Localising the global eco-schools program in South Africa : a postcolonial analysis

Originally designed for a European context, Eco-schools is now the most widely adopted environmental education program globally. As such it has the capacity to significantly influence environmental education pedagogy and practice, yet little is known about its effect. This case study of Eco-School teachers in South Africa explores how they are both subject to and subject themselves to different teacher imaginaries and identities made available through Eco-Schooling discourses. Using postcolonial discourse analysis, I show how Eco-School teachers are both taking up and resisting dominant discourses available globally and locally, creating new hybrid identities that offer spaces for teacher agency.