaching and on the development of 21st century digital skills in classrooms.

    She has been a visiting professor at the University of Helsinki, University of Sao Paulo, University of Stockholm. She is visiting professor at University of Ioannina and University Côte-d'Azur. She is co-founder of the ISCAR STEAM international research group aiming to support professional development of educators and researchers and to enrich science education policies with a strong sociocultural perspective.

References

Agbedahin, A. V. et Lotz-Sisitka, H. (2019). Mainstreaming education for sustainable development: Elaborating the role of position-practice systems using seven laminations of scale. Journal of Critical Realism, 18(2), 103‑122.

Aagaard, T., Bueie, A. et Hjukse, H. (2022). Teacher educator in a digital age: A study of transformative agency. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, (1), 31-45.

Barma, S. (2010). Analyse d'une démarche de transformation de pratique en sciences, dans le cadre du nouveau programme de formation au secondaire, à la lumière de la théorie de l'activité.

Barma, S., Deslandes, R. et Gagnon-Tremblay, A. (2021). Légalisation du cannabis au Canada : perspectives historico-socioculturelles pour soutenir une intervention éducative auprès d’adolescent.e.s québécois. Dans C. Simard (dir.). M.-C. Bernard (dir.). C. Fortin (dir.) et N. Panissal (dir.). Éduquer au vivant : Perspectives, recherches et pratiques. (p. 167-183). Presses de l’Université Laval.

Barma, S., Lacasse, M. et Massé-Morneau, J. (2015). Engaging discussion about climate change in a Quebec secondary school: A challenge for science teachers. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 4, 28-36.

Berg, W., Graeffe, L. et Holden, C. (2003). Teaching controversial issues: A European perspective. Londres : Children’s Identity & Citizenship in Europe (CICE).

Bertrand, Y., Valois, P. et Jutras, F. (1997). L’écologie à l’école. Presses universitaires de France.

Bybee, R. W. (1987). Science Education and the Science-Technology-Society (STS) Theme. Science education, 71(5), 667-83.

Chagnon, C. W., Durante, F., Gills, B. K., Hagolani-Albov, S. E., Hokkanen, S., Kangasluoma, S. M.,… et Vuola, M. P. (2022). From extractivism to global extractivism: the evolution of an organizing concept. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49(4), 760-792.

Collado-Ruano, J., & Segovia Sarmiento, J. (2022). Ecological economics foundations to improve environmental education practices: Designing regenerative cultures. World Futures, 78(7), 456-483.

Contreras, S., Campbell, J., Tang, X. et Duke, T. (2019). Regenerative Cultures and Resilient Communities (RCx2) Hub. Engaged Scholars, 7.

Edwards, A. (2009). Relational agency in collaborations for the well‐being of children and young people. Journal of Children's Services, 4(1), 33-43.

Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of education and work, 14(1), 133-156.

Engeström, Y. (2006). Development, movement and agency: Breaking away into mycorrhizae activities. Building activity theory in practice: Toward the next generation, 1, 1-43.

Engeström, Y. (2006). L’interagentivité orientée-objet: vers une compréhension de l’intentionnalité collective dans les activités distribuées. In Sujets, activités, environnements (pp. 135-173). Presses Universitaires de France.

Engeström, Y. (2008). Weaving the texture of school change. Journal of Educational Change, 9(4), 379-383.

Engeström, Y. (2011). From design experiments to formative interventions. Theory & psychology, 21(5), 598-628.

Engeström, Y. (2019). Medical work in transition: Towards collaborative and transformative expertise. In Routledge handbook of the medical humanities (pp. 41-54). Routledge.

Engeström, Y. et Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations, findings and future challenges. Educational research review, 5(1), 1-24.

Engreström, Y. et Sannino, A. (2020). Toward a vygotskian perspective on transformative agency for social change. Revisiting Vygotsky for social change: bringing together theory and practice, 87-109.

Engeström, Y., Bal, A., Sannino, A., 2021, L. P., de Gouveia Vilela, R. A., Querol, M. A. P.,… et Everard, M., Kass, G., Longhurst, J., zu Ermgassen, S., Girardet, H., Stewart-Evans, J.,… et Craig, A. (2021). Reconnecting society with its ecological roots. Environmental Science & Policy, 116, 8-19.

