The significance of ‘participation’ as an educational ideal in education for sustainable development and health education in schools

This article examines the significance of the concept of participation for teacher meaning-making processes in education for sustainable development and health education. In Scandinavian public schools, education for sustainable development and health education focus on a wide palette of societal problems rather than on narrow curricula. Drawing on selected reviews of research literature on education for sustainable development and health education, Lacanian psychoanalysis provides inspiration for our analysis of the concept of participation, and how it is positioned and enacted in these fields of practice. Essentially, we argue that the concept of participation has a dual nature: it serves both as an educational ideal and as a teaching strategy. We also explore how the failure to achieve the ideal of ‘true’ participation may serve a positive purpose for the teacher; the acknowledgement that participation is not always as genuine as desired establishes a pedagogical situation where ideals of engaging pupils through true participation can continue to exist side by side with clear signs of a less consequential participation.     

‘Needle and Stick’ save the world: sustainable development and the universal child

This text deals with a problem concerning processes of the productive power of knowledge. We draw on the so-called poststructural theories challenging the classical image of thought – as hinged upon a representational logic identifying entities in a rigid sense – when formulating a problem concerning the gap between knowledge and the object of knowledge. More specifically we are looking at this problem in the contexts of sustainable development and childhood, using illustrating examples in order to test the validity of these theoretical accounts. The examples we use range from internationally agreed documents claiming universality concerning environmental protection and childhood to national curricula for the pre-school to a Swedish governmentally produced and distributed TV series called Needle and Stick save the world, addressing the issue of sustainable development. In short, we wish to problematise the rigid positions of the child and the human being in relation to nature.     

The effect of implementation of education for sustainable development in Swedish compulsory schools – assessing pupils’ sustainability consciousness

During the past decade, numerous schools in Sweden have implemented education for sustainable development (ESD) as an explicit guiding approach in teaching. In this paper, we investigate the effect of this approach in comparison with that of pupils taught in ordinary schools. Accordingly, we introduce the concept of sustainability consciousness to represent the holistic view of sustainability. Within the concept of sustainability consciousness, we combine and investigate the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development in terms of sustainability knowingness, attitudes, and behavior. A Likert-scale questionnaire with 50 items was developed to evaluate pupils’ sustainability consciousness through a nationwide study in Sweden. A total of 1773 pupils from the 6th and 9th grades participated. The results indicated that the ESD profile schools had a small positive effect on the pupils’ sustainability consciousness, while in grade 9 the effect was negative. The implications for further ESD implementation are discussed.     

The ‘truth’ of academic development: how did it get to be about ‘teaching and learning’?

The nature of academic development in contemporary universities has been a recent focus in the literature. Highlighting the diversity of practices that exist under its name, ‘academic development’ has been described by some as an ambiguous project and a fragmented field, while others suggest a more coherent project, pointing out a near universal concern with, in particular, teaching and learning. Through an exploration of the practices of the first academic developers in New Zealand, and a consideration of the particular institutions in which they were operating, this article draws on the work of Foucault to consider the modalities of power that were available to them. This exploration is used as a basis from which to consider the systems of truth that began to emerge as a result of the early appointees' practice, in particular their original and enduring concern with teaching and learning as objects of knowledge.     

An interdisciplinary approach to environmental and sustainability education: developing geography students’ understandings of sustainable development using poetry

Education for sustainable development (ESD) persists as an important concept within international policy and yet, despite considerable debate, there remains a lack of consensus as to a pedagogy for ESD in schools. This paper presents findings from a study investigating how an interdisciplinary approach to ESD in England developed one class of 16- and 17-year-old geography students’ understandings of sustainability. The research used students’ drawings of sustainable cities alongside questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore their understanding of sustainable development within a constructivist, case study framework. The study found that the use of poetry within a geography lesson developed students’ appreciation of the social and economic dimensions of sustainability, although their focus persisted around the environmental. As such, it is argued that an interdisciplinary approach to ESD encourages students to engage more critically and affectively with the concept of sustainable development, thereby developing a more holistic appreciation of it.     

The teacher educator’s role as enacted and experienced in school-based development

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on teacher educators’ role and how it was enacted and experienced by teachers and leaders in a school-based development project. The arena for the teachers’ professional development was the school, and teacher educators at one teacher-education institution and three schools took part in the research. Teacher educators, teachers and school leaders were interviewed two years and two months after they formally took part in the project, for one year in a pilot program and afterward for three semesters. The findings show that the teacher educators enacted their roles differently, and that they realise that they should have collaborated more and coordinated their experiences from collaborations with teachers and leaders to learn from their experiences in school. The leaders and teachers were satisfied with the teacher educators’ lectures, but the teachers wanted more dialogue with teacher educators and felt that teacher educators should have helped them transform their knowledge into teaching actions in practice. Teacher educators taking part as supporters in teachers’ practice truly could infiltrate instruction and learning. The study demonstrates that culture, structure and content need to be coordinated to enhance school-based development.     

