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Analyzing Influences on UN CCE Policy Programs

United Nations agreements such as the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are giving education policy an unprecedented role of significance in catalyzing public support for climate action. Learning about the influence of policy actors in shaping UN CCE policy programs improves our understanding of the mechanisms of intergovernmental policy program governance in relation to CCE program quality and impact.

This research project examines influences on the development and direction of UN policy programs related to climate change communication and education (CCE). These influences include policy actors such as national and subnational governments, NGOs, academic institutions, think tanks, foundations, corporations, and other actors from civil society; as well as the meetings, meetings infrastructures through which they interact with UN policy programs. The study uses network ethnography to look at the hows, wheres, and whys of the influences of policy actors, through a variety of methods including web audits, social media tracking, and interviewing key policy actors.

In addition to informing decision-making in CCE policy program design and strengthening our collective ability to combat climate change through education, the study is also advancing the scholarly literature on the governance of global education policy programs that are targeting the climate crisis.

Research Team

Marcia McKenzie

Director & Principal Investigator
Marcia McKenzie is Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Director of the Sustainability Education Research Institute at the University of Saskatchewan, and incoming Professor of Global Studies and International Education at the University of Melbourne.
Marcia McKenzie is Professor in Global Studies and International Education in MGSE at the University of Melbourne, Australia; and Professor on leave at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists; and Director of the $4.5M SSHRC-funded Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project and of the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (www.sepn.ca). Her research program includes both theoretical and applied components at the intersections of comparative and international education, global education policy research, and climate and sustainability education, including in relation to policy mobility, place, affect, and other areas of social and geographic study. She is co-author of Place in Research: Theory, Methodology, and Methods (Routledge, 2015) and Critical Education and Sociomaterial Practice: Narration, Place, and the Social (Peter Lang, 2016), and co-editor of Land Education: Rethinking Pedagogies of Place from Indigenous, Postcolonial, and Decolonizing Perspectives (Routledge, 2016) and Fields of Green: Restorying Culture, Environment, and Education (Hampton, 2009); and co-edits the Palgrave book series Studies in Education and the Environment. She has also recently authored or co-authored three global UNESCO reports, including ‘Country progress on climate change education: A review of national submissions to the UNFCCC,’ and ‘ESD and GCED up close: Cognitive, social and emotional and behavioral learning in Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education from pre-primary to secondary education,’ and ‘Learn for our planet: A global review of how environmental issues are integrated in education.’
Aaron Benavot

Aaron Benavot

Collaborator, University at Albany-SUNY
Aaron Benavot is with MECCE partner, University at Albany – State University of New York. He is on the MECCE Leadership Team and Steering Council and is the Lead for the MECCE Indicator Expert Group and MECCE Indicator Working Group. He is also a Professor of global education policy in the School of Education at the University at Albany-SUNY.
Aaron Benavot is Professor of global education policy in the School of Education at the University at Albany – State University of New York. Dr. Benavot has collaborated with SEPN on several UNESCO commissions, and he is a co-investigator on the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education Project, where he leads the Indicator Development Axis and participates on the Steering Council. Aaron has co-authored or co-edited five books. From 2014-2017, Aaron served as Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report. Its mandate is to monitor progress of education targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; consider effective policies to achieve quality, equitable and inclusive education and lifelong learning; and promote informed dialogue on education’s role in achieving sustainable development. As Director, Aaron oversaw the development of three reports -- Education for all: 2000-2015: Achievements and challenges (2015); Education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all (2016); and Accountability and Education: Meeting our commitments (2017/8).
8 Stefan Bengtsson

