Self-funded research initiatives by EEL

In recent years, the EEL has initiated a number of self-funded small-scale research projects, as well as projects partially supported by the NKUA’s Special Account for Research Grants (S.A.R.G.). These initiatives are currently in progress and involve the active participation of EEL research assistants, postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, and postgraduate students, under the scientific supervision and coordination of Prof. Maria Daskolia.

These research projects address underexplored or emerging topics in the field of Environmental and Sustainability Education, aiming to advance innovative pedagogical, theoretical, and methodological approaches.

Current Research Projects

• The Psychology of environmental experience, learning and well-being

Start: 2025 – ongoing
Principal investigator: Prof. Maria Daskolia
This project employs experiential, narrative, and participatory methods to investigate the psychological dimensions of environmental experience, learning and well-being, as well assense of responsibility and the motivation for engaging in sustainable behaviors and practices. Special emphasis is placed on the lived experiences of learners-educators and diverse social groups, including young children, adults, women, and other socially vulnerable populations, highlighting their perspectives and contributions.

• Environmental humanities in school: Literature, creative writing, slam poetry and the environment

Duration: September 2023 – ongoing
Scientific supervisor: Prof. Maria Daskolia
Researchers: Evangelia Aravani, Maria Daskolia
This research explores how creative literary practices, especially slam poetry, creative writing, and the teaching of environmental literature, can enrich environmental and sustainability education in school settings. It investigates their potential to foster students’ multiliteracies, imaginative engagement, and affective connections with environmental concerns through interdisciplinary, critical, and arts-based approaches.

• Environarratives: Environmental narratives as educational tools for learning, care, and empowerment in the Anthropocene

Duration: January 2024 – ongoing
Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Maria Daskolia
Researchers: Maria Daskolia, Naya Grillia, Maria Pliota
Grounded in the environmental humanities, this research explores diverse narrative forms, such as reflective journals, storytelling, visual arts, documentary films, theater, and digital apps, as tools for deepening learners’ engagement with environmental and sustainability issues, including climate change and the Anthropocene. It examines how such narratives can cultivate awareness and reflection, as well as care, agency, creativity, and both personal and professional growth, while offering new representational and pedagogical frameworks.

• Sustainability competencies in higher education

Duration: September 2023 – ongoing
Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Maria Daskolia
Researchers: Eleni Sinakou, Maria Pliota, Maria Daskolia
This project focuses on identifying and integrating sustainability competencies in higher education curricula and pedagogical practices, as well as in the in-service training of teachers. It aims to explore how universities can effectively prepare students to contribute to the green and digital transitions through a more holistic and future-oriented educational framework.

• Narrative inquiry in environmental education for sustainability

Duration: September 2017 – ongoing
Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Maria Daskolia
Researchers: Maria Daskolia, Naya Grillia, Katerina Chouliara, Katerina Ntai, Matrona Pappa, Anna Trigatzi
This long-term research project investigates the role of narrative and lived experience in understanding how learners and educators engage with environmental education. Drawing on narrative inquiry methods, the study aims to uncover the individual and collective meanings, emotional dimensions, and transformative learning processes that shape environmental learning and contribute to personal and professional development in the field of environmental education.