The concept of Sustainable Development in Secondary Education

Author(s):

Ruben Comas Forgas(submitting)Olaya Álvarez(presenting)Jaume Sureda Negre Rosa Vazquez Recio

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

03. Curriculum Innovation by Schools and Teachers

Format:

Paper

Session Information

03 SES 02 B, Curriculum Innovation and Sustainability

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-18

15:15-16:45

Room:

FFL - Aula 4 B

Chair:

Jan Berkvens

Contribution

Since 2005 we are in the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), whose purpose, according to the UN, is the incorporation of the principles and philosophy of education for sustainability in the education systems and thus help countries progressing through Education in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In the Spanish context, the Spanish Sustainable Development Strategy (2007), takes into account the importance of sustainability at school and encourages and supports its integration.
The need to promote this education has been highlighted by diverse international organizations like United Nations, and, at the same time, so many projects aimed at sustainable school have been launched (a good example of this are the good practices collected by the Swiss Foundation for Environmental Education (2012) or those reported by UNESCO (Hamshari, 2009). Also, it should be pointed out that the emerging research tradition focuses on acquiring knowledge about how school can promote this education, making sustainability one of its organizational key and curricular axes.
In this context, the research we present in this paper analyzes the treatment of the concept “sustainable development” in various curricular elements, focusing in the following objectives: (1) analyze the treatment of the concept in the legal framework of the secondary education curriculum, (2) analyze the treatment given to the concept at the school curricular documents (3) analyze how the concept is presented in the most used textbooks in our classrooms.

Method

Content analysis of the documents which guide educational practice has been used to achieve the objectives. At first place, is discussed in what way and how often it appears the concept of "sustainable development" in the basic Spanish national curriculum normative (Real Decreto 1631/2006) and at the normative circumscribed to the Community of Madrid (Decreto 23/2007). At second place, focusing on a case study of a school in Madrid, we analyze two curricular documents: Programming Management Team and teaching schedules of the subjects in which, as is apparent from analysis of two policy documents, should focus teaching the concept of sustainable development. Finally, to achieve the third goal, we examine those areas of the textbooks used in school where sustainable development is.

Expected Outcomes

According to the analysis of the legal framework, we observed that the national secondary curriculum, gives some significance to the sustainable development concept in the last stage of compulsory education. On the other hand, the Community of Madrid curriculum, just integrates it into half of the subjects that are studied at the secondary level and are generally in the scientific technology field. At the school curricular documents, sustainable development is considered in the Programming Management Team, but only in three of the six subjects tested at the school schedules. Two of them are related to the scientific-technological field and the third one to the social field. In the textbooks content analyzed, sustainable development is included in only half of them, no more than three pages long, and is usually relegated to the last units of the book. None of the text integrates all dimensions of the concept, and, in general, it exalts the use of new technologies.

References

DECRETO 23/2007, de 10 de mayo, del Consejo de Gobierno, por el que se establece para la Comunidad de Madrid el currículo de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. www.madrid.org/dat_capital/loe/.../curriculo_secundaria_madrid.pdf Fondation Suisse d’Éducation pour l’Environnement (2012) Plateforme de bonnes pratiques. Consultado el 30 de Enero de 2012, de http://www.educ-envir.ch/bonnespratiques/ Hamshari, A. (Coord.) (2009). Segundo compendio de prácticas ejemplares en materia de educación para el desarrollo sostenible. París: UNESCO. MMA (2007): Estrategia Española de Desarrollo Sostenible. Consultado el 30 de enero de 2012, de http://www.marm.es/es/ministerio/planes-y-estrategias/estrategia-espanola-de-desarrollo-sostenible/ NACIONES UNIDAS (2006): Decenio de las Naciones Unidas de la Educación con miras al Desarrollo Sostenible (2005-2014): Plan de aplicación internacional. Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseñanzas mínimas correspondientes a la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. http://www.boe.es/aeboe/consultas/bases_datos/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2007-238)

Author Information

Ruben Comas Forgas (submitting)

BALEARIC ISLANDS UNIVERSITY, Spain

Olaya Álvarez (presenting)

Universidad de las Islas Baleares

Palma

Jaume Sureda Negre

BALEARIC ISLANDS UNIVERSITY, Spain

Rosa Vazquez Recio

CADIZ UNIVERSITY, Spain

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