30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper
Sustainability Education in a Diverse Classroom
Elin Sæther, Joke Dewilde
University of Oslo, Norway
Presenting Author: Sæther, Elin;
Dewilde, Joke
This paper reports on an on-going project where we follow sustainability education in an upper secondary school where the student group is composed of adults with a migrant background. In this school they are called “participants” rather than “pupils” to emphasize their status as adults.
For the past three years the school has organized an interdisciplinary sustainability week where students and teachers spend all available time on project related activities. The topics for the sustainability week have been broad: “clothes”,“water” and “food”.
Diversity is the norm at this school, and the classrooms are filled with people talking together in many different languages, while Norwegian is being used as the teaching language. The participants’ Norwegian competency varies, but students need to pass a minimum competency level. When students and teachers learn about and explore sustainability issues during the sustainability week, they bring with them knowledge and experiences from previous education as well as multilingual language resources, concepts and vocabularies. They also enter a situation where they are to discuss complex issues across their differences in a language that only the teacher fully masters. This classroom context accentuates the complexity of sustainability issues education. Not only are the topics contentious and complicated in the way they connect micro and macro perspectives on society, nature, economy, politics and culture, but the didactical opportunity structure is contingent upon the linguistic and cultural diversity of the classroom.
Our study is guided by three research questions, and we ask:
- which subject positions become available to the participants through the classroom discourse on sustainability?
- how are the participants' backgrounds and experiences expressed in the classroom?
- how is Norway constructed as an actor in relation to sustainable development?
One easily observable feature of sustainability discourse is the positioning of a broad, human ‘we’ who now face the crises caused by global warming and loss of biodiversity. This broadly formulated ‘we’ has been criticized for obscuring how global inequity and injustice position people in different places differently. Bylund and Knutsson (2020) show how sustainability education is conducted in ways that reflect and naturalize existing privileges and structures of (economic) domination and disadvantage. Pashby and Sund (2020) make a similar observation that Environmental and Sustainability Education reproduce a ‘we’ situated in the global north that is construed as providing knowledge of, and solutions to, problems of the Global South. Colonial path dependencies do have an impact also on education systems, and Andreotti (2016, p. 102) describes how the concept of the nation state is presented as a given and benevolent category that elevates it “to a place beyond critique”. In our study, we follow a classroom in the global north where the majority of the students have origins in the global south, which gives an opportunity to explore the construction of subject positions taking place in ESD and the characteristics ascribed to Norway’s practices and responsibility for sustainable development. The construction of subject positions taking place in classroom discourse will influence on the status of the participants’ knowledge and previous experiences from education, employment, politics and daily life in their countries of origin. To analyze the status and use of various knowledge sources, we draw on literature from multilingualism studies (García & Li, 2014). The concept of epistemic justice enables us to construct migrant students as knowers and producers of knowledge (Kerfoot & Bello-Nonjengele, 2022). While multilingual approaches in education provide access in a language students master allowing them to make epistemic contributions, Kerfoot and Bello-Nonjengele (2022) argue that this is not enough to obtain epistemic justice as “hierarchies of value and relations of knowing [are left] unchallenged” (p. 3).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe setting of our study is a formal adult education center in a large city in Norway. Students come from Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Syria, Thailand, and Turkey, and are between 25 and 50 years old. All have obtained permanent residency, but their time in Norway varies from a few years to more than ten years. The teacher has long experience with teaching adult migrants.
The paper is based on qualitative analysis of classroom observations in combination of interviews with student participants, teachers and school leadership. We were present in the classroom throughout the sustainability week organized at the school in 2023 and conducted interviews with selected participants and the main teacher for this class. Interviews with the school leadership have informed us about the upstart of the sustainability week in 2022, and for 2024 we will have a focus group with teachers to learn more about their perspectives.
Our analyses are theoretically informed by literatures on multilingualism and environmental and sustainability education. Our analytical strategies build on poststructural discourse analysis (Laclau & Mouffe, 2014) and center around concepts such as hegemony, signs, floating signifiers and subject positions.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsWe find several available subject positions articulated in classroom discourse. In group work and classroom discussions, the notion of the responsible citizen who contributes to sustainability by saving water is recurring. It is sometimes countered by the critical citizen who points out that without structural change, individual actions mean very little. Participants’ experiences from their countries of origin are often made sense of as part of a discourse on development rather than sustainability. One example is how it was necessary to save water, as water was a scarce resource. However, in the classroom context, the dominating student subject position appear to be as resident and part of Norwegian civil society. Previous knowledge, experiences and languages are recognized, but never positioned at the center of discussion. The Norwegian nation state is constructed as good and benevolent and as a contributor of technological knowledge and resources to the global south. Norwegian production of oil and gas and overconsumption are not being addressed.
