Article published in:
Dialogue and Ways of Relating
Edited by Huey-Rong Chen
[Language and Dialogue 10:1] 2020
► pp. 97–117

Beyond critical education for sustainable consumption

Rethinking dialogue in environmental education

| National Taiwan University (Taiwan)
This paper empirically supports environmental courses and activities based upon ‘parental altruism’ as an effective environmental education in developing citizen’s pro-environmental values, attitudes, and behaviors. This is a case study of the Homemaker’s Union Consumer Cooperation (HUCC), a prominent environmental consumer non-profit organization in Taiwan with over 70000 members. Re-examining Paulo Freire’s critical dialogical pedagogy, this study uses Paul Stern’s three levels of value orientation to investigate changes of HUCC members’ consumption behaviors. The courses and activities with parental-care are efficiently received by members than those of critical knowledge with the environment in terms of developing pro-environmental behaviors. Parental altruism is the key in changing consumer’s environmental values. This finding contributes to rethinking the meaning of dialogue in environmental education.
Keywords: parental altruism, dialogue, critical consciousness, environmental education, sustainable consumption
Published online: 19 May 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00061.chu
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