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Considering the current state of our planet, the need for a vibrant environmental and sustainability education (ESE) is arguably more pressing than ever. However, education at large has also become increasingly characterized by accountability, measurements, and high-stakes testing. Consequently, ESE presently finds itself caught in a tension between two competing educational logics, namely an existential one and an instrumental one. There is undoubtedly a deeply existential dimension to ESE as the content of its educational practices have profound implications for continued human (and non-human) existence (Affifi & Christie, 2019; Vandenplas et al., 2023; Verlie, 2019). ESE involves issues about severe threats to our planet and the extinction of numerous species as well as vast global economic and social inequalities. As such, sustainability issues touch upon the very nerve of what it means to grow up in a society where dreadful visions of the future seem to be closing in. Such visions can spark strong moral emotions in students as well as ignite intense political discussions about the development of society (Sund & Öhman, 2014; Van Poeck et al., 2019). In short, the educational content of ESE carries profound existential implications for both teachers and students that need to be carefully handled in the classroom (Vandenplas et al., 2023). At the same time, sustainable development is being taught within a broader system of schooling characterized by instrumentalism rather than devotion to existential concerns. Many European educational systems have moved in a direction of increased teacher accountability and a stronger focus on test results and measurable outcomes (Grek, 2020). Taken together, the changing institutional condition of schooling means that teachers and students today face a harsh educational reality where didactical autonomy is being reduced and knowledge requirements are to be met. This means that there is a risk that schoolwork is being pre, Environmental and sustainability education meets the reality of schooling

Swedish students regularly take part in school partnership trips to Tanzania. Yet, little research looks at the extent to which these trips support global learning. This paper is interested in the discourses that enable and constrain ethical relationality in these educative encounters. It considers existing research on global citizenship education and school partnerships in relation to decolonial engagements then analyses interview data with four students who participated in an entrepreneurship themed trip to identify discourses available to them. Students articulated an overarching discourse of taken-for-grantedness. Several sub-discourses could enable but tend to constrain an ethical relationality in these educative encounters.

This article draws on a philosophical critique of the problems of denial in the face of the climate crisis and the call for an education that deals with the root causes of social and environmental injustice in depth. To respond to this radical critique in concrete educational practice, there is a need for an understanding of moral learning that also considers the problems of denial and the role of the teacher in these learning processes. We therefore propose a transactional model grounded in Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy that explains how denial hinders the process of moral learning but also describes how teachers can offer moments of resistance that interrupt denial and challenges and transform moral habits. Finally, we discuss the implications of a transactional perspective and the need for making moral progress by reflectively revising our moral habits in the face of overlapping environmental and social injustice crises.

Environmental and sustainability education (ESE) consists of topical existentialand ethical issues. At the same time, these issues are taught ina school setting that is shaped by assignments, grades, and school tasks.The relationships between structures of formal education in a schoolenvironment and the characteristics of ESE has been described in dichotomousterms as a contradiction, known in the ESE research field as“Stevenson’s gap”, after Robert B. Stevenson. The aim of this article is toovercome this dichotomous understanding of the relation betweenschooling and ESE by providing a pragmatist perspective. Drawing onJohn Dewey’s notion of habit, two learning habits are outlined by whichstudents encounter environmental and sustainability issues in the classroom:the habit of schooling and the habit of inquiry. Empirical data fromSwedish upper secondary schools is used to illustrate their meaning inclassroom practice. Our pragmatist conceptualisation highlights howthese habits are simultaneously present in the same classroom. A conclusionis that teaching and learning in ESE should not be reduced toeither habit but that both can be valuable for a robust and vital ESE., Teaching global equity and justice issues through a critical lens

This article proposes a model that describes and frames sustainability commitment. The model is based on didactic theory and pragmatic philosophy and is informed by several empirical studies on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) practice. The intention is for the model to serve as a critical perspective on ESE practices in secondary and upper secondary schools, and to offer a framework for the development of future practice with emphasis on teachers’ choices of content and teaching methods. The model suggests that a sound commitment is situated in the intersection of the intellectual, emotional, and practical aspects of sustainability. It is argued that: The intellectual aspect is essential for giving the commitment scientific rigor and a critical stance; emotions are vital for students to become dedicated; and skills to carry out appropriate actions for change is necessary for playing an active role in providing a sustainable transformation of society.