Stefan Bengtsson

Collaborator, Uppsala University
Stefan Bengtsson is with MECCE partner, SWEDESD. He is the MECCE Regional Hub Lead for Europe and is part of the MECCE Indicator Working Group. Bengtsson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Uppsala University. His research focuses on issues of sustainability in education.
Stefan Bengtsson is is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Uppsala University. A longtime SEPN collaborator, he joined SEPN-Canada's research team over 10 years ago. In addition to collaborating on the Policy Actors study, he is also on the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project, where he is the Regional Hub Lead for Europe and part of the MECCE Project Indicator Working Group. Dr. Bengtsson's research focuses on issues of sustainability in education. He has been the national coordinator for Education for Sustainable Development in Sweden and is currently deputy link convenor for the Environmental and Sustainability Education network of the European Education Research Association. In parallel to his academic work, he has been providing technical assistance to international efforts to address sustainability and gender issues in education, in particular in the East and South-East Asian context.
9 Nina Kolleck

Nina Kolleck

Collaborator, University of Potsdam
Dr. Nina Kolleck is a full professor at Leipzig University in Germany, where she heads the Institute of education policy and civic education and conducts research projects dealing with topics relating to social networks in education and policy, educational administration, cultural education, sustainability, educational reforms, social innovations as well as quantitative and qualitative methods of social research.
Dr. Nina Kolleck is a full professor at Leipzig University in Germany, where she heads the Institute of education policy and civic education and conducts research projects dealing with topics relating to social networks in education and policy, educational administration, cultural education, sustainability, educational reforms, social innovations as well as quantitative and qualitative methods of social research. She brings methodological and analytical expertise in social network analysis, including in relation to climate change and sustainability education governance (Kolleck, 2016; Kolleck et al., 2017). Dr. Kolleck regularly publishes in the top journals in her field including the Journal of Education Policy, Discourse, Journal of European Public Policy, Global Environmental Politics, and Journal of Educational Administration. She serves as an advisor, consultant, and board member for the German Ministry of Education and Research, and was appointed directorate member of the commission for education management, education planning, and educational law by the German Educational Research Association. Dr. Kolleck brings relationships with UNESCO and UNFCCC, including through the German Commission for UNESCO and her prior research on UNESCO and the UNFCCC.
10 Fazal Rizvi

Fazal Rizvi

Collaborator, University of Melbourne
Professor Fazal Rizvi is a Professor of Global Studies in Education at the University of Melbourne Australia, as well as an Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in educational policy research, public policy, and theories of globalisation and international education.
Professor Fazal Rizvi is a Professor of Global Studies in Education at the University of Melbourne Australia, as well as an Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in educational policy research, public policy, and theories of globalisation and international education. Dr. Rizvi has published more than 18 books and over 100 articles, and is highly cited in his field, with over 2,500 citations in ResearchGate. His books include Globalizing Educational Policy (2009); The OCED, Globalization, and Education Policy Making (2001); and Educational Policy and the Politics of Change (2013). He is editor of a major book series, Studies of Education, and the leading international journal, Discourse. Dr. Rizvi brings relationships with the broader education policy research field as one of its leading scholars, as well as decades of studying global education policy, including the role of policy actors in policy mobility.
11 Nicolas Stahelin

Nicolas Stahelin

Research Associate
A research collaborator on global climate change education policy programs with SEPN since 2017, Dr. Stahelin has been conducting qualitative research on Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) policies through the lens of political ecology for nearly fifteen years.
A research collaborator on global climate change education policy programs with SEPN since 2017, Dr. Stahelin has been conducting qualitative research on Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) policies through the lens of political ecology for nearly fifteen years. He has a doctoral degree in International and Comparative Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has published in a number of academic journals, including the Journal of Environmental Education and Environmental Education Research. His published doctoral research examined the role of environmental discourse and ideology in ESE policy programs across global and national contexts. Dr. Stahelin is also a faculty member of the School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute’s MA program in Climate Change and Global Sustainability. He also teaches a graduate-level course on climate justice and education in the International and Multicultural Education Department at the University of San Francisco. In his work as both researcher and practitioner, Dr. Stahelin aims to use climate justice frameworks to critically inform ESE policy, curricula, and program design.

List of Publications

McKenzie, M., & Stahelin, N. (2022)

Meetings and the Network Governance and Mobility of UN Policy Programs on Environmental and Sustainability Education.

ECNU Review of Education (special issue).

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