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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1519914
TRANSGRESSIVE PEDAGOGIES IN A CLIMATE-CONSTRAINED AFRICA: GROUNDING CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Provisionally accepted- 1Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
- 2Department of Animal Biology and Conservation Science, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
- 3Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
- 4Environmental Protection Agency, Accra, Ghana
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Despite global recognition and the growing urgency of the climate crisis, many educational approaches remain entrenched in traditional paradigms focused primarily on economic growth, thus reinforcing business-as-usual rather than promoting essential structural transformations. This study argues that there is an urgent need for educational systemsespecially at higher education levelsto shift to more practical and experiential learning forms. Specifically, it calls for sustainability learning and climate change education to be grounded in local communities and ways that disrupt the exclusive focus on lecture room and theory-based learning, by drawing on 'transgressive pedagogies' and placebased approaches. This study offers examples of how such practical engagements through a series of field learning journeys within Ghana, enhances teaching and learning by deepening students' understanding and appreciation of complex environmental, social and climate change challenges. The results show marked changes in students' attitudes towards climate change and sustainability learning and orientation for environmental stewardship, social change advocacy and climate action. There is also evidence of students' enhanced dispositions and competencies to use partnerships and collaborations to address socioecological challenges. The study thus foregrounds the critical importance of place, and the need for sustainability and climate change teaching and learning to be 'grounded' in local places, to develop locally relevant competencies, and to enable necessary connections between theoretical understanding and lived experience.
Keywords: Transgressive pedagogies 1, experiential learning 2, sustainability education 3, Climate change 4, higher education 5
Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Manteaw, Boafo, Owusu, Enu and Amoah. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bob Offei Manteaw, Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
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