Education as a Petro-Pipeline: Beyond the Limits of Education Research in the Face of Climate Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.7101Keywords:
climate change education, petroculture, petrocriticism, fossil fuels, education research, systematic literature reviewAbstract
Considering the key cause of climate-harming carbon emissions is the increased use of fossil fuels, we might expect research in education to engage in petrocriticism—a critical way of reading the world that deconstructs how fossil-fuelled cultural expectations and practices, or “petroculture,” functions in education. To trace the intersection of fossil fuels and education, this article conducts a systematic literature review of both existing and emerging scholarship, engaging in a petrocritical reading of research themes to reveal the extent to which petroculture is naturalized and/or confronted. By examining both dominant research patterns and the notable silences, we conclude by making recommendations for how education scholarship can respond to climate science and contribute to a more livable future through research that takes up (a) petrocriticism, (b) mitigation and decarbonization, and (c) transformation toward alternatives.
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