30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper
A Whole School Approach in Practice: Co-developing Reflexive Professional Development Methods to support Sustainability-oriented Educational Innovation in Norwegian Upper-secondary Schools
Rosalie Mathie1, Arjen Wals2, Astrid Sinnes1
1Norwegian University of Life Sciences; 2Wageningen University & Research
Presenting Author: Mathie, Rosalie;
Wals, Arjen
The Norwegian 2020 curriculum renewal opens for schools to meaningfully integrate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). For example, all schools are now required to facilitate learning in three sustainability-oriented interdisciplinary topics; 1. health and life skills; 2. democracy and citizenship; and 3. sustainable development (UDIR, 2020). However, it is arguable that for Norway the challenge still is, as Sandås (2018) discusses has been for some time, to figure out how to; “[…] go beyond successful pilot projects and create the necessary culture of legitimacy, the organisational framework, the competences, and the financial mechanisms to ensure that pupils experienced effective ESD” (Sandås, 2018, p. 89).
A Whole School Approach (WSA) is one model that takes a broad understanding of ESD interconnecting all three of the Norwegian curriculum-renewals interdisciplinary topics. A WSA to ESD also highlights the importance of engaging all school-related stakeholders to stimulate collective learning and meaningful participation (Wals & Mathie, 2022). Despite an increase in interest in WSAs to support educational innovations, such as ESD and Global Citizenship Education, a gap in research concerning how schools can utilise a WSA in practice still exists (Hunt & King, 2015). Moreover, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of all staff that supports creating a culture of reflexivity, as opposed to a culture of accountability, is central to integrating a WSA (Wals & Mathie, 2022). Thus, understanding better the role of reflexivity in CPD, and exploring how a WSA can support Norway’s curriculum development within a professional development setting is a relevant research focus.
This paper is part of a PhD research study situated within a School-University partnership based in the southeast of Norway. The partnership involves the teacher education department, school district, and four upper-secondary schools. The partnership was established in 2017 to develop a common focus on ESD in practice. An overarching aim for the PhD was established: To create insight into how a Whole School Approach can facilitate the enactment of Norway’s educational innovation in the interdisciplinary topics; ‘health and life skills’; ‘democracy and citizenship’; and ‘sustainable development’. Participatory methods were employed throughout the research and involved collaboration with multi-stakeholders; university lecturers; researchers; school leaders, and the study’s main participants - 11 teachers from the four upper-secondary schools. Through a series of collaborative professional development workshops, meetings, and interviews, taking place between 2021-2022, reflexive CPD methods that utilise a WSA as a thinking tool were co-developed. The research focus and question addressed in this paper are: How can a WSA be utilised as a thinking tool for co-developing reflexive CPD methods to support sustainability-oriented educational innovation? This paper focuses on analysing four of the reflexive activities and methods (based on existing WSA-related models - Sinnes, 2021; Sterling, 2004; and Wals & Mathie, 2022) utilised in the CPD workshops, alongside critically examining the act itself of approaching CPD as a reflexive meeting place for multi-stakeholders to co-develop collaborative professional development methods.
Collated WSA literature and theory (Mathie, 2019; Mathie in press; Wals & Mathie, 2022) form the conceptual framework utilised throughout the design, facilitation and preliminary analysis of the research. Preliminary analysis identified the concepts such as Reflexivity (Hizli Alkan & Priestley, 2019; Archer 2013) and an ecological understanding of Agency (Priestley & Drew, 2019) as central themes. Therefore, what role reflexivity and agency play in the context of developing WSA-related CPD methods is critiqued. This type of collaborative CPD, involving multi-stakeholders, shows promise for fostering supportive partnerships necessary for ESD, while simultaneously developing practical methods to support the integration of sustainability-oriented educational innovation.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedEducation Design Research (EDR) is the main method of enquiry. EDR is a participatory research method that combines scientific enquiry with systematic development in order to co-develop with stakeholders’ practical solutions to issues educators face in real-world learning contexts (McKenney & Reeves, 2018). In other words, the research scope is to go beyond the two main university deep-rooted missions of teaching and research, by also contributing to the more recent equivocal but evolving third university mission; to strengthen the impact and relevance within society and local communities (Brundenius & Göransson, 2011). Ambitious in its nature EDR provides practical design processes whereby multiple stakeholders have a shared aim to co-design innovative solutions to a specific challenge, whilst also contributing to theory building in a specific field. EDR, also has similarities to Design Based Research (DBR), which is framed as a viable method for learning scientists whose research is commonly seen as having transformative agendas (Barab & Kurt, 2004). EDR enables solution-orientated research to be operationalised through its core iterative process, whilst also allowing for key theoretical and analytical frameworks to guide the design process. Moreover, collaborating with key stakeholders, so the school is part of co-designing and contributing to all the stages of the research, seeks to ensure the development of collective usable knowledge that remains relevant and valuable to the stakeholders themselves is achieved (Barab & Kurt, 2004; Lagemann, 2002; McKenney & Reeves, 2018).
Akin to EDR, participatory creative methods, such as utilising and creating World Café, Open Space, sustainability walks, visual time-lines, and Photo-voice related workshop activities, were employed throughout the design and data-collection phases.
Multiple data sources, video and audio recordings of the workshops, meetings, and interviews, as well as visual content, for example, photographs, logbooks, and mind-mapping, were first analysed and utilised to create reflexive timelines in Miro of the 11 teacher participants' CPD development process, the collective CPD process and a joint timeline representing each of the four schools journeys throughout the school-university partnership. These timelines were then employed as a reflexive guide and visual prompts in a second round of qualitative interviews with each of the 11 teacher participants. Video recordings of these reflexive timeline-based interviews form the data source analysed for this article. NVivo software, and Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2020) is adopted as the data analysis methodology.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsPreliminary findings suggest that reflexive CPD methods co-developed, such as mapping, visioning and lesson development activities, can contribute to fostering a proactive ‘culture of change and collaboration’ within schools. The act itself of approaching CPD as a meeting place to co-develop collaborative professional development also shows promise for supporting meaningful integration of the curriculum-renewals interdisciplinary topics. This type of CPD involving multi-stakeholders also provides a structure for establishing supportive partnerships necessary for ESD while also developing practical methods to support sustainability-oriented educational innovation. Like Hizli Alkan & Priestley’s (2019) findings concerning the role of reflexivity in teacher mediation of curriculum making, preliminary findings indicate the importance of cultivating constructive modes of reflexivity, and that collective sense-making activities, such as the methods co-developed in this partnership, can support this. The role of participatory research and creative methods are also indicated as central to developing a culture of reflexivity.
The findings also show that it is both plausible and of significance to develop dual ‘CPD’ roles; where all participants, including the CPD facilitators, school leaders, and other involved stakeholders, are learning from and with each other. The importance of identifying dual roles in oneself is also of significance: For example, the dual role of one’s own personal professional development concerning self and subject, while simultaneously identifying one’s own role in contributing to collective sustainability-related institutional development. Therefore, the methods and activities co-developed have the flexibility to support both individualised professional development and sustainability-oriented transitions.
In terms of future considerations, the findings identify one of the strongest WSA entry points is for staff to learn from and with each other and to develop and build upon competencies already present within the school community. Therefore, participatory research that can support the development of supportive peer-peer CPD structures and methods should be considered.
ReferencesArcher, M. S. (2013). Collective reflexivity: A relational case for it. Conceptualizing relational sociology: Ontological and theoretical issues, 145-161. Barab, S. and K. Squire (2004). "Design-based research: Putting a stake in the ground." The journal of the learning sciences 13 (1): 1-14.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3 (2), 77-101.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2020). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1769238
Brundenius, C., & Göransson, B. (2011). The three missions of universities: A synthesis of UniDev project findings. In Universities in transition (pp. 329-352): Springer.
Sinem Hizli Alkan & Mark Priestley (2019) Teacher mediation of
curriculum making: the role of reflexivity, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51:5, 737-754, DOI:10.1080/00220272.2019.1637943
Hunt, F., King, R. P. (2015). Supporting whole school approaches to global learning: focusing learning and mapping impact.
Lagemann, E. C. (2002). An elusive science: The troubling history of education research: University of Chicago Press.
Mathie, R. G. (2019). Education for sustainable development in Norway: calling for a whole institution approach. Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway Retrieved from https://nmbu.brage.unit.no/nmbu-xmlui/handle/11250/2638496
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2018). Conducting educational design research: Routledge.
Priestley, M. & Drew, V. (2019). Professional Enquiry: an ecological approach to developing teacher agency. In D. Godfrey, & C. Brown (Eds.), An eco-system for research-engaged schools. Reforming education through research. London: Routledge.
Sandås, A. (2018). The story of ENSI in Norway and its impact on the Norwegian strategy for ESD. In C. Affolter & A. Varga (Eds.)Environment and School Initiatives: Lessons from the ENSI Network-Past, Present and Future (pp. 88-97). Budapest Environment and School Initatives ENSI.
Sinnes, A. T. (2020). Action, takk! : hva kan skolen lære av unge menneskers handlinger for bærekraftig utvikling? (1. utgave. ed.). Oslo: Gyldendal.
Sterling, S. (2004). Higher education, sustainability, and the role of systemic learning. In P. B. Corcoran & a. E. J. Wals (Eds.), Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability: Problematics, Promise, and Practice (pp. 49–70). Dordrecht: Springer.
UDIR. (2020). Core curriculum: Interdisciplinary topics Retrieved from https://www.udir.no/lk20/overordnet-del/prinsipper-for-laring-utviklingogdanning/tverrfagligetemaer/?lang=eng
Wals, A.E.J & Mathie, R.G. (2022). Whole school responses to climate urgency and related sustainability challenges: A perspective from northern Europe. In: M. Peters & R. Heraud (Eds.), Encyclopedia of educational innovation (pp. ). Springer.
30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper
Exploring Two Green Schools’ ESD Implementations through Whole School Approach Lens –Case Study Test
Güliz Karaarslan Semiz1, Per Sund2
1Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Department of Science Education,Turkey; 2Stockholm University, Department of Teaching and Learning, Sweden
Presenting Author: Karaarslan Semiz, Güliz
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is not only about teaching and learning for sustainable development but also it is about practicing sustainability principles at schools (UNESCO, 2020). It is important to put sustainability at the heart of the school education through organization, teaching and learning activities, school facilities and community engagement (Tilbury & Galvin, 2022). A whole school approach (WSA) to ESD is related to embedding sustainability in all aspects of school life from curriculum, pedagogical approaches, school management to school operations (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004). It also advocates learning outside the school and partnership with the local community (Tilbury & Galvin, 2022). Whole school approach was conceptualized in the academic literature and its core dimensions were determined. Several WSA models from the literature (Shallcross, 2005; Shallcross & Robinson, 2008; Wals & Mathie, 2022) guided to designing this study’s questions and analytical framework. For instance, in a recent WSA model Wals and Mathie (2022) described 6 core dimensions which are 1) instituonal practices, 2) capacity building, 3) pedagogy & learning, 4) community connections and 5) vision & ethos. The authors put vision, ethos and leadership in the center of the model. All dimensions of WSA model have numerous characteristics and interconnections and each dimension is essential for creating a sustainable school model. In this study, we have examined six aspects of WSA framework in order to explore schools’ ESD practices. These aspects are: school vision, teaching and learning, student engagement, community partnership, school leadership and institutional practices. While exploring teaching and learning aspect of WSA to ESD, we focused on three didactical questions (what, how and why) coming from the previous literature (Sund & Gericke, 2020).
Today, green school programs share a desire to transform education through WSA framework for being a model of sustainability (Gough, 2020). Green schools such as eco-schools can play an important role for increasing students’ willingness to take positive actions for sustainability (Scholz, 2011; Dzerefos, 2020). In this study, we examined one green school from Sweden and one green school from Turkey through WSA lens. Schools in Sweden actively participate in different green school programs like green flag eco-school and National Sustainable school award for a long time (Gericke, Manni & Stagell, 2020). In Turkish context, schools have engaged in eco-schools program since 1995 and recently, National Ministry of Education declared that they will make some regulations for integrating sustainable development goals in the whole school programs (MoNE, 2022). In the literature, there are several studies about the student-level impacts of these schools (eg., Olsson et al., 2016; Özsoy, Ertepınar & Sağlam, 2012). However, there is a need to examine how these schools embrace all aspects of WSA framework. In the policy level, after Green Deal was adopted by EU, the role of education towards a green transition was emphasized (Tilbury & Galvin, 2022). European Commission (2022) recommended to adopt WSA framework in education institutions and this new policy brought more opportunities for international cooperation in terms of advocating WSA (Tilbury & Galvin, 2022). Through an international collaboration, this study provides a comprehensive perspective by examining different dimensions of WSA and identifying key drivers and barriers in implementing WSA to ESD in two green schools. Regardless of the previous literature, we aimed to explore two green schools’ ESD approach and implementations in two country contexts. Research questions of this study are:
- How key aspects of whole school approach to ESD appear at two green schools in Sweden and Turkey?
- What are the key drivers and barriers of influencing the use of whole school approach to ESD at two green schools in Sweden and Turkey?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis is a multiple qualitative case study as case studies provide an intensive and holistic description of a bounded phenomena such as a program, an institution or an individual (Merriam, 1998). In this initial test of data within a international post doc collaboration project we have selected two schools which are currently implementing sustainability oriented programs. We identified these schools through contacting with green school organizations which are Keep Sweden Tidy and Turkish Environmental Education Foundation. Case school in Sweden is an ESD awarded secondary school (from 7th grade to 9th grade) and case school in Turkey is a green flag secondary eco-school (from 5th grade to 8th grade). We have collected data from three teachers and one principal in each country. In order to get a variety of perspectives related to ESD, teachers from different branches which were science, social science, art & design, language and home economics were interviewed. One green school coordinator from each school were also interviewed. Totally we have interviewed six teachers and two principals and interviews lasted about one hour.
In order to collect data semi-structured interviews were used. We have prepared 16 interview questions for participating teachers and 11 interview questions for the principals. The interview questions focused on 6 dimensions of WSA to ESD. That is to say, we asked both teachers and principals about school vision, student engagement, community partnership and institutional practices. Separately, we asked teachers some questions about teaching and learning of ESD and we asked principals several questions about school leadership. Moreover, we examined schools’ websites and several school reports to validate interview responses.
In order to analyze qualitative data, a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was conducted.
Firstly a coding list were created based on the WSA framework derived from the relevant literature (eg., Shallcross & Robinson, 2008; Sterling, 2010; Wals & Mathie, 2022) and then, codes evolved from the data were added to this list. Six themes and 12 categories were identified during the data analysis. For instance, for the school vision theme, two categories were emerged 1) general awareness about sustainability 2) embedding sustainability into school subjects. Data from two schools were examined by the first author and then the second author. Both coders coded this data separately and coding process was compared. The themes and categories were discussed and after negotiations, inter-rater aggreement among the coders was found as %92.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThis case study, a introductory test of data in a a larger international study, provided us some initial evidences how WSA to ESD is implemented in two green schools in two country contexts. We have presented results based on the six aspects of WSA. For instance, regarding teaching and learning of ESD, all subject teachers in both case schools teach sustainability subjects and develop extra-curricular activities. Cross-curricula collaboration is a common approach while teaching ESD in Swedish school as the national curriculum supports cross-curricula collaboration (Sund, Gericke & Bladh, 2020). However, in Turkish school, cross-curricula collaboration is limited because of intense curriculum content. In terms of community connection, in Swedish school, collaboration was developed with several organizations and students sometimes engaged in solving local problems in their community. In Turkish school, collaboration with the community mostly appeared with several activities such as tree planting, inviting organizatons for giving seminars. Principals and teachers in both schools highlighted environmentally focused practices such as reducing energy and water consumption, and recycling. In Turkish school, each year teachers and students work on a sustainability theme and eco-school coordinator voluntarily facilitate the process to ensure that sustainability is put into practice. In Swedish school, principal provided coordinator teacher to use 20% of her working hours to facilitate ESD activities at school. There are several committed teachers at local schools to push sustainability activities however, for a continious ESD implementation, all teachers and school staff should be encouraged and supported (Seiser, Mogren, Gericke, Berglund & Olsson, 2022). We will present detailed results to show how all aspects of WSA appear at two schools. Morever, we will discuss possible main drivers and barriers in realizing WSA to ESD based on the school contexts and country policies in the more extended international collaboration between Sweden and Turkey.
ReferencesEuropean Commission (2022). Learning for the green transition and sustainable development. Accompanying for a council recommendation on learning for environmental sustainability Brussels: EC. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/db585fc7-ed6e-11ec-a534-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/
Gericke, N., Manni, A., & Stagell, U. (2020). The green school movement in Sweden – past, present and future. In A. Gough, J. C. Lee & E. P. K. Tsang (Eds.), Green schools movements around the world: Stories of impact on education for sustainable development, (pp. 309–332). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46820-0_17
Gough, A., Lee, J.C., & Tsang, E. P. (2020). Green schools globally. Stories of
impact on education for sustainable development. Springer
Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-school approaches to sustainability: An
international review of sustainable school programs. Report Prepared by the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability. (ARIES) for The Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government. ISBN, 1(86408), 979.
Ministry of National Education [MoNE] (2022). İklim değişikliği eylem planı [Climate action plan].https://merkezisgb.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosyalar/2022_09/29171316_Milli_EYitim_BakanlYYY_Yklim_DeYiYikliYi_Eylem_PlanY.pdf
Olsson, D., Gericke, N. & Chang Rundgren, S. N. (2016). The effect of implementation of education for sustainable development in Swedish compulsory schools-assessing pupils’ sustainability consciousness, Environmental Education Research, 22:2, 176-202, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2015.1005057
Özsoy, S., Ertepinar, H., & Saglam, N. (2012). Can eco-schools improve elementary school students’ environmental literacy levels? Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 13(2, Article 3), 1–25. https://www.eduhk.hk.
Seiser, A.F., Mogren, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2022). Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development, Environmental Education Research, DOI:10.1080/13504622.2022.2151980
Shallcross, T., Robinson, J., Pace, P., & Wals, A. E. J. (Eds.). (2006). Creating
sustainable environments in our schools (p. 205). Trentham Publishers: Stoke On Trent.
Shallcross, T., & Robinson, J. (2008). Sustainability education, whole school
approaches, and communities of action. In B. J. J. N. Alan ReidBjarne, Venka Simovska (Ed.),Participation and Learning - Perspectives on Education and the Environment, Health and Sustainability (pp. 299-320): Springer.
Sund, P. & Gericke, N. (2020). Teaching contributions from secondary school subject
areas to education for sustainable development-a comparative study of science, social science and language teachers. Environmental Education Research,26(6),772-794.Doi: 10.1080/13504622.2020.1754341
Tilbury, D. & Galvin, C. (2022). Input paper: A whole school approach to learning for
environmental sustainability. European Commission.
Türkiye Çevre Eğitimi Vakfı [Turkey Environmental Education Foundation] (2020). Eko- okullar [Eco-schools]. http://www.ekookullar.org.tr/.
Wals, A.E.J., Mathie, R.G. (2022). Whole school responses to climate urgency and
related sustainability challenges. In Peters, M.A., Heraud, R. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation (pp.1-8). Springer Nature.
30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper
Two Stories of Transforming Teaching Practice into Education for Sustainable Development Through a Whole School Approach
Daniel Olsson, Teresa Berglund, Niklas Gericke
The Research Centre of Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education Research (SMEER), Institution of Environmental and Life Sciences, The Faculty of Health, Science and Technology, Karlstad University, Sweden
Presenting Author: Olsson, Daniel
This paper will contribute to the knowledge gap in research concerning the transformation of teaching towards education for sustainable development (ESD), by investigating the process of developing a whole school approach to ESD in two Swedish schools. The practices of ESD have been extensively described in theory. However, the transformation into concrete teaching and learning is an undeniable challenge (Kang, 2019; Sund, 2015), in particular when the aim is to develop students’ competences for taking sustainability action (Olsson, et al., 2022).
A whole school approach to ESD is described as a way to integrate sustainability among all actors at different levels of the school organization, from leaders to teachers and students (Gericke, 2022; Wals & Mathies, 2022). Teacher professional development programs designed to support the development of a whole school approach to ESD has been shown to influence the teachers’ self-efficacy towards sustainability teaching and to support teachers to integrate ESD into their educational practice. However, we also know from research that it may take a long time before a whole school approach to ESD can be seen as fully introduced (Forssten Seiser et al., 2022) and hence, for students to experience all the components of ESD in the teaching at their school (Olsson et al., 2022). The school culture and external factors outside the schools’ mandate may also give different preconditions to successfully integrate ESD into the teaching practice (Gericke & Torbjörnsson, 2022). These different external preconditions might have great implications on how to implement ESD, which is the focus of this study to investigate what success factors and obstacles that can be identified when teachers introduce ESD into their teaching practice.
A way to explain schools’ ESD teaching culture can be to explore the selective teaching traditions in terms of fact-based, normative and pluralistic sustainability teaching (Sund, 2016). While the fact-based and normative tradition has been described as problematic for developing young people’s competences to deal with sustainability issues, the pluralistic tradition has on the other hand been described as an approach with the capacity to empower students with competences to deal with sustainability issues (Olsson et al., 2022). Pluralistic teaching could be seen as the democratic collective and participatory approach where students are involved in discussions and where different views and values are acknowledged in relation to the sustainability issue at hand (Öhman & Östman, 2019). In addition to pluralism, there are two additional and important components that compose ESD teaching and learning (Sinakou et al., 2019). The first additional component is holism, which emphasizes the importance of including environmental, economic, and social perspectives and to include both time (from past to future) and space (local to global) perspectives to the sustainability issues (Berglund & Gericke, 2022). Finally, the action orientation component includes the possibility for students to to train and develop action taking through inclusion of authentic sustainability issues in teaching and learning (Sinakou et al., 2029).
Given the difficulties for teachers to transform teaching practice towards ESD, and that ESD initiatives may not be fully tailored to the diversity of school contexts, this study focuses on how ESD practice and the teachers’ view of ESD develops in two schools with different preconditions for implementing a whole school approach to ESD. The investigation is guided by the following objective:
How do teachers’ views of ESD teaching evolve over time as they participate in a professional development program on a whole school approach to ESD and what success factors and obstacles could be identified as the teachers introduce ESD to their teaching practice?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn the current study we report on both qualitative and quantitative data results of teachers in two schools in a Swedish municipality. The teachers in both schools participated in a teacher professional development program (TPD) aiming to introduce a whole school approach to ESD in schools in the municipality. The TPD ran for three years between December 2016 and December 2019. One joint seminar day was held each semester for all the teachers and school leaders in the participating schools. The first seminar focused on the question of the goals and importance of ESD. The second seminar focused on the holism component of ESD and the approach to the sustainability content in the teaching. From the third seminar and onwards, the focus of the seminars were on how to transform the teaching practice towards ESD and how to promote students’ competences to take action for sustainability. In between the seminars the teachers worked in teams in their respective school on the transformation process towards ESD teaching and learning.
There was one or two teachers in each school who worked between 10-20 percent as ESD facilitators in each school. These facilitators met with researchers on monthly basis to get support in the ESD process at their school. The facilitators were intended to support the school leaders who lead the ESD process at their respective school, see Gericke and Torbjörnsson (2022) for a detailed description.
School 1 is a primary school (grades 1-3) with about 45 teachers. One teacher was allocated time to function as ESD facilitator. The school is located in an urban multi-cultural area of the municipality. School 2 is a primary/secondary school (grades 1-9) with about 35 teachers. Two teachers were ESD facilitators. One for the primary level and one for the secondary level. School 2 is located in a rural area of the municipality.