ReferencesAndreotti, V. (2016). The educational challenges of imagining the world differently. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne d'études du développement, 37(1), 101-112.
Bylund, L., & Knutsson, B. (2020). The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality. Utbildning & Demokrati–tidskrift för didaktik och utbildningspolitk, 29(3), 89-108.
García, O., & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kerfoot, C., & Bello-Nonjengele, B. O. (2022). Towards epistemic justice: Constructing knowers in multilingual classroom. Applied Linguistics, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amac049
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (2014). Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics (Vol. 8). Verso Books.
Pashby, K., & Sund, L. (2020). Decolonial options and challenges for ethical global issues pedagogy in northern Europe secondary classrooms. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 4(1), 66-83.
30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper
Young People’s Perspectives and Experiences Around Climate Change and Sustainability: Implications for Cultivating Nature-Connectedness in Education
Nicola Walshe1, Grace Healy1,2
1IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, UK; 2Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK
Presenting Author: Walshe, Nicola;
Healy, Grace
Climate change and sustainability education can be understood as broad, pluralistic approaches to education that aim to generate understanding of the wide-ranging, interconnected, environmental and social issues that are defining our time, and that support peoples’ capabilities for acting in response to those issues. Climate change education in particular is a ‘hyper-complex’ concept (Læssøe et al., 2009) as it brings two independently complex concepts of ‘education’ and ‘climate change’ together. Greer and Glackin (2021, pp.16-17) set out six qualities of a meaningful educational response to climate change, arguing that quality climate change education should: ‘offer and be open to alternatives’; ‘accept and embrace complexity’; ‘develop ecological worldviews’; ‘re-orient towards justice’; ‘incorporate multiple types of knowledge’ ; and ‘recognise and support students as agents of change’. The final quality requires students to be repositioned from mere recipients of knowledge to recognising them as ‘collaborators in society’s transformation’. Therefore, the development of climate change and sustainability education (CCSE) ought to engage with young people’s perspectives and experience in meaningful ways.
In 2022, the Department for Education (DfE, 2022) launched the Sustainability and climate change strategy for the education which sets out the UK Government’s commitment to providing CCSE for children and young people in England which “Makes a difference to children and young people all over the world”. While this is a laudable aim, research suggests teachers do not currently feel equipped to provide the CCSE required by the strategy; for example, Greer et al. (2023) found there was lack of initial teacher education (ITE) and professional development related to CCSE (e.g., less than half of teachers reported any formal professional development). Dunlop and Rushton’s (2022) analysis of the DfE’s strategy identifies differences between priorities of the strategy and those of teachers. Whilst this teacher survey provides one lens on CCSE, there remains a need to find out directly about young people’s perceptions and understandings of CCSE in order to provide a more comprehensive youth-led contribution to policy and practice in England and globally.
Our research was designed to connect an understanding of young people’s perspectives on CCSE, with their feelings about climate change and connections to nature, which have been typically focussed upon within separate research studies or surveys. For example, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH, 2023) published a report on ‘young people’s perspectives on how to tackle climate change’ which represents the views of over 95,000 children and young people, showed that children globally are experiencing “eco-anxiety” fuelled by climate change concerns. Whilst the Climate of Change (2021) poll conducted by Ipsos surveyed more than 22,000 people aged 15-23 years old across 23 European countries and found that 84% of young people were worried about climate change and 65% considered that it will affect them directly.
The development of the survey was guided by the following research questions:
- What are young people’s understandings of climate change and sustainability? To what extent do they align with scientific consensus?
- What are young people’s perceptions of how climate change and sustainability education is, and should be, taught in schools?
- In what ways are young people engaging with climate change and sustainability education in schools?
- How do young people feel about climate change?
- In what ways are these perspectives related to young people’s feelings of connection with nature?
Whilst this research is anchored by the contributions of the young people, we decentred the human as we have taken a posthuman approach to questioning the ways in which entanglements with the more-than-human lifeworlds are visible, underdeveloped or absent in broader perceptions of CCSE.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedTo answer these research questions, we undertook a survey of children and young people in school years 7-9 (aged 11-14) in England. National surveys that incorporate questions on climate change (e.g., Climate of Change (2010) poll; European Social Survey (2020)) typically only include young people over the age of 15 years old. It is noted that earlier in childhood could be a critical point to seek young peoples’ perspectives given that children from age 11 are seen to become interested in societal and global issues (Holden, 2007). Key principles guiding the administration and layout of the survey were that it would be easy to complete, attractive and uncomplicated. The development of the questionnaire was an iterative process that involved research team discussion, literature review, item drafting, peer review and piloting, and concurrent development of analysis methods. The questionnaire was peer reviewed by teachers with expertise across secondary education. We then conducted a formal pilot with a class of Year 8 (age 12-13, n=30) students in a school to ensure coherence and useability. The final questionnaire comprised questions organised in four sections: i) students’ understandings of climate change and sustainability; ii) students’ perceptions of and engagement with climate change and sustainability in school, iii) students’ pro-environmental behaviour; iv) students’ connection with nature; and v) demographic information, including gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. Questions included a combination of matrix, multiple choice questions and free text or open-ended questions. The final questionnaire was administered using Qualtrics software and took 20-30 minutes to complete via an electronic device. The questionnaire was open to students in England for nine weeks, predominantly administered by class teachers in school. We used non-probability, convenience sampling; the questionnaire was promoted across a range of networks, including through our network of 600 partnership schools. Incentives were offered in the form of two randomly drawn prizes (£30 Amazon voucher each) for students. This project followed BERA (2018) ethical guidelines and was awarded ethical approval by the University Ethics Committee.
Data analysis was undertaken for quantitative data using descriptive and inferential statistics. All qualitative data were transcribed and coded using thematic content analysis. Thematic content approach drew upon both inductive (revealing common themes as emerging from the data and their prevalence) and deductive (considering whether/how existing themes are present within the data) approaches.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe survey was administered in Spring 2024, allowing us to present results in the Summer at ECER. The data brings together a rich data-set on young people’s perceptions of CCSE in England, particularly with regard to their experience of the formal, school-based curriculum, and their engagement with nature. Whilst some data about student attitudes exist from informal surveys, we address the lack of a national picture; collection of demographic data, including gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status, allows us to further understand patterns of young people’s perceptions in relation to these characteristics. The survey of young people is further paired with our survey of teachers in England undertaken in 2022 (Greer et al., 2023), thereby enabling us to bring together data from those responsible for the education of the next generation and the next generation whose lives are inextricably entangled with the effects of and efforts to address climate change and sustainability. This brings insights into the connections between young people’s sense of agency and possibilities of constructive hope that exist between educators and young people (Kelsey, 2016; Ojala, 2011)
Our analysis of the survey data provides a foundation for international dialogue about the priorities for meaningful CCSE grounded by young people’s perspectives and experiences. Through this, we additionally address the unrealised potential for cultivating nature-connectedness to shape future trajectories of educational practices that bring attunement between teachers, young people and more-than-human lifeworlds.
ReferencesClimate of Change. (2021). Climate greater worry than COVID-19 for young Europeans, new poll finds https://climateofchange.info/climate-greater-worry-than-covid-19-for-young-europeans-new-poll-finds/
DfE. (2022). Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy (Accessed 31 January, 2024).
Dunlop, L., & Rushton, E. A. (2022). Putting climate change at the heart of education: Is England's strategy a placebo for policy? British Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1083-1101.
European Social Survey (2020). ESS Round 10 Source Questionnaire. London: ESS ERIC Headquarters c/o City, University of London.
Greer, K. and Glackin, M. (2021). ‘What ‘counts’ as climate education? Perspectives from policy influencers’. School Science Review, 383, pp.16-22.
Greer, K., Sheldrake, R., Rushton, E., Kitson, A., Hargreaves, E., & Walshe, N. (2023). Teaching climate change and sustainability: A survey of teachers in England. University College London: London, UK.
Holden, C. (2007). Young people’s concerns. In D. Hicks & C. Holden (Eds.), Teaching the global dimension: Key principles and effective practice (pp. 31–42). Routledge.
Jickling, B. and Blenkinsop, S. (2020). ‘Wilding Teacher Education: Responding to the Cries of Nature’. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 23(1), pp. 121-138.
Kelsey, E. (2016). Propagating collective hope in the midst of environmental doom and gloom. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (CJEE), 21, 23-40.
Læssøe, J., Schnack, K., Breiting, S. and Rolls, S. Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education CROSS-NATIONAL REPORT (Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark). Available at: http://dpu.dk/RPEHE and http://edusud.dk 2009 (Accessed 31 January 2024).
Ojala, M. (2012). Hope and climate change: The importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. Environmental education research, 18(5), 625-642.
RCPCH (2023) Preserving the world for future generations: Children and young people’s perspectives on how to tackle climate change. Available at: https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-10/climate-change-cyp-voice-report-final.pdf (Accessed 21 January, 2024).
