Education for Sustainable Development as School Practices

Author(s):

Katrine Dahl Madsen(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

08 SES 05 A, Research on Practice in Education for Sustainable Development

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

11:00-12:30

Room:

FFL - Aula 11

Chair:

Matthias Barth

Contribution

Objectives and design

The intent of this publication is to contribute with new knowledge of how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is translated into a school context, and to highlight some of the challenges and perspectives related to these transformative processes.

The paper is based on a current PhD study, which aims to explore how ESD is translated from a supranational level to a school level, and to identify some of the tensions, ruptures and openings in these processes. Further, it will be discussed how Regional Centers of Expertise (RCE) could facilitate these processes of change. The project is based on studies of two research- and development projects in primary and secondary schools in Ireland and Denmark, where teachers from various subjects have worked with ESD. The two projects were carried out as part of the UN Decade for ESD, and both based on principles of dialogue, participation and ownership. In the case of Ireland, the development project formed part of the RCE Ireland.

The theoretical framework is inspired by theories of practice (Gherardi 2009, 2006, Schön 1983), interactive research (Læssøe & Baungaard Rasmussen 1989, Wals et al 2009) and further theories, which highlight particular challenges of ESD as didactical practice (Breiting, Læssøe, Rolls & Schnack, 2009 and Vare & Scott 2007). On this background, the main analytical concepts are: framing & naming, translation & mediation and dissonance & consensus. The study is based on teachers' and researchers' perspectives, thus it is the practice as 'seen from inside', which is the focus of the study. Further, I will discuss what the practice 'does', in a social perspective - which points to the critical power of the practice lens (Gherardi, 2009).

Method

The approach is inspired by an understanding of comparative education which suggests a vertical approach in the analysis of education exchange, focusing on how supra national discourses are transformed and re-contextualized in local settings, seeking to generate knowledge of these processes and the issues in force here (Beech, 2006 and Winther-Jensen 2004). The study is based on analysis of international and national policy documents on ESD, observations and interviews with researchers and teachers in Denmark and Ireland. The analysis has been formed in interplay between the theoretical framework and the themes, which have appeared in the research, and it consists of three parts: The teachers' meeting with ESD, The research-and development project and The RCE framework.

Expected Outcomes

This paper will focus on the first part of the analysis: The teachers’ meeting with ESD. An important part of this has been to encircle how knowledge is produced and activated in these processes. To the teachers, ESD, as it is presented in the research-and development projects, means new ways of working and thinking, and especially the open aspect is stressed as challenging. In the process of grasping and approaching ESD, teachers seek to identify the didactical what? Mediating artifacts such as images, cell phones and ecological food, here seem to play an important role, as these elements make it possible for the teacher to communicate main ideas and principles of ESD and at the same time to keep an open and self reflexive form of the issue. Further, these elements make the work with ESD visible at the school, which seems to be an important aspect of becoming an ESD teacher. Teachers also request examples of how to 'do ESD', and as such, ESD tends to take form as an accumulation of examples. One risk of this seems to be that the critical aspect is lost at the expense of the dissemination of 'the positive stories'.

References

References Beech, Jason: Redefining Educational Transfer: International Agencies and the (Re)production of Educational Ideas. In: Identity, Education and Citizenship - Multiple Interrelations. Sprogøe, Jonas og Winter-Jensen, Thyge (Ed). Peter Lang GmbH, 2006. Breiting, Søren: Læssøe, Jeppe; Rolls, Simon; Schnack, Karsten: Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education. The International Alliance of leading Education Institutes, DPU, 2009. Gherardi, Silvia: Organizational Knowledge. The texture of Workplace Learning. Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Gherardi, Silvia: The critical power of the ‘practice lens’. Management Learning, vol. 40(2), Sage publications, 2009. Læssøe, J. og Baungaard Rasmussen, L.(1989): Brugerorienterede forskningsmetoder. Udvikling af computerstøttede arbejdsprocesser i konstruktionskontoret. Schön, Donald: The reflective practitioner – How Professionals Think in Action. 1983 Basic Books, Inc. Scott, William & Gough, Stephen: Sustainable Development and Learning. Framing The Issues. Routledge Falmer 2003. Vare Paul and Scott, William: Learning for a change: exploring the relationship between education and sustainable development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, September 2007. Winter-Jensen, Thyge: Comparative Education in a World of Globalisation. World Studies in Education. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2004. Wals, Arjen: Hoeven, Noor Van Der, Blanken,Harm: The acoustics of social learning. Designing learning processes that contribute to a more sustainable world. Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, 2009.

Author Information

Katrine Dahl Madsen (presenting / submitting)

Aarhus University

Department of Education

Allerød

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.