Children’s participatory design for sustainable development and community planning

The urban developments have been carried out by only professionals for a long time because of efficiency and safety. However, most residents are ordinary people. Therefore, it is necessary to change the awareness of sustainable living environments, not only on the construction side but also the residents. In recent years, the number of cases of residents’ participation in planning, maintaining, and repairing increased. However, sometimes youths and children, who might spend a lifetime longer than adults in a city after the developments have been done, are not included in this “Residents”. Concerning youth and children’s participation, CFC (child friendly city) is one of the good practices for sustainable development. It was launched by UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) and UN-Habitat in the Habitat II in 1996. City governments, especially in European countries, started to view CFC as their key concept for preservation and/or sustainable development. CFC means not only being “Children” friendly but also “All people” friendly. Various effects have been reported since the Historic Cities/districts included CFC in their city planning as a common concept, especially in education, community re-development, and operation and maintenance by the community. It is expected that better city planning in preservation and sustainable development can be achieved by adding CFC concept. In this research, an ideal way of city planning involving resident participation and the possibility in the future are analyzed based on case studies. Then a strategy of sustainable development and community planning involving youth and children’s participation is proposed.     

The challenges of academic development as a first graduate job: ‘am I doing it right?’

ABSTRACT

This article explores the experience of 10 graduate interns employed in an academic development team at a modern British university. The interns came from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds with no previous experience of academic development. We worked intensively with them to build their research and professional capabilities. They learnt to design questionnaires, lead focus groups, interview academics, and write ethnographic field-notes. The public-facing and visible achievements of the graduate interns told a brilliant story; behind the scenes they wrestled with the challenges of being and becoming. Here, we analyse a series of reflections charting their journeys as new professionals.     

‘Our common world’ belongs to ‘Us’: constructions of otherness in education for sustainable development

The aim of this article is to analyse how good intentions in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) discursively construct and maintain differences between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’. The empirical material consists of textbooks about sustainable development used in Swedish schools. An analysis of how ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ are constructed and maintained is done with help from critical race theory, whiteness studies and Popkewitz’ notion of double gestures, exclusion through intentions of inclusion. The analysis departs from five dichotomies: tradition/civilisation, dirtiness/purity, chaos/order, ignorance/morality and helped/helping. We consider these dichotomies as cogwheels operating in an ‘Otherness machinery’. Through this machinery, ‘We’ are constructed as knowing, altruistic, conscious and good. The Other is simultaneously constructed as ‘uncivilised’ or as a ‘bad’ Other in need of higher moral standards. With help from these two Others, ‘Swedish exceptionalism’ is formed. The ESD project could then be understood as a colonial and excluding project, and we ask how it is possible to avoid that ‘our common world’ only belong to ‘Us’?     

The temporal dimension as a dialogical resource for teachers’ professional development and fulfillment

This article presents the findings of a qualitative interview study of professional identity of 38 Italian teachers close to retirement. Through a dialogical analysis of the interviews, the authors trace the trajectory of the teachers’ voices along a temporal axis, to retrieve the history of the voices and the connections to a specific period of the teachers’ careers. In particular, the authors focus on how the interviewees dealt with problems and dilemmas in their professional lives and solved their feelings of professional inadequacy. This study highlights the importance of the time dimension in relation to teacher professionalism, in particular with regard to identity resources to overcome critical moments in their careers.     

‘Straitjacket’ or ‘springboard for sustainable learning’? The implications of formative assessment practices in vocational learning cultures

In contrast to theoretical and empirical insights from research into formative assessment in compulsory schooling, understanding the relationship between formative assessment, motivation and learning in vocational education has been a topic neglected by researchers. The Improving Formative Assessment project (IFA) addresses this gap, using a sociocultural approach to explore the relationship between formative assessment practices and ‘learning cultures’ in vocational education. This article explores the influence of learning cultures in vocational education on the practice of formative assessment and evaluates critically two closely related questions. Why do some learning cultures foster formative assessment that leads to instrumental learning while others develop deeper forms of learning? When is formative assessment a springboard for sustainable learning, and when does it remain an instrumental straitjacket?     

