How secondary-school students deal with issues of sustainable development in class^*

* The research was conducted at the Georg-August-University, Göttingen (2009–2010) and the Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main (2010–2012).

Abstract

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is intended to enable individuals to shape a fair and sustainable society. Implemented at schools, ESD addresses specific topics, e.g. globalization or pollutants in clothing. This study investigates what challenges are connected with such issues in class and how students deal with issues of sustainable development at German secondary schools. Several teaching units in different subjects and schools were video- and audiotaped. The empirical material was analysed using the Documentary Method (a qualitative reconstructive approach) to describe students’ competences that emerged within different pedagogical arrangements. We identified three key competences that provide important skills for handling issues in ESD that deal (1) with the state of not knowing, (2) with perspectivity, and (3) with calls to action.

Keywords:

• Education for sustainable development
• classroom research
• student strategies
• Documentary Method

Notes

* The research was conducted at the Georg-August-University, Göttingen (2009–2010) and the Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main (2010–2012).

1. These sites offer a great deal of different materials on various issues, such as ESD in general and poverty or justice and peace, e.g. http://www.tidegloballearning.net/primary-early-years/english-and-esd-cpd-materials-primary-teachers and http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/sustainable-development-goals.

2. A few examples include http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources, http://teachunicef.org/teaching-materials/topic/sustainable-development-goals, http://sustainableschoolsproject.org/tools-resources, and http://lsf-lst.ca/en/projects/education-sustainable/networks.

3. The transcripts are regularly generous. The beginning (proposition) and ending (conclusion) are sometimes difficult to recognize on the surface.

4. The sequences varied in length from 5 to 20 min depending on the discourse movement, and all relevant materials in these sequences are also integrated into the analyses and are understood to be part of the discourse.

5. The transcripts were made by the researcher herself together with a bureau for transcription and mainly student associates.

6. The two modes appear to illustrate the contrast between instructivist and constructivist didactic theories.

7. See an overview of the results in Table 5. For a more in-depth description of the relation between the forms of performance and the didactic structures as well as an illustration of the empirical material, see Kater-Wettstädt (2015).

8. The transcripts are only translated for illustration. Unfilled brackets mark non-understandable parts; @ marks laughing.