Engeström, Y., Nuttall, J., & Hopwood, N. (2022). Transformative agency by double stimulation: Advances in theory and methodology. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 30(1), 1-7.

Galvin, M. et Mooney Simmie, G. (2017). Theorising participation in urban regeneration partnerships: an adult education perspective. Journal of Education Policy, 32(6), 809-831.

Haapasaari, A., Engeström, Y., & Kerosuo, H. (2016). The emergence of learners’ transformative agency in a Change Laboratory intervention. Journal of education and work, 29(2), 232-262.

Lacasse, M. (2013). État de besoin, tensions et modélisation de pratiques didactiques ancrées dans une question socialement vive en environnement par des enseignants québécois de science et technologie au secondaire. Thèse de doctorat. Université Laval.

Legardez, A., Cadet-Mieze, M. et Jeziorski, A. (2022). L’éducation au politique sur des questions socialement vives (QSV) liées au développement durable (DD) et aux objectifs de développement durable (ODD). Éducation et socialisation. Les Cahiers du CERFEE, (63).

Lipman, M. (2008). Philosophy for children’s debt to Dewey. In Pragmatism, education, and children (pp. 141-151). Brill.

Lotz-Sisitka, H., Mukute, M., Chikunda, C., Baloi, A. et Pesanayi, T. (2017). Transgressing the norm: Transformative agency in community-based learning for sustainability in southern African contexts. International Review of Education, 63, 897-914.

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass.

Michel, J. O., Holland, L. M., Brunnquell, C. et Sterling, S. (2020). The ideal outcome of education for sustainability: Transformative sustainability learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (161), 177-188.

Nibourel, C. (2011). Définir, mesurer et valoriser l’empreinte sociale de l’entreprise. Dans : Philippe Carli éd., Empreintes sociales : En finir avec le court terme (p. 135-148). Odile Jacob.

Nocon, H. (2008). Contradictions of time in collaborative school research. Journal of Educational Change, 9, 339-347.

OECD (2018). PISA 2018 Global Competence. OECD.

Robinson, J. et Cole, R. J. (2015). Theoretical underpinnings of regenerative sustainability. Building Research & Information, 43(2), 133-143.

Romero, M. et Usart, M. (2014). The temporal perspective in higher education learners: Comparisons between online and onsite learning. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 17(1), 190-209.

Sternberg, R. J. (2021). Transformational vs. Transactional deployment of intelligence. Journal of Intelligence, 9(1), 15.

Urgelli, B. (2008). Éducation aux risques climatiques. Premières analyses d’un dispositif pédagogique interdisciplinaire. Aster : Recherches en didactique des sciences expérimentales, 46 (1), 97-121.

Virkkunen, J. (2006). Dilemmas in building shared transformative agency. Activités, 3 (3-1).

Virkkunen, J. et Newnham, D. (2013). The Change Laboratory: A tool for collaborative development of work activities. Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Wallenhorst, N. (2022). Qui sauvera la planète ? Actes Sud.

Weidema, B. P. (2018). The social footprint—a practical approach to comprehensive and consistent social LCA. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 23, 700-709.

Westwell, E., & Bunting, J. (2020). The regenerative culture of Extinction Rebellion: self-care, people care, planet care. Environmental politics, 29(3), 546-551.

Zeidler, D. L., Sadler, T. D., Simmons, M. L., & Howes, E. V. (2005). Beyond STS: A research‐based framework for socioscientific issues education. Science education, 89(3), 357-377.

Zimbardo, P. et Boyd, J. (2008). The time paradox: The new psychology of time that will change your life. Simon and Schuster.

Downloads

Published

2025-04-03

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2024): Activités, enseignement, apprentissage et évaluation

Section

Theoretical and methodological considerations

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Margarida Romero, Sylvie Barma

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Encouraging the development of regenerative cultures in the field of education: an approach centered on expansive learning. (2025). International Review of CRIRES: Innovating in the Tradition of Vygotsky, 8(1), 135-146. https://doi.org/10.51657/jdjbyh14