Abstract
Title: “We borrow this earth from our children.” A study about teaching for sustainable development in the ecological dimension and teacher’s choice of teaching materials.
Author: Jeanette Molin Haag, spring term 2017
Supervisor: Tomas Bollner
This study is an attempt to bring some light on to four teachers different perspectives on education for sustainable development with special focus on the ecological dimension. The first aim is to investigate in what subjects and how teachers in grades 1-3 are teaching for sustainable development with special focus on the ecological dimension. The second aim is to investigate the material teachers use in their lessons and if it can be linked to a specific environmental teaching tradition. The following questions were formulated:
- In which school subjects do teachers teach about sustainable development in the field of environment and ecological sustainability? Do they teach along interdisciplinary lines?
- What teaching materials do teachers choose to work with?
- Within which environmental education tradition do teachers and teaching materials belong to?
In the curriculum, the concept of sustainable development appears many times and dictates that it should work along interdisciplinary lines. However, various reports show that teachers are experiencing difficulties with teaching for sustainable development. The main reasons are lack of time and an unclear guidance from school administrations and the curriculum.
This study is based on interviews and the educational materials that teachers use. It will be analysed based on environmental teaching traditions, the variation theory and Dewey´s views on democratic deliberative conversations and interdisciplinary work.
The results show that teachers, although they are experiencing unclear guidance, plan and educate for sustainable development from some school books but mostly from teaching materials they have found from different organizations websites.
Keywords: Education for sustainable development, environmental education tradition, variation theory, interdisciplinary.
2017. , p. 50
Undervisning för hållbar utveckling, miljöundervisningstraditioner, variationsteorin, ämnesövergripande