Development of teachers’ practices in the field of education for sustainable development (ESD): a discursive community of interdisciplinary practices focusing on the theme of chocolate

Figures & data

Figure 1. Four possible theoretical configurations of the relationship between school disciplines and ESD issues, adapted from Roy and Gremaud (2017, p. 104). This figure provides the background for possible approaches to teaching ESD (cf. supra).

Table 1. Stages of teacher training.

Training teachers’ stages	Contents
Stage 1 Teacher training (visionary-phase): teaching-learning problem on reflective ESD. Teacher training.	(Focus group ante) Develop a shared vision of reflective ESD on the topic of chocolate Clarify and negotiate training, research and development objectives
Stage 2 Teacher training: co-construction of a teaching-learning problem on reflective ESD.	Problematise the theme of chocolate using the didactic concepts of interdisciplinary scientific investigation approach (Roy & Gremaud, 2017) and complex thought modelling (Jenni, Varcher, and Hertig 2013)
Stage 3 Implementation of classroom teaching sequences (design of the teaching sequences)	Development of teaching and learning activities. Implementation with the choices made.
Stage 4: co-analysis of teaching sequences	Conduct a collective reflective review of ESD teaching practices (Focus group post)

Table 3. Synthesis of teachers’ responses regarding ESD and professional experience-related main issues (FG ante A and B, 2018).

Perception of the teacher’s role with regard to ESD and methodological issues (prerequisite) faced [E1-E7-E8-E9-E10]

Practical problems encountered previously [E2-Ens7-E3-E6-E9]

Provision of information: providing pupils with documents and having them do research Linking ESD activities to pupils’ daily lives and classroom reality Avoiding being moralistic Educating (the idea that students must learn something) Enabling learners to understand the meaning, relationships, causal chain Helping pupils to make suggestions (hypotheses related to the problem) Working on causalities, to relate, forecasting - Raising awareness, exhibiting, encouraging open-mindedness

Setting guidelines for yourself Making a cross-curricular link Reconciling school and family discourses Enabling the pupils to investigate Finding relevant material Finding a problem Creating a synthesis of pupils’ ideas in order to create a joint problem Putting oneself at the pupils’ level in terms of reflective and reasoning skills - Addressing pupils’ misunderstandings of ESD issues

Table 4. Synthesis of the responses to the question on the planning and experimentation of ESD session, focussing on the experiences and learning goals for pupils (Focus A and B, 2018).

Testimony of planning and implementation of ESD activities (FG A and B ante)

Stated objectives and/or teacher comments related to the themes studied in class (verbatim)

Topic of waste E1 Small ecological details without planning E2 Waste management, picking up garbage in the school yard E6 and Ens 3 Recycling waste collected in the school yard Ens 6 Production chain for paper from waste and impact of waste on the environment (water and food chain) Ens1 Recycled paper E9 and E10 Waste and refuse tax, good behaviour and packaging Ens 7 What should be done with uprooted trees? Topic of food E 3 and E5 Local pizza project E 4 and E10 Project on eating habits E8 The source of food E7 Food and water consumption Topic of energy E4, E5 and E6 Geography: Fossil fuel and sustainable energy, energy consumption

Topic of waste E1: Say what is ‘good to bring, less good, because they had cartons, straws at school, you always have the option of drinking water at school, and some come with packaged pain au chocolat’ E2 ‘What does it mean if we drop our waste, how could we avoid doing so? ‘ Ens6 ‘Where does paper come from, what is it used for, why do we need to collect it, sort it…’ Ens 1 ‘We took wastepaper, tore it up and made our own sheets of paper which we couldn’t use afterwards’ Ens 3 Handiwork: You don’t have to buy lots of things to make simple and very attractive things. E6 ‘Recycling (…) also requires energy and there is perhaps a better way of avoiding waste in the school yard (…) a small ‘zero waste in the break’ competition’ ‘they don’t really understand (…) that dropping paper on the ground is polluting’ E9 ‘We just remembered that if we didn’t behave properly, we might get into trouble (…) I felt that we had to remedy the situation and do something educational, but there was nothing (…) that allowed the children to understand the meaning of it all’ Topic of food E4 ‘We did a survey on the food that children and their families buy, where it comes from, how much it costs, etc… we talked a lot about the problem’ E5 ‘Look at the food that is sourced locally or elsewhere, what transportation they use (…) the cost of a pizza (…) so that students ask questions (…) we shouldn’t be moralistic either’ E7 ‘See what consumes a lot of water and what consumes less water’ E8 ‘In my case it’s a bit of a hop-skip-and-jump approach, we do an ESD activity that’s not particularly related to what we usually do (…) with a slightly moral element’ Topic of energy E4 ‘I don’t know whether I’m on the right subject. I had a person come who does activities about energy, we also talked about sustainable energy’ E5 ‘What source of energy do we use, is it renewable or not?’

