Under one Umbrella

Author(s):

Per Wickenberg(presenting / submitting)Ulf Leo(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

08 SES 03, Professional Competences and Development in ESD and Health Promotion in Schools

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

17:15-18:45

Room:

D-504

Chair:

Katrine Dahl Madsen

Contribution

This study identifies and analyses professional norms as a means of illuminating school cultures and how norms are being distributed in the system. We have a special interest in the role of school leaders and how the implementation of sustainable development and health is led, organised and realised. In this studie we explore these links between education for sustainable development including health, and professional norms to be able to discuss implementation of ESD.

The study research question, focusing on the leaders, is: What professionalnorms do the school leaders highlight in change efforts? We are also interested in identifying the kinds of support mechanisms and obstacles to implementation and norm setting exhibited by the school organisations.

The responsibility of Swedish principals is regulated in the Curriculum for the Non-compulsory School System Lpf 94. Legal regulation of the environmental efforts pursuant to a 1990 amendment to the Education Act (Swedish Code of Statutes 1985:1100) provides a useful point of departure: “Each and every person active in the school system shall promote respect for the intrinsic value of every human being and for our common environment” (Chapter 1, Section 2). The term “sustainable development” was added to the Curriculum for the Non-compulsory School System Lpf 94, which states under The School’s Task. An interesting change has recently taken place. The new Education Act (Swedish Code of Statutes 2010:800) omits the environmental amendment, and the Curriculum for the Upper Secondary School 2011 has more stringent requirements replacing the word should in the above sentence with shall (_ and _ 2012).

This means that implementing education and health for sustainable development is a legal norm, a national goal, which the professionals have to interpret and put into action. We are interested in finding the link, the professional norms, between the legal norms and the actions.

Our theoretical framework is following (taken from) theories within modern sociology of law where the relations between law and society is the main focus of the research (Rommetveit 1955; Elster 1992; Therborn 2002) . In our sociology of law-perspective, we use norms as a means of exploring the relation between legal, professional norms and actions to study schools implementation of education for sustainable development (Hydén & Svensson 2008; Leo 2010; Leo & Wickenberg 2012; Wickenberg 2012).

Method

Our study was conducted in three phases, starting with a web-based questionnaire for all teachers and principals at three upper secondary schools. In the second phase, each of the principals was interviewed individually. We then explored the support mechanisms and obstacles posed by their organisations. The third phase used focus groups of the principals in the leadership groups.

Expected Outcomes

Our results indicate that professional norms are set when principals and teachers experience expectations from each other, students and policy documents. There is a need for well-functioning communication in the organisation to disseminate norms. The school principal has a special role to play in these norm setting processes. If principals become aware of existing norms, and how norms can be changed, that knowledge could support them in change efforts. Research on EE and ESD have focused the interested and engaged teachers, the ones following norms regarding ESD and we need further research to find out whether ESD reaches all students. Implementation of ESD at school level needs a participatory approach, inviting all teachers and students and in accordance with Schnack (2008) we advocate that concepts such as sustainable development, health, and democracy, have to be dealt with as open notions and consequently made the object of discussion including students, teachers and principals. The aim for the schools in our study is to have education for sustainable development as a special profile; concerning all students, teachers, and principals. The expression used by a principal, that they were lacking a “shared umbrella” becomes a metaphor for lacking shared norms guiding ESD.

References

Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Breiting, S. and Wickenberg, P. (2010). The progressive development of environmental education in Sweden and Denmark, Environmental Education Research, 16:1, 9-37 Day, C (2007). What Being a Successful Principal Really Means. Educational Leadership and Administration, 19, 13-24 Elster, J. (1992). The Cement of Society: a study of social order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass) Hargreaves, A. and Fink, D. (2006). Sustainable Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Harris, A. (2011). Distributed leadership: implications for the role of the principal. Journal of Management Development, 31:1, 7 - 17 Hydén, H. and Svensson M. (2008). The Concept of Norms in Sociology of Law. Law and Society, Scandinavian studies in Law, 53, 15-32 Jickling, B. and Spork, H. (1998). Education for the Environment: a critique. Environmental Education Research, 4:3, 309-327 Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D. and Steinbach, R. (2002). Changing Leadership for Changing Times. Buckingham: Open University Press Leo, U. (2010). Rektorer bör och rektorer gör (Principals should and principals do). Dissertation, Lund University Leo, U. and Wickenberg, P. (2012). Professional norms in school leadership. Change efforts in implementation of education for sustainable development (submitted) Rommetveit, R. (1955). Social Norms and Roles, Explorations in the psychology of ending social pressures. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget Therborn, G. (2002). Back to Norms! On the Scope and Dynamics of Norms and Normative Action. Current Sociology, 50, 863-880. Wickenberg, P. (2012). Souls of fire, change agents, and social norms. In Baier, M. & Åström, K. (Eds.) Social and Legal norms. London: Ashgate Publishing (in print) Öhman J. and Öhman M. (2012 a): Participatory approach in practice: an analysis of student discussions about climate change, Environmental Education Research

Author Information

Per Wickenberg (presenting / submitting)

Lund University, Sweden

Lund

Ulf Leo (presenting)