Developing High School EFL Students’ Systems Thinking Through Ecocritical Pedagogy

Systems thinking is a crucial competency for sustainability, however, it remains largely unexplored in English education. Given its potential and responsibility, English education can play a vital role in addressing sustainability challenges, such as environmental crises, by developing students’ key sustainability competencies like systems thinking. Thus, this study designed an ecocritical pedagogy for English lessons using a material ecocriticism approach and examined its impact on EFL students' systems thinking. A mixed-methods research design was employed with 63 participants (56 females, 7 males) who engaged in three consecutive 90-minute sessions. Quantitative data were collected through pre- and post-questionnaires and analyzed using paired-sample t-tests, while qualitative data from classroom participation and students' concept maps were examined through content analysis. Findings revealed that students could recognize, analyze, and understand the complex interrelationships of agencies contributing to air pollution across different domains and scales through ecocritical reading and discussions. These results demonstrate that ecocritical pedagogy effectively cultivates systems thinking competency in EFL students. This study recommends integrating ecocritical pedagogy that combines both literary and scientific English teaching materials on environmental topics to enhance students' ability to think systemically and engage critically with sustainability issues.