Education beyond growth: Thinking with theory about the relationship between education, economic growth, and ecology

This thesis explores the implications of the ecological crisis for the relationship between education and economic growth. The thesis is grounded in the researcher’s lived experiences as a primary school teacher in the Latrobe Valley, a region that is economically dependent on significant deposits of brown coal. However, the region is also particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The thesis explores the role of education in this context. It makes an original contribution to knowledge by demonstrating how the concerns of educational policy scholars are interrelated with many of the issues discussed within the field of ecological economics.