Transformative Learning with Wangari Maathai: Fostering Environmental Education and Sustainability Through the Green Picturebook Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online January, 2025
Transformative Learning with Wangari Maathai: Fostering Environmental Education and Sustainability Through the Green Picturebook Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace
Picturebooks that focus on environmental issues offer children the chance to connect with natural settings, promoting emotional and mental health, while also developing ethical principles and an authentic concern for the environment. This genre possesses the capacity to emotionally captivate children through its combination of text and visuals, potentially resulting in a shift in their perspectives towards the topics and issues being portrayed. In addition to this, picturebooks are educational because they use words and images to choose, arrange, and understand data and statistics, thereby making knowledge accessible to those who are generally interested and engaging readers on an emotional and intellectual level. This essay examines how the picturebook Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace (2010) effectively communicates Wangari Maathai’s environmental advocacy. For this purpose, the article offers a brief examination of the influence of Maathai’s Green Belt Movement and the holistic ecological connotations that the visual representations seek to emphasize. The article contends that this ‘green informational picturebook’ acts as a catalyst for transformative learning by enhancing ecological literacy in children and serving as a platform for environmental education and sustainability in the public as a whole.
BeauvaisC. (2015). The mighty child: Time and power in children’s literature. John Benjamins.
4.
BergthallerH., EmmettR., Johns-PutraA., KneitzA., LidströmS., McCorristineS., Pérez RamosI., PhillipsD., RigbyK., & RobinL. (2014). Mapping common ground: Ecocriticism, environmental history, and the environmental humanities. Environmental Humanities, 5(1), 261–276.
5.
BorchM. (2001). Rethinking the origins of terra nullius. Australian Historical Studies, 32(117), 222–239.
6.
BretonM. J. (2016). Women pioneers for the environment. Northeastern University Press.
7.
BromleyP., MeyerJ. W., & RamirezF. O. (2011). The worldwide spread of environmental discourse in social studies, history, and civics textbooks, 1970–2008. Comparative Education Review, 55(4), 517–545.
8.
CipletD., & RobertsJ. T. (2017). Climate change and the transition to neoliberal environmental governance. Global Environmental Change, 46, 148–156.
9.
CorcoranP. B., WalkerK. E., & WalsA. E. (2004). Case studies, make-your-case studies, and case stories: A critique of case-study methodology in sustainability in higher education. Environmental Education Research, 10(1), 7–21.
10.
CrenshawK. (2017). Kimberle Crenshaw on intersectionality, more than two decades later. Columbia Law School. Retrieved, 8June2017, from https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-moretwo-decades-later
11.
DavisJ. (2008). What might education for sustainability look like in early childhood? A case for participatory, whole-setting approaches. In YoshieK. & Ingrid PramlingS. (Eds), The role of early childhood education for a sustainable society (pp. 18–24). UNESCO.
12.
DeLapK. Q. (2013). From root to tree: Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement—The grassroots approach to addressing human rights violations. Environmental Claims Journal, 25(2), 144–153.
13.
EscobarA. (2020). Territories of difference: Place, movements, life, redes. Duke University Press.
14.
GogaN., Guanio-UluruL., HallåsB. O., & NyrnesA. (Eds). (2018). Ecocritical perspectives on children’s texts and cultures: Nordic dialogues. Palgrave Macmillan.
15.
GogaN., Guanio-UluruL., HallåsB. O., HøisæterS. M., NyrnesA., & RimmereideH. E. (2023). Ecocritical dialogues in teacher education. Environmental Education Research, 29(10), 1430–1442.
16.
GonenM., & GulerT. (2011). The environment and its place in children’s picture story books. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 3633–3639.
17.
GorsevskiE. W. (2012). Wangari Maathai’s emplaced rhetoric: Greening global peacebuilding. Environmental Communication, 6(3), 290–307.
18.
GoughN., & GoughA. (2010). Environmental education. In KridelC. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of curriculum studies (Vol. 1, pp. 339)–343). Sage Publications.
19.
GulerT. (2010). Environmental education. In AkmanB., BalatveG. & GulerT. (Eds), Science education in the preschool period (pp. 181–201). PEGEM Publishing Inc.
20.
HaC., ChenY., ZhangJ., & DongS. (2023). The effectiveness of lifestyle interventions on ecological literacy: A contribution to the underlying mechanism in linguistic ecology. PloS One, 18(6), e0287286.
21.
HäggströmM., & SchmidtC. (2020). Enhancing children’s literacy and ecological literacy through critical place-based pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 26(12), 1729–1745.
22.
HarbesonJ. W. (1971). Land reforms and politics in Kenya, 1954–70. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 9(2), 231–251.
23.
HebeH. (2019). Locating the position of environmental education in the South African school curriculum: The case of Grade R. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15(9), em1750.
24.
HeggenM. P., SageidetB. M., GogaN., GrindheimL. T., BerganV., KrempigI. W., UtsiT. A., & LynngårdA. M. (2019). Children as eco-citizens?Nordina, 15(4), 388–402.
25.
