Teachers’ reflections on an education for sustainable development project

Abstract

Sustainable development includes controversial values and complex issues such as energy consumption contra natural resources. This paper discusses a school project involving teachers from pre-schools to upper secondary schools in Sweden. The project aimed to support the teaching of energy issues and more generally sustainable development. During the first year of the project, teachers attended a university course as part-time students. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the meaning of an education for sustainable development (ESD) school project from the teacher's point of view. The research question is as follows: How do teachers constitute meaning in an ESD project? Through focus group interviews, I found three themes that illuminate the meaning of the project: awareness, confirmation, and collaboration. This study opened up two horizons: the meaning of ESD and the meaning of prerequisites for successful teaching. According to the results of this study, the relationship between social and ecological issues needs local relevance and people need an opportunity to debate the controversial issues.

Keywords:

• education for sustainable development
• teachers’ perspectives
• phenomenology
• focus group interviews

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the municipality of Piteå for supporting the project of ESD and all the teachers participating and contributing to this study.

Notes

1. Swedish National Agency for Education grants schools with a certificate of sustainable development in accordance with criteria found on their homepage: http://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/hallbar_utveckling/utmarkelsen. The certificate is valid for three-year periods, after which schools may reapply.

2. Expectation for the project was discussed at the first focus group interview.

3. Fulfillment of the expectations were discussed at the second focus group interview.

4. Quotations were translated from Swedish to English by the researcher.

5. The teachers had a supervisor for the studies at the university course.

6. 1–16 years’ perspective comprehends both the pre-school and elementary school children.