1. An Issue of Scale: The Challenge of Time, Space and Multitude in Sustainability and Geography Education
- Author
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Lili-Ann Wolff, Frode Skarstein, Department of Education, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), and Diversity, multilingualism and social justice in education
- Subjects
alternative conceptions ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Public Administration ,Teaching method ,COMPETENCES ,PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ,dialogic teaching ,DETERMINANTS ,01 natural sciences ,Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Pedagogiske fag: 280 [VDP] ,11. Sustainability ,ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Computer Science (miscellaneous) ,education for sustainable development (esd), misconceptions ,CLIMATE-CHANGE ,Information literacy ,05 social sciences ,050301 education ,BASE-LINE SYNDROME ,Computer Science Applications ,TEACHERS CONCEPTS ,Environmental education ,Scale (social sciences) ,education for sustainable development (ESD) ,digital tools ,lcsh:Education ,1171 Geosciences ,Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation ,STUDENTS ,Education ,preconceptions ,mental models ,geography education ,magnitude ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Sustainable development ,issues of scale ,sustainability education ,ANTHROPOCENE ,CONSEQUENCES ,business.industry ,Multitude ,Data science ,Field (geography) ,13. Climate action ,Sustainability ,516 Educational sciences ,MISCONCEPTIONS ,lcsh:L ,business ,0503 education - Abstract
Article is also published in: Geography Education Promoting Sustainability. ISBN 978-3-03928-500-6 (Pbk); ISBN 978-3-03928-501-3 (PDF) DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-03928-501-3 https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/book/2184 The field of geography is important for any sustainability education. The aim of geography education is to enable students to understand the environment, its influence on human activity, and how humans influence the environment. In this article we present a study on how the interplay between the three pillars of sustainability thinking (environment, society and economy) play out on smaller and larger scales of time, space and multitude in geography education. In this paper, we argue that central issues in high quality sustainability education in geography relates to students’ deeper grasp of how to shift between magnitudes of time, space and multitude patterns. We show how an appreciation of many core issues in sustainability education require students to understand and traverse different magnitudes of the scalable concepts of time, space and multitude. Furthermore, we argue and exemplify how common sustainability misconceptions arise due to an inability to make the cognitive shift between relevant magnitudes on these scalable concepts. Finally, we briefly discuss useful educational approaches to mediating this problem, including the use of digital tools in order to allow geography teachers to facilitate the students’ better understanding of different magnitudes of slow, fast, small and large scale entities and processes.
- Published
- 2020