Purpose: This paper considers the relevance of critical and decolonial approaches to global education in northern Europe through theoretical and empirical research. Methodology: We present a case for an approach that engages the modern/colonial dynamic (Mignolo, 2000; Andreotti, 2014) and pluriversality (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018). We conducted a project involving workshops with secondary teachers in England, Finland, and Sweden centred on Andreotti’s (2012) HEADSUP tool. We recorded discussions at the workshops and individual interviews after applying the tool in practice. Findings: Teachers are both strategic and reticent in how they take up colonialism when teaching global issues. Wider political contexts and teachers’ and students’ own experiences with colonialism and racialisation are very much part of how ethical global issues are framed, unpacked, and responded to in classrooms. While there are some significant challenges evident, several teachers deepened their approach and co-produced a teacher resource supporting the application of HEADSUP to classroom practice.

In this chapter, the authors report on a participatory research project with secondary school teachers in England, Finland, and Sweden that aimed to explore the possibilities for ethical global issues pedagogy in the classroom. The project had three integrated stages: 1) development and delivery of a workshop for teachers based on a synthesis of theoretical work in critical global citizenship education and environmental and sustainability education, and introducing Andreotti's (2012) HEADSUP tool; 2) classroom visits and reflective interviews with teachers where the workshop material was applied and adapted; and 3) drafting, reviewing, piloting, and publishing online a resource to support teacher practice. Findings show teachers are inspired and committed to engaging with deep ethical pedagogical approaches to global issues. However, in order to be able to take up critical approaches in the classroom, teachers require resources and spaces where they can engage with theory and research, reflect, experiment, and exchange information with other teachers.

This article builds from scholarship in Environmental Education Research (EER) and Critical Global Citizenship Education calling for more explicit attention to how teaching global issues is embedded in the colonial matrix of power. We also consider the extent to which recent calls in EER for explicit attention to coloniality connect to discussions about posthuman thinking through a shared critical reading of modernity. We argue that ethical approaches to global issues, and pedagogical processes and practices that would contribute to them, are possible only if we recognize the relations of power that have shaped history and engage with critical modes of inquiry. Furthermore, we argue for the need to engage deeply with and confront historical patterns in concrete pedagogical practices in order to interrupt our own epistemic, political, ethical, and strategic place and categories. Finally, we will draw upon an example from our classroom-based research to consider how our findings relate to what is being called for in the critical scholarship of praxis, as informed by empirical studies.

Published:20-02-2020

Social studies have often been explored as dis-embodied which results in a limited view of what happens in the classroom. Based in Dewey’s transactional view of embodied relationality, Todd’s discussion on the liminality of pedagogical relationships and recent theoretical contributions into embodied learning and body pedagogics, the purpose is to explore students’ embodied engagement as an important but often overlooked aspect of social studies in school. The focus is on pedagogical encounters in terms of how students’ actions acquire a certain function in the classroom. Three embodied engagements— (i) disengaged encounters, (ii) screened encounters, and (iii) educative encounters—are identified and discussed in terms of the liminality of pedagogical encounters.