30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Video
“We Wanted to Be Brave”: Co-Creating Teacher Learning Spaces that Enhance Pedagogical Practices in Teaching about Environmental Sustainability
Suzanne Pratt
Teachers College, Columbia Uni, United States of America
Presenting Author: Pratt, Suzanne
Into today’s climate, children and youth are faced with constant uncertainties that relate to realities of environmental and social crises. In the case of one of these issues, climate change, studies have found that children and youth are often misinformed or not informed about actions, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to “unsustainable patterns…that exceed the capacities of the Earth’s ecological systems” (Rousell, & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2020, p. 191) and that fail to foster healthy habits that encourage deep understanding and dedication for environmental sustainability. Children and youth need access to spaces that offer opportunities to critically explore and deeply understand the issues we all face, and teachers need support in developing strategies for making these spaces accessible and available.
While many teachers recognize the importance of teaching about these topics, many struggle with a challenge of understanding what it looks like to effectively support students in developing the understandings, skills, and habits necessary to nurture seeds of real change (Rousell, & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2020). Equally important is the work of teacher educators as they consider how to support pre-service teachers in learning how to meaningfully foster student learning around issues that are so universally critical (Favier, Van Gorp, Cyvin, & Cyvin, J. 2021).
This longitudinal, ethnographic case study focuses on the learning of a group of teachers (the Citizen Scientist Curriculum Team) who are engaged in the challenge of developing pedagogical practices that directly and deeply connect students to environmental issues that impact us all. The study offers one example of teachers who are seeking to untangle questions of teaching and learning in the context of a real issue (environmental sustainability) and the journey of the group as they have devised, implemented, reflected on, and then revised curriculum and pedagogical practices through in multiple iterations.
Members of the Citizen Scientist Curriculum Team work at a variety of schools in New York City. The curriculum they designed prioritizes hands-on, project-based learning that emphasized an inquiry into the health of local waterways. Students engage in cycles of place-based scientific fieldwork, data analysis, and synthesis.
In addition to exploring these dilemmas in their own work, the group also created space for pre-service teachers to work alongside them as they engaged in this messy and imperfect work. This added complexity and also richness to the experience as members of the team learned from each other and pushed themselves to take pedagogical risks that were designed to enhance student connections to hands-on, field-based curriculum that was designed to explore environmental sustainability.
The research questions related to this study are:
1. What do teachers do together in a space where they are attempting to reimagine the boundaries of what teaching and learning look like, especially in the context of elevating the importance issues such as climate change with students?
2. As they reflect on multiple year-long iterations of creation, implementation, reflection, and revision as members of the Citizen Scientist Curriculum Team, how do teachers talk about their own evolution as professionals?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis study was developed and designed using principles of qualitative community-based research, including that (1) it is collaborative in nature; (2) employs a critical stance; (3) seeks to generate transformation (Johnson, 2016). In keeping with these tenets the author of this short film project acted as a full participant in the Citizen Scientist Curriculum Team with all members participating in different aspects of the research design.
Data for this study were collected between 2017 and 2022. A mixture of interviews, artifacts, videos, and documents were collected and then later analyzed.
Data analysis for this project were analyzed sequentially, thematically, and through examination of critical instances. These types of analysis were used to cyclically build layers of understanding as patterns emerged from the data.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsA portion of the findings for this study will be presented at this conference in the form of a short film. The aim of the film is to explore the journey of the Citizen Scientist Curriculum Team, including their insight about how their experiences as members of the group evolved over time. This includes reflections on the development of a "space" where complex, multi-directional teacher learning happens. Members of the group describe the space as “this really amazing sandbox”, a place for “experimentation”, and as “a community”. While members of the group shared a passion for developing “hands-on” and “fun” ways for students to learn.
Developing the curriculum also led to situations where members of the group were pushing back against the norms of their typical teaching context. One member of the group, a veteran teacher reflected on how new teachers often, "get schooled in how school is...and it really takes some of the joy of teaching." In focusing their efforts on building curriculum that would lead to students being deeply engaged in the study of environmental sustainability, the teachers also ended up creating a space where they were able to rediscover the joy.
In the form of video presentation, that joy can be seen on the faces of students as they stand in the middle of the river, wearing waders and collecting data.
The findings of this study encourage considerations around the development of collaboration of teaching coalitions for purposes of enhancing instruction for students.
ReferencesDarity, K. & Pratt, S. (2023). “Giving them the opportunity to create”: Planning for Critical Media Literacy in a STEM+C context. heiEDUCATION Journal [Special Issue].
Favier, T., Van Gorp, B., Cyvin, J. B., & Cyvin, J. (2021). Learning to teach climate change: students in teacher training and their progression in pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 45(4), 594-620.
Johnson, L. R. (2016). Community-based qualitative research: Approaches for education and the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Rousell, D., & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, A. (2020). A systematic review of climate change education: Giving children and young people a ‘voice’and a ‘hand’in redressing climate change. Children's Geographies, 18(2), 191-208.
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