We’re excited to share that Darren Rabinowitz, Research Associate at The Center for Sustainable Futures, has successfully defended his dissertation at Teachers College in the International and Comparative Education program. Below, he shares insights from his journey and reflects on how the Center’s work shaped and inspired his research.
What was your dissertation about?
My dissertation research looks at the relationship between environmental provisions in national constitutions (EPICs) and student environmental education and civic outcomes. I explore whether and how EPICs emit and sustain environmental norms within state institutions such as education. While most people on the planet live under the jurisdiction of an EPIC, little is known as to whether the adoption of these rights relate to individual pro-environmental education and civic outcomes.
To answer this question, I conducted a 22 country comparative analysis using the 2016 International Civics and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). Using hierarchical linear modeling, I find a positive relationship between the presence of an EPIC and student environmental education and civic outcomes. To better understand this phenomena, I selected a country case of Norway to explore whether EPIC’s are used in education policy making over time. The EPIC was used to legitimize the inclusion of environmental education in national education policy priorities yet, the alignment between the EPIC and environmental education was sidelined by exogenous (e.g. standardized testing) and endogenous (e.g. political shifts) factors. I then examine the role of youth climate activists who have used Norway’s EPIC to not only sue the state to address its expanding fossil fuel production but as a tool to educate the public on intergenerational climate justice and environmental degradation.
What ideas or frameworks most shaped how you approached it?
In order to see the relationships between EPICs and student environment and civic outcomes, I used a mixed methods research approach. I began with hierarchical linear models to explore patterns between 22 countries. I then conducted interviews with Norwegian policy actors (n=46) and youth climate activists (n=33) to better understand how the EPIC is understood and the ways, if at all, it informs education policy making and youth climate activism. I also conducted a document analysis (n=139) of Norwegian education policy documents from 1990 to 2020 to examine trends in the use of the EPIC and global education movements in policy making over time.
My research is grounded in three theoretical traditions. First, I engage with World Society Theory which suggests international organizations spread global ideas to states, such as environmentalism.Yet, in my research, I find a significant and negative relationship between these organizations and student environmental outcomes. In contrast, EPICs are positively and significantly correlated with student environmental outcomes. This finding suggests that the presence of these organizations may serve as a national sign of outsourcing environmental responsibility to organizations instead of state internalizing environmental norms within its institutions.
Second, I utilize Institutional Work which highlights the role and agency of actors who inhabit institutions. In the case of Norway, Gudmund Hernes, former Minister of Education, used the newly adopted EPIC to infuse its values of environment protection into a new education policy document in 1993 entitled, “General Part for Primary, Secondary, and Adult Education” [General Part] which had an explicit section on the “Environmentally Conscious Human Being”. This moment of policy entrepreneurship by Minister Hernes integrated the EPICs values explicitly into Norway's education priorities. In all, the General Part was in place for 24 years (1993-2017) and shaped subsequent curriculum reforms, even during political environments which prioritized other global education movements, such as assessments.
Third, I use legal mobilization theory from social movements literature to examine the ways Norwegian youth climate activists engage with and understand the EPIC. Overall, the youth activists leveraged legal mobilization to not only hold the government and corporations accountable but to educate other activists, their peers and the public on climate and environmental justice issues. In this way, activist engagement with the law possesses an educational aspect where multiple actors learn about climate and environmental issues through their climate litigation.
How did the Center’s work shape your research?
The Center’s work was integral to my research. The idea to look at constitutions was inspired by a conversation with my advisor and Center director, Oren Pizmony-Levy, toward the beginning of my doctoral studies. The idea blossomed into multiple research agendas that were shaped by the Center’s prioritization of looking at climate, sustainability and environmental education not only from one actor or institutional perspective. In order to get a better understanding of a phenomena, the Center was helpful in exploring multiple angles, such as interviewing policy actors and youth climate activists and how they may relate to the EPIC and their climate and environmental education. My colleagues at the Center encouraged me along the way, listened to my ideas as they evolved and pushed me to think beyond my assumptions.
What part of the research stayed with you the most?
Three come to mind. First, I feel quite lucky to have been able to learn about Norway, a country I had never been to before my dissertation research, through a contemporary issue. Each person I spoke with held fascinating perspectives on the current reality and future of oil and extractive industries in Norway. Their accounts helped me understand how EPICs unveil Norway’s social tension of having a constitutional right to a healthy and clean environment, all the while, expanding its fossil fuel and extractive industries.
Second, those I spoke with offered new insights into what a constitution means for a country. Constitutional rights often go beyond what is written and the law; they translate into the norms and values that are most cherished by citizens. Within my research, I find that EPICs can emit pro-environmental norms that may be prioritized, simply upheld, or neglected by states. Institutional actors and activists can strategically use EPICs to legitimize pro-environmental legislation or social movement strategies to hold governments and industry accountable.
Third, time is an important aspect to consider in research. The idea of enshrining environmental rights in constitutions was largely introduced on a world stage at the 1972 U.N. Stockholm Conference. Twenty years later, a cascade of countries adopted environmental rights in their constitutions around the 1992 Earth Summit or U.N. Rio Conference. Much research on the topics of how EPICs spread and if they correlate with environmental outcomes has largely come out in the past 10 years. Ultimately, to understand how a global phenomena of constitutionalizing environmental rights may affect local outcomes takes time to unveil. Additionally, EPICs, as mechanisms of world society, may relate to environmental outcomes in non-linear or unexpected ways which is why case study and qualitative research is fundamental to this research agenda.
Where are you hoping to take this work next?
I am hoping to publish my three dissertation articles in the coming months and author one additional paper. For this paper, I am aiming to use a mixed methods approach using the past four waves of Norway’s ICCS data and activist interviews of their climate and environmental education in Norway. I am hoping to better understand their perspectives of their climate and environmental education in relation to the temporal trends found in the ICCS data.
I am also looking forward to collaborating with scholars who I have been in touch with throughout my PhD journey to write together in the coming years.
Any final thoughts and reflections?
While I have learned so much about myself and the field of International and Comparative Education, I am still reflecting on the resilience of the youth climate activists I spoke with. Despite the odds, these youth are using their voices to advance climate justice and protect the environment. I am also thinking about malicious actors that purposefully advance climate change miseducation campaigns in teacher education, within textbook design and student learning.
Finally, I am hoping to conduct studies similar to my dissertation research to explore what I am calling “EPIC stories” or how EPICs were adopted in a country, what happened to them after they were adopted and if they were used in education policy making after their adoption, especially EPICs which explicitly mention education as means to actualize the right.
As a final thought, I am deeply grateful for the support of my colleagues at the Center and for the community they provided during my studies. I am excited to see where my academic journey goes from here!