Science teachers regard practical work as important which helps students to learn science. Besides theoretical knowledge practical work is considered to be an integral part of science education. This implies that in addition to theoretical science tests, there is a need to find new ways of assessing students’ practical work. This empirical case study investigates two secondary school science teachers’ assessments of students in three separate groups in the practical part of a Swedish national test in chemistry. Data is gathered using two video cameras and three pairs of spy camera glasses. The results show that individual and independent assessments of student’s practical abilities are difficult due to the social interactions that take place and physical sources of error that occur in this type of laboratory setting. The results are discussed in relation to how teachers’ assessments of students’ practical abilities can be conducted and made more equal and fairer., Storskaliga och kostsamma nationella tester genomförs i hela västvärlden och tar stora lärarresurser i anspråk. Med stora satsningar som dessa är det viktigt att ställa frågan om betygsunderlaget som genereras är likvärdigt och rättvist? Denna fallstudie undersöker svenska lärares möjligheter att bedöma elevers individuella förmågor i tre undervisningsgrupper under genomförandet av ett praktiskt delmoment i det nationella provet i kemi i åk 9. Datainsamling genomfördes med två fasta videokameror och tre par spionglasögon. Trots att provinstruktioner till elever och lärare är väl utvecklade och bedömningsanvisningar till läraren är detaljerade visar resultaten i denna studie att det är svårt att bedöma elevers individuella praktiska förmågor. Det finns många olika slags faktorer som påverkar provresultatet. En sådan faktor är provet genomförs i en laborationssal där situationen skiljer sig väsentligt från miljön för ett teoretiskt prov i ett klassrum. En annan faktor är att det under den praktiska provdelen i en laborationssal närmast är omöjligt för eleverna att undvika att kommunicera. Studiens resultat visar att det finns påverkansfaktorer som sociala interaktioner och systematiska fysiska felkällor. I resultatet diskuteras hur lärares möjligheter att bedöma elevers individuella praktiska förmågor under nationella prov bättre kan säkerställas.

Over the last 20 years, international organisations and national governments have stressed the need for education policies to be (re)oriented towards social change, sustainability and preparing students for life in a global society. This area of pedagogy is not problem free. When policy is turned into practice teachers need to take a number of factors into account, especially when global sustainability issues are complex. In this article I investigate how six teachers with experience of international professional development reflect on and incorporate global sustainability issues in their teaching. These teachers articulated different ways of utilising the curriculum and enacting pedagogies relating to colonialism and complex global issues. The conclusion is that these teachers’ experiences can help us to understand this work and how it can be developed.

This article draws attention to the possibilities of the ongoing philosophical discussion about cosmopolitan universal values in relation to the normative challenges in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The purpose of this paper is to clarify the philosophical problems of addressing universally sustainable responsibilities and values in ESE. Our arguments draw inspiration from the work of three poststructuralist scholars: we explore how Butler develops her claim that universal assertion requires a cultural translation, how Mouffe exposes the political in universal claim and how Todd argues that education needs to introduce students to a political language that enables them to critically reflect on their own and other groups’ values and actions. In the concluding part, we suggest the following guidelines for rethinking ESE: unmasking the political dimension, re-politicising education, seeing beyond the relativist and objectivist divide and using passion as a moving force.

In this article we argue that culturally variable values and morals have a key role in educational initiatives that address a global dimension. The article suggests that looking at values and morals in relation to a teaching practice is a way of adding knowledge to this field. Our study inquires into how an intercultural experience can evoke ethical reflections on environmental and sustainability issues. The article is based on a qualitative empirical study of teachers’ experiences of a teacher development programme, where we analyse the variety of ethical reflections that emerge during a study visit to a Central American country. We build on a pragmatic analytical approach that takes John Dewey’s ethical thoughts on moral situations as a point of departure and deals with teachers’ ethical reflections in a way that takes the contextual and situated nature of morals into account.

This paper draws attention to the possibilities of the qualified philosophical discussion about a cosmopolitan dilemma in the development of ESD. We argue that one challenge facing the development of ESD is the finding of balanced ways to deal with the normativity dilemma that take both the search for universal claims and particular contexts seriously. Taking the perspective of educational philosopher Sharon Todd, we explore how postmodernist thinking and a poststructural perspective balance between the cultivation of universal values and individuals’ autonomous thinking, and relate these approaches to ESD. Our claim is that ESD is in need of a critical discussion and exploration of ESD as a political project with dissonant voices that takes the particular human encounter into consideration.