Framing research: conceptualization, contextualization, representation and legitizimation

Abstract

Concerns have been expressed about the identity, value and usefulness of environmental education research in the anglo-speaking North/West. As environmental education research becomes globalized, important lessons might be learned in the South about trends in Northern environmental education and emerging issues in environmental education research. The Introduction outlines the risks in explaining how environmental education and its research is configured. The paper, first, summarizes the major 'currents' in environmental education curriculum and pedagogical practices and, second, highlights some of the major implications for environmental education research. The notion of 'framing' is introduced to provide a set of concepts for researchers to more creatively examine the assumptions they make in approaching their scholarly work while also encouraging a greater degree of reflexivity about the field's future. This future might incorporate an aesthetics into the ethics and politics of research and, in doing so, respond more sensitively to the need for greater attention to be devoted to developing the triad of ontology, epistemology, methodology in environmental education research and its praxis. An emphasis on the art and craft of framing invites researcher(s) to critically assess the conceptualization, contextualization, representation and legitimization of research 'work,' both the individual researcher's and the field' identity, value and usefulness. Examples of the author's research are used to illustrate the notion of framing. An earlier version of this paper was delivered at V EPEA Encontro de Pesquisa em Educacao Ambiental "Configuracao do Campo de Pesquisa em Educacao Ambiental" (30 de octubro a 2 de novembro de 2009) and uses information from a pre-conference 3 day workshop conducted by the author at the Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos.