How does a Geography Teacher Contribute to Pupils' Environmental Education? Unweaving the Web Between Theorising and Data

Abstract

This paper discusses the analytical processes and outcomes of a recently completed doctoral study in environmental education. The project investigated teachers' thinking and practice regarding the contributions of geography teaching to pupils' environmental education. The research techniques were primarily qualitative in orientation, involving a series of interviews and tasks to elicit accounts of thinking and practice from secondary school geography teachers in England. Three categories from the analysis are discussed—pluralist, exclusivist, and inclusivist—based on accounts of how geography teachers contribute less or more to pupils' environmental education, and how they might develop their contributions. I also employ the metaphor of "unweaving the web" between theorising and data to reflect on issues raised by the outcomes of the analysis, and the categorisation process itself.