Quantitative data related to the teachers views of ESD (11 items) and their ESD teaching practice (11 items) were collected from all teachers in the schools at five occasions between December 2016 and June 2019. They responded on a five point Likert-scale from totally disagree to totally agree. In addition, we also collected qualitative data from the ESD facilitators through i) their logbooks, in which they wrote on monthly basis for the first half of the project, and towards the end of the project ii) through interviews with the facilitators after the project ended.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe preliminary findings of this study reveal differences in the level of success when introducing ESD in the two schools participating in the same TPD programme.
Our quantitative findings show that teachers in School 1 strengthened their view of what ESD is through the TPD, the teachers in School 2 did not. The findings on ESD teaching practice go in the same direction. School 1 reports a higher level of ESD teaching at the end of the project while School 2 reports no improved ESD teaching practice. Furthermore, School 1 has made a transformation from normative towards a more pluralistic view of the teaching, while School 2 retained the normative view of teaching also at the end of the TPD.
The qualitative results go in the same direction. The facilitator logbooks reveal that School 1 adopts new approaches and updates their view of ESD. They also make changes towards more interdisciplinary teaching. Moreover, the School 1 facilitator describes in the interview that ESD has become a natural part of all the work in the school. Contrary, the facilitator logbooks of School 2 do not reveal any progress related to the teachers’ ESD teaching practice. Instead, the facilitator logbooks and interviews indicate that the teachers struggle with the process of integrating ESD inteaching and learning at their school.
To summarize, this study shows that one joint TPD programme aiming to support schools in the transformation process towards ESD results in very different levels of success. Like Gericke and Torbjörnsson (2022 discuss), this could be related to factors inside and outside the school influencing the possibilities of transforming the teaching practice towards ESD. By the time of the ECER conference we will be able to further present possible success factors and obstacles when teachers introduce ESD to their teaching practice.
ReferencesBerglund, T. & Gericke, N. (2022). Diversity in views as a resource for learning? Student perspectives on the interconnectedness of sustainable development dimensions. Environmental Education Research, 28(3), 354-381.
Boeve-de Pauw, J., Olsson, D., Berglund, T., & Gericke, N. (2022). Teachers’ ESD self-efficacy and practices: a longitudinal study on the impact of teacher professional development. Environmental Education Research, 28(6), 867-885.
Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2022). Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 1-23.
Gericke, N. (2022). Implementation of Education for Sustainable Development Through a Whole School Approach. In: Karaarslan-Semiz, G. (Eds.) Education for Sustainable Development in Primary and Secondary Schools. Sustainable Development Goals Series, 153–166. Springer, Cham.
Gericke, N., and T. Torbjörnsson. (2022). Identifying Capital for School Improvement: recommendations for a Whole School Approach to ESD Implementation. Environmental Education Research, 28 (6): 803–825.
Kang, W. (2019). Perceived Barriers to Implementing Education for Sustainable Development among Korean Teachers. Sustainability, 11 (9): 2532.
Öhman, J., and L. Östman. (2019). Different Teaching Traditions in Environmental and Sustainability Education. In Sustainable Development Teaching: Ethical and Political Challenges, edited by K. Van Poeck, L. Östman, and J. Öhman, 70–82. London, United Kingdom: Routledge
Olsson, D., Gericke, N., & Boeve-de Pauw, J. (2022). The effectiveness of education for sustainable development revisited–a longitudinal study on secondary students’ action competence for sustainability. Environmental Education Research, 28(3), 405-429.
Sinakou, E., V. Donche, J. Boeve-de Pauw, and P. Van Petegem. (2019). Designing Powerful Learning Environments in Education for Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Framework. Sustainability, 11 (21): 5994.
Sund, P. (2016). Discerning selective traditions in science education – A qualitative study of teachers’ responses to what is important in science teaching. Cultural Studies in Science Education, 11(2), 387-409.
Sund, P. (2015). Experienced ESD-school teachers’ teaching – an issue of complexity. Environmental Education Research, 21(1), 22-44.
Wals, A., & Mathie, R. G. (2022). Whole School Responses to Climate Urgency and Related Sustainability Challenges. In M. A. Peters & R. Heraud (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation (pp. 1-8). Singapore: Springer Singapore
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