Using Lucie Sauve's environmental education typology: a systematic synthesis of citations

Lucie Sauve's environmental education (EE) typology is a well-known framework and a theoretical starting point for critical analysis of the discourses and practices in the field. Over 15 years after its publication, the typology continues to circulate across diverse educational contexts and scholarly cultures. This study contributes to understanding how the EE typology is used in scholarly cultures and what keeps it in circulation. Through a systematic search of citing articles and a novel citation analysis, we explored the purpose and content of citations to Sauve's EE typology in 84 peer-review journal articles. The citation analysis revealed that scholars mostly use it to support conceptual or empirical claims about the diversity of approaches in EE, rarely attempting to problematise or enhance this framework. The study brings awareness of the benefits and limitations of using the EE typology and provides transferrable insights to reflect on the life of conceptual frameworks.