Breaking Petro-Pedagogy with Green Education: Holding The Big Business Accountable for Climate Change

Since the world has embraced the green narrative, the focus has shifted more towards individual responsibility rather than holding fossil fuel industries accountable for their extractive activities. This shift has had a long-lasting impact on policymakers and society’s perspective on the urgent climate crisis. For years, the oil industry has spent over $3 billion to control the discourse on these issues, with one of the prominent channels being education (Holden, 2020). As a long-term solution to many global issues, the power embedded in the production and dissemination of knowledge is immensely significant. Even the formulation of education policies is constantly influenced by political factors (Nordensvärd, 2014). Those who control education have the power to shape the societal thinking of children and youth, steering them towards specific regimes of knowledge. This is what academics call: petro-pedagogy, a promotion of teaching practices that legitimize energy-related activities, and trigger awareness of personal responsibilities. However, such pedagogy extends beyond classroom activities to include industry infiltration through philanthropic initiatives.

Amid the escalating climate crisis, education—both local and international—has been infiltrated by narratives supporting the fossil fuel industry. These pedagogical practices downplay the problem and subtly conceal the harmful impact of the energy sector in driving the climate crisis. Therefore, this perspective argues that to effectively combat the climate crisis, our education should prioritize green education that nurtures a profound connection between humans and nature. By dismantling petro-pedagogy, the responsibility would shift more towards fossil fuel industries rather than individuals. Furthermore, this will trigger an authentic green mindset that can generate real changes.

Understanding Petro-Pedagogy: Hiding in Plain Sight   

The internalization of certain values is closely linked to the educational system that shapes a society’s dynamics. Education is thought to play a crucial role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. Beyond raising awareness, education provides students with the potential to gain a foundational and holistic understanding of the symbiosis between humans and ecosystems, along with the responsibility to adopt sustainable lifestyles (Reid, 2019). Within this framework, education that emerges to guide students towards green thinking is instead laden with fossil fuel interests and perpetuates the private sector’s dominance in the discourse (Eaton & Day, 2019). For instance, historically, young people have often heard the notion that careers in the mining or oil sectors offer the best prospects. This narrative encourages many to pursue education and employment in exploitative industries for substantial income. Moreover, petroleum and natural gas are labeled as ‘non-renewable resources,’ with emphasis placed solely on their unsustainable aspects, while public narratives seldom highlight the environmental dangers associated with their use (Henderson, 2019). All these phenomena are part of petro-pedagogy, a strategy by the regime that actively hinders the transition to a post-carbon economy.

It is a pedagogical practice and resources that aims to centre, legitimize, and entrench fossil industries’ interest. This can be done through direct intervention or sponsorship by a fossil motivated institution. The central tenet of this pedagogy is the valorization of the energy industry as an essential component in climate change education, portraying it as a crucial actor in addressing the climate crisis alongside many other stakeholders (Gruenewald & Manteaw, 2007). By emphasizing the diversity of actors, responsibility for addressing climate issues is shifted from solely the private sector to also encompass government and individuals. This theorization creates the perception that individual lifestyles, such as the use of single-use plastics, bottled water, and dietary choices, have a significant impact. Consequently, societal attention tends to focus on individual-level solutions as the easiest way to address the climate crisis. Even though personal lifestyles contribute to carbon emissions, this grassroots understanding seems to divert attention from the largest contributors —which are fossil fuel industries.

How It Infiltrates Education Institutions

These pedagogical practices are perpetuated through universities and schools. For instance, in the United Kingdom, British Petroleum (BP) infiltrates primary and secondary education, promoting a neoliberal model of STEM education (Tannock, 2020). This is also seen in Indonesia, where the newly-elected president, Prabowo Subianto has constantly promoted STEM-focused education as one of his programs (Dzulfaroh, 2024). Instead of being critical of scientific advancements, students are being indoctrinated to see STEM fields as apolitical and inherently for the greater good (Hytten & Stemhagen, 2019). It has been perceived as a field that is significantly contributing to the national economy and, therefore, should be put at the center of education policies. To achieve this level of infiltration, petro-pedagogy utilized several strategies, one of them being through funding.

For instance, in Indonesia, several prominent public universities frequently collaborate with Pertamina —a state-owned oil and gas enterprise— to fund a range of operational activities, including infrastructure development, creative projects, and competition sponsorships. One university even has a tower dedicated to Pertamina. Additionally, many education institutions direct students toward scholarship programs sponsored by PT Pertamina, PT Medco Energy, and/or PT Adaro, all of which are among the largest carbon contributors. Pertamina  —through Pertamina EP— and Medco are two major oil and gas production companies in Indonesia (Kompas, 2022). Meanwhile, PT Adaro has been repeatedly accused of polluting rivers in South Kalimantan (Msyaifullah, 2018). These philanthropic activities have enabled fossil fuel industries to control the narrative from within, sometimes even involving themselves directly in curriculum development. The fossil fuel regime implicitly persists in educational institutions under the guise of an energy transition, often steering the system back towards fossil fuel pathways.

Fighting Fire with Fire: Green Education

Education can be viewed as an arena of contestation between various discourses. In this context, the dynamics of the climate change issue correlate with shifts in power relations at every level through mindset transitions. This transformation could be achieved through the production-reproduction of knowledge —through long-term educational curricula— which can trigger mindset and action changes. In the end, government actors, private entities, and society collectively become products of petro-pedagogy. Unbeknownst to many, this pedagogy has taken root across generations alongside the formulation of our socio political system. Our society is formed upon a capitalistic notion that continues to exploit the earth’s natural resources. This exploitative nature has been taught to students since early on, including the current policy makers who are products of petro-pedagogy. Regulations such as the UU Cipta Kerja, and UU Minerba, to the Wadas incident (Gumilang et al., 2022), accentuate how the fossil regime has become deeply entrenched in the mindset of every stakeholder.

Given that previous generations have been shaped by education, countering fossil fuel narratives involves integrating green discourse into our pedagogical practices. Through the active production and reproduction of green knowledge, an antithesis to petro-pedagogy can gradually emerge. In Indonesia, a school called Sanggar Anak Alam adopted a revolutionary education model (Alfaridzi, 2023). Different from the conventional ones, it accentuates freedom of expression and learning. Students are instilled with the values of “jaga diri, jaga teman, jaga lingkungan,” which become deeply internalized from a young age. This approach eliminates the special attention to STEM-focused education to ensure the students can choose what is best for themselves. Remarkably, the school has also recognized the significance of ‘distancing itself’ from the private sector. From its inception, Sanggar Anak Alam has relied on independent funding through collective donations from alumni and parents to prevent the infiltration of petro-pedagogical practices that often come with sponsorship

Achieving the integration of green education into the Indonesian curriculum requires a robust political intention. Petro-pedagogy illustrates the deep infiltration of fossil fuel interests into education, shaping curricula and societal attitudes towards climate change. By emphasizing individual responsibility and the necessity of fossil fuels, it diverts attention from the industry’s significant environmental impact. To combat this, achieving the integration of green education into the Indonesian curriculum is essential. It promotes sustainable living and critical thinking about the current climate crisis, aiming to dismantle petro-pedagogy’s influence. However, this integration presents a challenge that demands collaborative efforts from all stakeholders, especially from academics, socially aware students, and of course, the educational institutions themselves. Schools like Sanggar Anak Alam exemplify this by fostering independence from corporate sponsorship and emphasizing environmental stewardship, aiming to create a genuine shift towards a greener future. Education must be utilize to reverse the effects of petro-pedagogy thus shifting back the big portion of responsibility of reducing environmental impact back to the fossil industries.

Referensi

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