The role of ‘pracademics’ in education and development of adventure sport professionals

Understanding and exploiting the synergy between theory and practice lies at the heart of effective education for outdoor professionals. Accordingly, and in an attempt to stimulate debate, this paper conceptualizes the interaction between theory and practice in the context of the education of outdoor professionals. We identify issues specific to the often separated worlds of practice and academia. While acknowledging those distinct skills and competencies, however, we also explore a mid-role; that of the ‘pracademic’ or scientist–practitioner or practitioner scholar, considering behaviours that may encourage greater collaborative work to inform the process and implementation of the education of outdoor professionals.     

Subject- and experience-bound differences in teachers’ conceptual understanding of sustainable development

This article describes the results of a nationwide questionnaire study of 3229 Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ conceptual understanding of sustainable development in relation to their subject discipline and teaching experience. Previous research has shown that teachers have difficulties understanding the complex concept of sustainable development. According to the Swedish curriculum, all teachers in all subjects should integrate a holistic perspective of sustainable development including economic, ecological, and social dimensions. This study shows that teachers differ in their understanding of the concept mostly according to their subject traditions. Social science teachers emphasize social dimensions and science teachers’ ecological dimensions, respectively. Teachers are aware of the relevance of the three dimensions to various degrees, but do not generally have a holistic understanding. The greatest uncertainty in teachers’ understanding is related to the economic dimension. Science and social science teachers are critical of incorporating economic growth into the concept of sustainable development while language, vocational, and esthetical–practical teachers are not. No experience-bound differences of the teachers’ understanding could be found, but recently qualified teachers consider their understanding of sustainable development to be poorer in comparison with more experienced teachers’ self-evaluation. The study highlights the need for further training in sustainable development since more than 70% of the questioned teachers stated that they need such training.     

The Use of Tape as a ‘Lead-Medium’

Mathematical circles in the schools of the Federal Republic of Germany are engaged in the examination and discussion of two proposed teaching reforms, the first concerned with the content of teaching and the second with its methods. The proposals stem from the 1968 Conference of Cultural Ministers, a subject of which was the establishment of ‘A Framework of Guiding Principles of Reform’. These principles provide for reforms in mathematics teaching in schools, to start in the school year 1972/73, and preparatory work has been going on in a number of places. The research includes a mathematical project on the theme: ‘Value of Digit Systems’, work on which has been carried out by the Institut für Film und Bild in association with the publishing firm of Ernest Klett.     

The field as a ‘pedagogical resource’? A critical analysis of students’ affective engagement with the field environment

This paper presents findings from research into students’ perceptions and experiences of geography fieldwork. The study focused on Year 9 students (13–14 years) from three state secondary schools in urban northern England. Geography fieldwork, depending on its conceptualisation and implementation, has the potential to provide students with a wide range of environmental learning experiences. This paper analyses the implicit values and ideologies underlying the three schools’ approaches to fieldwork using Fien’s (1993 Fien, J. 1993. Education for the environment: Critical curriculum theorising and environmental education, Melbourne, Australia: Deakin University Press.  [Google Scholar]) conceptual distinction between education about, through and for the environment. The significance of these underlying values and ideologies to the students’ affective engagement with the field environment is discussed. The paper concludes that, while some students engaged with the field environment in terms of their personal values and environmental ideologies, broader influences on the fieldwork agenda were also discernable. These findings deepen our understanding of the implicit values underlying environmental education and highlight a potentially important conflict between the cognitive and affective objectives of such work.     

The roles of epistemology and ideology in teachers’ pedagogy with historical ‘media’

Within the field of social studies education, disciplinary models of teaching, such as approximating a historian in asking students to ‘think historically,’ have been the emphasis of countless professional development and teacher education programs. This movement, however, has focused largely on the use of traditional primary documents and generally does not include training for teachers or students on how other forms of media construct history. This collective case study examines how two US history teachers’ epistemological beliefs about historical media and ideology and overall goals for students as citizens impacts their pedagogy with different historical media, particularly film. Data were collected on a daily basis over the course of six months, and included observations, teacher interviews, and the media used as historical sources. Findings show that teachers’ beliefs about how sources represent history affect their pedagogy with the particular media, and that epistemic development and current notions of historical thinking may be limited when it comes to media that commonly serve as historical sources for the public at large (e.g., film, television, WWW, videogames). This limitation is caused in large part by the teachers’ larger goals for students that are informed by their ideology, and difficulty in identifying bias in media that aligned with their own beliefs. Therefore, a shift in teachers’ epistemic beliefs about how different forms of media serve as sources of history, essentially a form of critical media literacy, and coinciding recognition of ideological goals needs to occur in order to better instill students with skills in historical and media literacy for the twenty‐first century.