HuntK. P. (2014). ‘It’s more than planting trees, It’s planting ideas’: Ecofeminist Praxis in the Green Belt Movement. Southern Communication Journal, 79(3), 235–249.
26.
IkuenobeP. A. (2014). Traditional African environmental ethics and colonial legacy. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 2(4), 1–21.
27.
JeronenE., & KaikkonenM. (2002). Thoughts of children and adults about the environment and environmental education. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 11(4), 341–353.
28.
JicklingB., & SterlingS. (Eds). (2017). Post-sustainability and environmental education: Remaking education for the future. Springer.
29.
JohnsonJ. C. (2010). Seeds of change: Planting a path to peace (SadlerS., illustrated). Lee & Low Books.
30.
KariukiF., & Ng’etichR. (2016). Land grabbing, tenure security and livelihoods in Kenya. African Journal of Legal Studies, 9(2), 79–99.
31.
KarmakarG., & ChettyR. (2023). Delinking the capitalist episteme: Empathy and the decolonial turn in Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama. Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 35(2), 105–120.
32.
KarmakarG., & ChettyR. (2024). Arguing for environmental education: Sustainability and decoloniality in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather. English Academy Review, 41(1), 88–104.
33.
KearnsC., & KearnsN. (2020). The role of comics in public health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, 43(3), 139–149.
34.
Kenya Government. (1915). The Government Lands Act (Cap. 280). National Council for Law Reporting.
35.
KinotiK. (2022). The Green Belt Movement: Women, land, and development. Global Africana Review, 6(1), 38–50.
36.
KitchenhamA. (2012). Jack Mezirow on transformative learning. In SeelN. M. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning (pp. 1659–1661). Springer.
37.
KloppJ. M., & LumumbaO. (2014). Kenya and the ‘global land grab’: A view from below. In KaagM. & ZoomersA. (Eds), The global land grab: Beyond the hype (pp. 54–70). Fenwood Publishing.
38.
Lee & Low Books. (2010). INTERVIEWS: Seeds of change. https://www.leeandlow.com/books/seeds-of-change/interviews
39.
MaathaiW. (2003). The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the approach and the experience (p. 138). Lantern Books.
40.
MaathaiW. (2005). Embracing democratic governance, human rights and the environment. Agenda, 19(65), 12–16.
41.
MaathaiW. (2008). An unbreakable link: Peace, environment, and democracy. Harvard International Review, 29(4), 24–27.
42.
MaathaiW. (2009). The challenge for Africa. Anchor/Random House.
43.
MaathaiW. (2010). Replenishing the earth: Spiritual values for healing ourselves and the world. Doubleday Religion.
44.
MaberaF. (2021). Wangari Maathai’s Afrocentric decolonial environmentalist struggle. In ZondiS. (Ed.), African voices: In search of a decolonial turn (pp. 190–214). Africa Institute of South Africa.
45.
MaggiulliK. (2022). Teaching invasive species ethically: using comics to resist metaphors of moral wrongdoing & build literacy in environmental ethics. Environmental Education Research, 28(9), 1391–1409.
46.
MahmoudiS., JafariE., NasrabadiH. A., & LiaghatdarM. J. (2012). Holistic education: An approach for 21 century. International Education Studies, 5(2), 178–186.
47.
MasseyG., & BradfordC. (2011). Children as ecocitizens: Ecocriticism and environmental texts. In MallanK. & BradfordC. (Eds), Contemporary children’s literature and film: Engaging with theory (pp. 109–126). Palgrave Macmillan.
48.
MaundeniT. (2002). Seen but not heard? Focusing on the needs of children of divorced parents in Gaborone and surrounding areas, Botswana. Childhood, 9, 277–302.
49.
MezirowJ. (1991). Transformative dimensions in adult learning. Jossey-Bass.
50.
MignoloW. (2011). The darker side of western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options. Duke University Press.
51.
Ministry of Education. (2003). The curriculum guidelines. Ministry of Education.
52.
MogensenF., & SchnackK. (2010). The action competence approach and the ‘new’ discourses of education for sustainable development, competence and quality criteria. Environmental Education Research, 16(1), 59–74.
53.
MuhonjaB. B. (2020). Radical utu: Critical ideas and ideals of Wangari Muta Maathai (Vol. 95). Ohio University Press.
54.
MurphyE. (2024). Healing landscapes and grieving eco-warriors: Climate activism in children’s literature. Children’s Literature in Education, 1–14. 10.1007/s10583-023-09567-3
55.
MusilaG. A. (Ed.). (2020). Wangari Maathai’s registers of freedom. National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
56.
MuthukiJ. (2006). Challenging patriarchal structures: Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt movement in Kenya. Agenda, 20(69), 83–91.
57.
MutieS. (2022). Labelling and othering:(Re) Engaging Wangari Maathai’s madwoman tag in unbowed: A memoir. Imbizo, 13(1), 1–17.
58.
MutuaE. M., & KilonzoS. M. (2018). Planting the future: The spiritual legacy of Wangari Maathai. In MutuaE. M., GonzálezA. & WolbertA. (Eds), The rhetorical legacy of Wangari Maathai: Planting the future (pp. 189–202). Lexington Books.
