Conceptualizing learning for sustainability through environmental assessment: critical reflections on 15 years of research

Numerous scholars are now directing their attention to the education and learning implications of participatory resource and environmental governance because of the potential implications of these for generating the social mobilization necessary to achieve sustainability trajectories. Our work, and that of other researchers, establishes that public participation in environmental assessment (EA) provides fertile ground for considering the intricacies of governance as they relate to participation, and for examining the education and learning implications of participation. Since EA law requires in many cases that public voices be part of the decision process, it has resulted in the creation of fascinating, state-sanctioned, deliberative spaces for civic interactions. Our purpose here is to share, and build upon, a framework that conceptualizes the relationships among participation, education, learning and sustainability in an EA context. We do so by considering findings from studies we have undertaken on participation in EA in Canada since the early 90's. Our approach was interactive and collaborative. We each considered in detail the key results of our earlier work as they relate to education, learning and EA process design. The findings illuminate aspects of the conceptual framework for which there is considerable empirical evidence, such as the link between meaningful participation and critical education and the diversity of individual learning outcomes associated with public participation in EA. The findings also highlight those parts of the framework for which the empirical evidence is relatively sparse, such as the range of possible social learning outcomes, their congruence with sustainability criteria, and the roles of monitoring and cumulative and strategic assessments in shaping EA into an adaptive, learning system.