- within the ecological, economical and social aspects of ESD

Annika Manni, Umeå UniversitySupervisors: Karin Sporre and Christina Ottander

May, 2011

 

Mapping young students understanding and valuing of

Sustainable development

UN-decade of Education for Sustainable development (2005-2014)

The need for a new approach in educationSystems thinking and complexity (Hjort & Bagheri,

2006) (Wylie et al.,1998) (Jonsson, 2007)

Decision making and action competence (Jenssen& Schnack, 2006) ( Dawidowicz, 2010)

Values and ethics (Öhman & Östman, 2008) (Rickinson & Lundholm, 2008)

Children’s voices (OMEP,2010) (Hartman et al., 2007)

Background

1, How do young Swedish students’ understand and value the aspects of sustainable development and their relations?

2, How can the relationships between understanding and valuing SD be described?

Research questions:

209 young students, aged 10-12, Swedish schools

Comprehensive questionnaire with open-ended questions, 2010

Phenomenographic approachContent analysis - categoriesVariations and relationships

The study

81 different questions, 72 closed and 9 open- ended. Open questions with picture support within every aspect of ESD

as well as how they are related all together

”What do you know about….? How do you feel about that ? ” Response in written text ”Read as slowly as it takes the pupils to write” ( Hartman,

1986)

The questionnaire

209 responses, open questionsRich and comprehensive materialMeaning-making moment ;” that they got to express their own thoughts in

a way they had not before”

Results

Describes

Simple positive understanding

Simple negative understanding

Complex positive understanding

Complex negative understanding

No response

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Ecological aspect

Example: ”I know that big factories emit bad smoke, both we humans and animal get sick of the smoke, even flowers and plants. It is bad that some people throw waste in the nature”,

Describes

Understandings within the aspect

Relates economy and ecology

Relates economy and social aspects

No response

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Economical aspect -trade

Example: ” In Africa children are working to make things that other then get rich of .I think that is really bad!”

Describes

Understandings within the aspect

Emotions about justice

Emotions and morals about wellfare

Reflektions about causes

No response

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Social aspect

Example: ”It is not fair, I think everybody should have equal amount of money. I am happy that I live in Sweden.”

Describes

Simple understanding

Relates ecology and economy

Relates ecology and social aspects

Relates economy and social aspects

Relates all aspects

No response

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Relationships in SD

Connections between aspects and how things affect each other are generally harder to describe. Still, some students do this in a quite complex way, e.g. ”When we manufacture something that shall be sold in a factory we destroy the nature. Air and water for both humans and animals are destroyed.”

Analysis of valuesValues or emotional expressions in every aspect

has been categorized and are often shown as:Emotions – spontanous, positive and negativeMoral reactions – good or bad actions, often

taught behavioursEthical reasoning – reflections about morals,

cause and effect

Values are often shown together with more complex understandings.

Complex area with great variations in descriptions of the aspects of SD.

Swedish students aware and describe every aspect of SD, mostly in simple ways but also some quite complex.

In the ecological aspect; mostly within but with different complexity.

In the economical; mostly within and quite simple but also some relations with other aspects.

In the social aspect; mostly within and very emotional. Relationships are as well described, most difficult between all

three. (Loughland et al. 2002, Wylie et al. 1998) Understandings and values intergrated, even;

rich of emotions = rich in complex understandings (Öhman & Östman, 2007, Lundholm & Rickinsson, 2008)

Summary

Implications for teaching and learning:Holistic and relational approach is neededIntegration of knowledge and ethicsImportance of the teachers’ awareness of

students’ pre-understandings

Implications

Thanks for your attention!