Education for Sustainable development: a transactional, situated perspective

Author(s):

Cecilia Caiman(presenting / submitting)Iann Lundegård

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

Agency is a concept that has been used for initiating and describing children’s participation and control over their own meaning making. Young children’s active participation and agency in everyday educational practices is highly prioritized and thoroughly discussed on a policy level in the field of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS). Blanchet-Cohen (2009) stresses that there has been almost a paradigm shift in how children are viewed today, and in this new agenda, the notion of agency is of great significance. Davis (2008), Bigger and Webb (2010) emphasize the importance in a pluralistic, uncertain and diverse world to recognize young children as “agents for change”. In science education the research contributions on students/children’s agency mainly framed by cognitive psychology in terms of intentions, or individual aspects such as strategies and self awareness. Framed by a pragmatic perspective, human agency is explored as an open-ended process, always incomplete and constantly negotiated. Within this context agency is understood as something that humans achieve (do) in a situation rather than something that they possess (have). Agency is described not a kind of 'power' but rather an engagement within a particular 'temporal-relational-contexts-for action'. In this study we approach agency in line with a Deweyan perspective (1934/1980; 1938/1996; 1922), as a transactional, open and becoming process which takes place in encounters between the children and the environment. Thusagency is operationalizedaschildren’santicipations towardscommon concerned problems, their course of actions sometimes towards fulfilmentand closure. Inline with this pragmatic perspective wealso argue for the importance to in this way investigate agency as an on-going contingent and situated process.

The theoretical framework in this study is pragmatic and we try to follow Dewey´s (1938/1997) ideas on how peoples experiences are transformed as they encounters the world. Dewey (1934/1980) claims that peoples experiences are continuously interwoven in the process of living, and that we “live in a series of situations” (Dewey 1938/1987 p. 43). He also declares that in every new encounter between people and the world both is to some extent transformed and changed. In this way, all the new situations that involve action and readjustments reconstitute both the people and the world. From this viewpoint agency as it emerges in the process, neither can be viewed as located in the environment or within people (cf. Dewey 1925/ 1958; Dewey 1938/1997). Dewey’s notion of experience is richer and more exhaustive explained if we use his principle of continuity (1938/1997). According to this “ […] something is carried over from the earlier to the later ones.” (p. 44) However, the final question in what way experiences are made continuous can only be answered through looking at their consequences (Wickman 2006). Within this framework we aim to empirically examine how children jointly and gradually constitute agency in formal pre-school settings.

Research questions:

How do the children give anticipation to their activities?

What choices do the children make in their course of action? When and how will the process reach fulfilment?

Method

To be able to analysis the process we have used a Practical Epistemological Analysis ( PEA), that has been used for analyzing classroom discourses and learning practices ( Wickman and Ötsman 2002; Wickman 2006; Lundegård 2011). PEA is a description of how meaning is created in different encounters between people and between people and their world. The methodology is developed from a pragmatist perspective concerning knowledge and based on Wittgenstein’s (1967; 1969) notion of language games, Dewey’s (1938/1997) principle of continuity and Rorty’s (1991) anti-representational approach to knowledge (Wickman & Östman 2002). In accordance with the pragmatic perspective described above we operationalize the 'notion of agency' by using three of Dewey’s concepts; anticipation, course of action and fulfilment to explore the on-going process the children are involved in. By then using Practical Epistemological Analysis (PEA) developed by Wickman & Östman (2002) we operationalize (use) these three concepts and empirically examine agency in young children’s activities concerning science-related issues in a pre-school context. How this agency-process continually takes form is also in line with Dewey´s (1938/1997 ) principle of continuity, i.e. how transformation of earlier experiences become consequences for future and present experiences.

Expected Outcomes

This study shows how children when they are encouraged to explore their own and their friends’ concerned problems, have the opportunity to develop agency as an open-ended, becoming and contingent process. At the end of this process, the children also in line with Dewey’s (1934/1980) vocabulary finally reach (but not as a final terminus) a close, a fulfilment. The empirical findings in the study line out in two final acts; some peas are receiving its shelter, even though it is just a sketch; and a bird-nest is being removed to another more “safe and solid place”. However, the processes that the children are involved in cannot be described as predicted, linear procedures towards fulfilment. Instead they are best described as contingent, explorative, and laborious. Our preliminary findings also reveal that the children’s anticipations and aesthetic experiences are of great significance for how the processes develop and how agency constitutes. When they bring anticipation into the activity, they repeatedly express it in terms of caring aspects and concerns. In both of the empirical examples the children mostly act practically all by themselves, without teacher’s directions or questions.

References

Blanchet-Cohen, N. 2008. Taking a stance: Child agency across the dimensions of early adolescents´ environmental involvement. Environmental Education Research 4, no. 3: 257-272. Biesta, G., and M. Tedder. 2007. Agency and learning in the lifecourse: Towards an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults 39, no. 2:132-149. Dahlberg, G., and P. Moss. 2005. Ethics and politics in early childhood education. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Elliot, S., and J. Davis. 2009. Exploring the resistance: An Australian perspective on education for sustainability in early childhood. International Journal of Early Childhood 41, no. 2: 65-77. Davis, J. 2009. Reviling the research ‘hole’ of early childhood education for sustainability: A preliminary survey of the literature. Environmental Education Research 15, no. 2: 227-241. Dewey, J. 1934/1980. Art as experience. New York: Perigee Books Dewey, J. 1938/1997. Experience & Education. New York: Touchstone. Hägglund,S., and I. Pramling Samuelsson 2009. Early childhood and education for sustainable development and citizenship. International Journal of Early Childhood 4, no. 2: 49-63. Læssø, J. 2010. Education for sustainable development, participation and socio-cultural change. Environmental Education Research 16, no.1: 39-57. Lundegård,I., and P-O. Wickman. 2009. Identity Transformation in Education for Sustainable Development: A Question of Location. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research´53, no. 5: 461-479 Moss, P., G. Dahlberg & A. Pence. 2000. Getting beyond the problem with quality. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 8, no 2: 103-115. Wickman, P-O., and L. Östman. 2002. Induction as an empirical problem: how students generalize during practical work. International Journal of Science Education 24, no.5: 465-486. Öhman, J., and L. Östman, 2008. Clarifying the ethical tendency in education for sustainable development practice: a Wittgenstein- inspired approach. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education 13, no.1: p 57-72.

Author Information

Cecilia Caiman (presenting / submitting)

Stockhom University

Department of Science and Mathematics Education

Stockholm

Iann Lundegård

Stockholm University

Maths and Science Education