A Foucauldian Analysis of Environmental Education: Toward the Socioecological Challenge of the Earth Charter

This article examines recent trends in environmental education (EE) and argues that its institutionalization within general education works against its own socially and ecologically transformative goals. A Foucauldian lens is employed to explore how EE, seeking legitimacy within general education, constitutes itself as “disciplinary practice.” A Foucauldian analysis is then extended to examine how critical ecological discourse often neglects a related critical social discourse. Finally, the Earth Charter is offered as a socioecological, visionary text that might help shape educational theory and practice in ways that avoid the cooptation and neglect suffered by environmental education.