59.
NicholsJ. B., HowsonP. H., MulreyB. C., AckermanA., & GatelyS. E. (2016). The promise of place: Using place-based education principles to enhance learning. The International Journal of Pedagogy and Curriculum, 23(2), 27–41.
60.
NodelmanP., & ReimerM. (2003). The pleasures of children’s literature. Allyn and Bacon.
61.
OkuyadeO. (2020). Can the earth be belted? In MusilaG. A. (Ed.), Wangari Maathai’s registers of freedom (pp. 193–205). National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
62.
OrrD. W. (1992). Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world. State University of New York Press.
63.
OziewiczM. (2023). What is climate literacy?Climate Literacy in Education, 1(1), 34–38.
64.
PollanM., KingsolverB., WalkerA., & ZinnH. (2010). Hope beneath our feet: Restoring our place in the natural world (Vol. 67). North Atlantic Books.
65.
PrinceC. (2010). Sowing the seeds: Education for sustainability within the early years curriculum. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 18(3), 423–434.
66.
RawatG., & GauravV. K. (2023). Colonial invasion and environmental degradation in Wangari Maathai’s unbowed: A memoir. Hypatia, 38(2), 405–422.
67.
RisserP. G. (1986). Address of the past president: Syracuse, New York; August 1986: Ecological literacy. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 67(4), 264–270.
68.
RybakK. (2023). Towards a literature of actions: Green informational picturebooks and critical engagement with fighting climate change. Children’s Literature in Education, 1–15. 10.1007/s10583-023-09549-5
69.
SaylerZ. (2019, March21). Kids to teachers: We need to talk about climate change. https://grist.org/politics/kids-to-teachers-we-need-to-talk-about-climate-change/
70.
SchellE. E. (2013). Transnational environmental justice rhetorics and the Green Belt Movement: Wangari Muta Maathai’s ecological rhetorics and literacies. JAC, 33(3/4), 585–613.
71.
SchildR. (2016). Environmental citizenship: What can political theory contribute to environmental education practice?The Journal of Environmental Education, 47(1), 19–34.
72.
SchmidtC. (2017). Thrown together: incorporating place and sustainability into early literacy education. International Journal of Early Childhood, 49(2), 165–179.
73.
ScottK. (2013). Peace profile: Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. Peace Review, 25(2), 299–306.
74.
SerafiniF. (2014). Exploring wordless picturebooks. The Reading Teacher, 68(1), 24–26.
75.
SharmaK., & PandyaM. (2015). Towards a green school on education for sustainable development for elementary schools. National Council of Educational Research and Training.
76.
ShattuckA. (2022). One person, one tree: Wangari Maathai and ecofeminism in the Greenbelt Movement. Women Leading Change: Case Studies on Women, Gender, and Feminism, 6(2), 21–35.
77.
SiloN., MswelaN., & SeetsoG. (2024). Children’s concepts of the environment: An opportunity for environmental education as a tool for sustainability in Botswana preschools. Early Childhood Education Journal, 1–10. 10.1007/s10643-023-01609-1
78.
Siraj-BlatchfordJ., MogharrebanC., & ParkE. (2016). International research on education for sustainable development in early childhood. Springer.
79.
SmithG. A., & SobelD. (2010). Place-and community-based education in schools: Place and community-based education in schools. Routledge.
80.
SomervilleM., & WilliamsC. (2015). Sustainability education in early childhood: An updated review of research in the field. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 16(2), 102–117.
81.
TaylorB. (2020). Kenya’s Green Belt Movement. In MusilaG. A. (Ed.), Wangari Maathai’s registers of freedom (pp. 216–245). National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
82.
The Nobel Peace Prize. (2004). NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media, AB. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/press-release/
83.
Van der BeekS., & LehmannC. (2022). What can you do as an eco-hero? A study on the ecopedagogical potential of Dutch non-fictional environmental texts for children. Children’s Literature in Education, 1–21. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10583-022-09482-z
84.
Van KlinkenA. (2022). Wangari Maathai’s environmental bible as an African knowledge: Eco-spirituality, christianity, and decolonial thought. Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 8(3), 156–175.
85.
Von MerveldtN. (2018). Informational picturebooks. In Kümmerling-MeibauerB. (Ed.), The Routledge companion to picturebooks (pp. 231–245). Routledge.
86.
WarrenK. (1987). Feminism and ecology: Making connections. Environmental Ethics, 9(1), 3–20.
87.
Weik von MossnerA. (2017). Affective ecologies: Empathy, emotion, and environmental narrative. The Ohio State University Press.
88.
WeitzmanL. J., EiflerD., HokadaE., & RossC. (1972). Sex-role socialization in picturebooks for preschool children. American Journal of Sociology, 77(6), 1125–1150.
89.
YoungR. L. (2018). Confronting climate crises through education: Reading our way forward. Lexington Books.
90.
YoungR. L. (2022). Introduction. In YoungR. L. (Ed.), Literature as a lens for climate change: Using narratives to prepare the next generation (pp. 1–17). Lexington Books.