Table 2. Synthesis of the methodology used for the analysis.

Phase 1: appropriating the recording	Listening to the logic of individual discourses and exchanges for a first thematic categorization.
Phase 2: transcription	Transcription of the exchanges (exchanges between teachers are kept for the analysis)
Phase 3: meaningful unit	Choice of the unit of analysis. Here, key words, sentences paragraphs
Phase 4: ‘interacting with and thinking about the data’ (Strauss in Baribeau 2009, p. 140)	Coding by themes: experiences and practices of teaching ESD, subjects and themes worked on with students, teachers’ working methods, difficulties encountered in the work, teachers’ perception of ESD, needs for improving their practices.

Table 5. Expert discussion and post focus group (2019): thematic analysis of responses to the question about the benefits and challenges from the teachers’ perspective.

The benefits of the DCIP for the teachers	Practical problems encountered in the context of classroom implementation [E5, Ens1, E16, E11, E13, E7, E12]
-Consideration of the methodology with planning and/or implementation of the lesson, whilst allowing planning flexibility Willingness to invest what they have learned in subsequent classes Problem construction with suitable prompts Planning based on pupils’ assumptions/ proposals which need to be tested Conceptualisation: use of panels Planning based on pupils’ assumptions (flexibility and co-construction) Modelling: on different scales and in different forms (model, drawing, diagrams)	Teachers’ difficulties: Integrating ESD (addressing and conceptualising it, being aware of the process) Time management: open-ended questions Integrating a topic that is connected to ESD into the busy annual schedule -Pupils unsettled due to less academic nature of co-construction with teacher Challenges: different language levels (non-native speaking children in the first grades) find the pertinent zone of proximal development’s level. Getting pupils to ask questions related to a theme Finding a suitable starting point which really prompts questions and allows maximum open-mindedness Pupils’ difficulties: Pupils unsettled due to less academic nature of co-construction with teacher The different levels of language constitute a challenge for pupils Sometimes no initial conception: a lack of basic knowledge, basic vocabulary, basic questions and not being used to asking questions Complex task for pupils: selecting, synthesising, understanding what is said, making connections
Benefits for pupils from the teachers’ perspective
Stimulation, development of a research project, autonomy Better understanding, pupils become more reflective, motivated, valued (their conceptions and visions are taken into account more), and considered Taking charge of a project, understanding the meaning thanks to the three main areas Development of language, vocabulary, reflection skills and the ability to synthesise, link to complex reflection Learning how to make schematic diagrams (modelling)

Figure 2. Modelling of a teaching sequence implemented in Grades 7 and 8 (7-8H) on the topic of chocolate. Design & realisation. Sources: focus group post A&B, 2019, teachers’ personal planification (2018).

Roy, P, and B. Gremaud. 2017. “La matrice interdisciplinaire d’une question scientifique socialement vive comme outil d’analyse a priori dans le processus de problématisation.” Formation et pratiques d’enseignement en questions 22: 125–141. https://doc.rero.ch/record/289041.

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Jenni, P., P. Varcher, and P. Hertig. 2013. “Des élèves débattent: sont-ils en mesure de penser la complexité?” Penser l’éducation, Hors série 187–204.

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