Citizenship, character, sustainability: Differences and commonalities in three fields of education

ABSTRACT

An adequate response to the environmental and sustainability issues we now face cannot be limited to single perspectives, disciplines, or ways of knowing, and instead requires an interdisciplinary approach. Despite the connections between the fields of citizenship-, character- and sustainability education, they have thus far run parallel to each other, without any substantial convergence. This paper focuses on the conceptual and historical reasons for this lack of integration, exploring the tensions among them perceived by many scholars and practitioners, such as an individual vs. a social vs. a global focus, a deliberative vs. fact based pedagogic approach, and an individual vs. socio-political educational context. The paper ends by exploring different ways in which these three fields of education might be integrated.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship education
• character education
• sustainability education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The four pictures are not supposed to reflect the diversity and complexity of each field but to draw out perceived differences. Many of these differences have been questioned, e.g., regarding the individualistic nature of character education (Kristjánsson, 2013) and the overarching factual basis of sustainability education (Vare & Scott, 2007).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a subaward from The Self, Virtue and Public Life project based at the University of Oklahoma with funding from the Templeton Religion Trust [TRT0169].

Notes on contributors

Karen Elizabeth Jordan

Karen Elizabeth Jordan ([email protected]) is a lecturer at the School of Education, University of Iceland. Her research focuses on sustainability education, with an emphasis on the role of virtues and values in sustainability, and the implications of this for education.

Ólafur Páll Jónsson

Ólafur Páll Jónsson ([email protected]) is a professor of philosophy at the School of Education, University of Iceland. His published works include papers and books on philosophy of education, sustainability education, political philosophy, philosophy of nature, legal philosophy, and critical thinking.

Ragny Þóra Guðjohnsen

Ragny Þóra Guðjohnsen ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of education and pedagogy at the School of Education, University of Iceland. Her published works include papers and book chapters on citizenship education, service learning, young people’s civic engagement, youth risk behavior, and well-being.

Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir

Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir ([email protected]) is a professor emeritus of education at the School of Education, University of Iceland. Her work covers issues within educational science and developmental psychology. Her published works include articles, book chapters, and books on social, moral, and emotional development and education, young people’s civic awareness and engagement, youth relationships, risk behaviour, and resilience, and teachers’ and school administrators’ educational visions.

Unnur Edda Garðarsdóttir

Unnur Edda Garðarsdóttir ([email protected]) is an anthropologist and works as an adjunct lecturer and researcher at the University of Iceland. Her research interest lies in the reproduction of inequality in education.