“We Call Ourselves Marginalized” - Young People’s Environmental Learning and Navigations of Marginalization in a Kenyan Pastoralist Community

Oct 15, 2026

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Indigenous knowledge has increasingly been incorporated into environmental education to address the marginalization of non-Western perspectives, yet the debate often centers on victimization and can overlook the agency of those labeled marginalized. This paper examines how young secondary-school graduates in a Kenyan pastoralist community use and negotiate indigeneity, marginal identity, and lived experiences of marginalization through social navigations that expand current and future opportunities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Marginalization in global and environmental education discourse

Indigenous knowledge and debates over representation

Research focus and argument

“We Call Ourselves Marginalized”: Young People’s Environmental Learning and Navigations of Marginalization ina Kenyan Pastoralist Community Nanna Jordt Jørgensen, Aarhus University, Denmark Abstract In recent decades, indigenous knowledge has been added to the environmental education agenda in an attempt to address the marginalization of non-western perspectives. While these efforts are necessary, the debate is often framed in terms of a discourse of victimization that overlooks the agency of the people we refer to as marginalized. In this paper, I discuss how young secondary school graduates from a pastoralist community in Kenya use and negotiate indigeneity, marginal identity, and experiences of marginalization in social navigations aimed at broadening their current and future opportunities. I argue that researchers not only need to pay attention to how certain voices are marginalized in environmental education research and practice, but also to how learners as agents respond to, use, and negotiate the marginalization of their perspectives. Résumé Au cours des dernières décennies, les connaissances autochtones ont été intégréesau champ de l’éducation environnementale dans l’espoir d’adresser la question dela marginalisation des perspectives non occidentales. Bien que ces efforts soientnécessaires, le débat est souvent conçu de telle façon qu’il aboutit à un discours de victimisation qui néglige l’action des populations que nous appelons marginalisées. Dans le présent article, je décris comment, dans une communauté pastorale du Kenya, des jeunes ayant terminé leurs études secondaires utilisent et négocientleur indigénéité, leur identité marginale et leurs expériences de marginalisation dans des cheminements sociaux visant à élargir leurs perspectives actuelles et futures. Ce travail soutient l’idée que les chercheurs doivent prêter attention non seulement à la marginalisation de certaines voix dans la recherche et les pratiquesen éducation environnementale, mais aussi à la réaction des étudiants envers la marginalisation de leurs perspectives, ainsi que leurfaçon de s’en servir et de lanégocier. Keywords: environmental learning, indigenous knowledge, learner’s agency, marginalization, social navigation, Kenya 96 Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 18, 2013 Introduction So in terms of what the government has done … we call ourselves marginalized communities. You have seen the road network from Nanyuki up to here. We don’t have electricity. The water, if you go to the Ministry of Water, the boreholes are countable. But now we can see that God is assisting us because we will have our own member of parliament. We will be having our own constituency development funds and we will expand our own road network. (Quote from group interview with young men from Laikipia North, Kenya, March 21, 2012) The concept of “marginalization” and the label “marginalized” has for decades been used in global discourses to bring political or academic attention to the plight of specific groups or segments that have been oppressed, ignored, or sidelined. Within environmental education and education for sustainable development, both practice and research, one topic of discussion on marginalization has been the dominance of “western” knowledge within the field, marginalizing“indigenous” knowledge and ways of knowing about the environment (cf. Korteweg & Russell, 2012; Russell & Fawcett, 2013) . Indigenous knowledge has been widely analyzed and discussed within other academic fields (e.g. , Dei, Hall, & Rosenberg, 2000) and has been a part of the environmental education debate since the 1970s with the Tbilisi Conference in 1977 (see Van Damme & Neluvhalani, 2004), but until recently, the topic has received relatively little attention among environmental education and education for sustainable development scholars. A few articles reviewing the field have discussed the history of the introduction of indigenous knowledge to the gl

FAQs

What does the paper critique about how marginalization is discussed in environmental education?

It critiques framing discussions around victimization that can obscure learners’ agency and reduce indigenous people to one-sided moralized representations.

How do young people in the Kenyan pastoralist community use indigeneity and marginal identity?

They use and negotiate indigeneity and marginal identity in social navigations aimed at broadening their current and future opportunities.

What does the author argue researchers should pay attention to?

Researchers should examine not only whose voices are marginalized in environmental education research and practice, but also how learners respond to, use, and negotiate that marginalization.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Muffet