Volume 8 (2017): Edizione 2 (December 2017)

This paper presents the design criteria for Visual Cues – visual stimuli that are used in combination with other pedagogical processes and tools in Disruptive Learning interventions in sustainability education – to disrupt learners’ existing frames of mind and help re-orient learners’ mind-sets towards sustainability. The theory of Disruptive Learning rests on the premise that if learners’ frames of mind or frames of reference can be disrupted (in other words, challenged), then learners’ mind-sets can be re-oriented towards sustainability, and indeed learners can be motivated to engage in change agency for sustainability. The use of Visual Cues thus unsettle or challenge learners’ mind-sets, and in doing so, set them on the pathway towards re-orientation in becoming more sustainability oriented, and/or in motivating engagement in sustainability change agency. The findings form part of a broader research study on ESD conducted in a higher education institution in Ireland within an undergraduate degree of teacher education. Kathy Charmaz’ Constructivist Grounded Theory approach guided the entire study, resulting in the articulation of the theory of, and processes within, Disruptive Learning. This paper presents design criteria for Visual Cues that were articulated through a thematic analysis approach from data emerging from reflective diaries, follow-up interviews, audio recordings and observational notes. The findings from this study in respect of design criteria state that Visual Cues must disrupt rather than disturb; must represent (have impressions of) real life contexts, scenarios, practices or events; must provoke controversy; must contain a visual stimulation; and can have a critical question.

A rights-based approach to the environmental issues has been gaining momentum since the United Nations’ Environmental Agency proposed a new rights-based agenda for sustainable development in the document, Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015). Our moral responsibility toward the environment is essential to the project of sustainable development. The Kantian ethical tradition lays the foundations of a rights-based approach to human rights and sustainable development. Human rights are essential to the flourishing of all human beings regardless of their nationality or another status. Linking human rights to environmental justice has been an arduous task, but contemporary environmental ethicists argue that giving a human face to the environment that nurtures and sustains us is a precondition for sustainable development. The concept of sustainability addresses the issue of economic growth at present and how this impacts the future generations. This paper examines the rights-based environmental ethics, which has emerged in the context of a human rights-based approach to human development and forges a link between rights-based ethics and sustainable development that could establish a solid foundation for environmental justice.

Education for sustainable development as presented by UNESCO involves a value dimension which is both pivotal and problematic. Pivotal, because values concern what matters to beings, problematic because the values brought forward are formulated as universal values, with the risk of suppressing the plurality of context.

The first part of the article develops a theoretical approach for a research project on environmental ethical values in moral education which accommodates for both universality and context. While the scope is mainly theoretical, some empirical material is brought in to illustrate and exemplify. The school subject involved includes religious education, and the empirical material shows that religion is a part of the context. However, this aspect is not accentuated in the theoretical approach presented.

The second part is a mediation between this theoretical approach on moral education and the interpretive approach addressing religious education. The aim is to explore common ground, uncover factual tension and reflect on how both moral education and religious education may contribute to environmental and sustainability education.

A descriptive case study approach is employed using a content analysis of the blogs of 36 school leaders who took part in the 2016–2017 Shadow a Student Challenge project and follow up interviews of five of the school leaders. This research was used to explore and describe how an empathetic design approach provided a greater vantage point for school leaders. By viewing school through the eyes of students, school leaders gain a deeper insight into the school experience. School leaders play a key role in establishing the culture, climate, and educational outcomes within their school environments. An empathetic design approach to school reform provides a stronger point for initiating change than an atmosphere focused on evaluation and accountability. Taking a school-based approach, encouraging school leaders to immerse themselves in the school experience, provides an opportunity for school leaders to gain empathy and insights foundational in generating meaningful and innovative change leading to sustainable education. Three major themes emerged from the findings: 1) pace and structure of the school day, 2) student learning experience, and 3) reflective and innovative insights.

When compared to education with children, adolescents and students, adult education has particular opportunities and challenges, depending on stronger biographical influences: adults have developed their own learning style and learning competence and apart from more formal learning opportunities facilitated through digital learning and/or learning in schools/universities, there are many opportunities for informal learning, often influenced by experiences of education as a child. In this regard, biographical learning offers opportunities for transformational, organic, remembrance and experiences. The study, therefore, focuses on such kinds of adult education as a core element, particularly of Protestant adult education.

This paper presents a multidimensional concept of Protestant adult education, which integrates existing concepts into a memory oriented educational framework. Therefore, the theoretical considerations explain the phenomenological background of this particular concept. In a second step, this concept will be contextualized within the historical context of Protestant adult education. The summary emphasizes the particular aspect of educational coping with past, current and future experiences and situations.

With increased emphasis on student achievement in schools, teacher education programs are challenged to meet the demand for highly effective teachers. Ensuring that pre-service teachers feel confident in their ability to teach, prompted one Midwestern University to implement an extended student teaching placement. The idea behind this endeavor was two fold; first to provide future teachers a more robust and diverse classroom experience; and secondly to provide more opportunities for students to get experience in high-risk school settings. There is very limited research on the impact of year-long student teaching on a teacher’s sense of efficacy. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of teacher candidates placed in a year-long student teaching placement to teacher candidates placed in a traditional one semester (16 week) placement. All teacher candidates completed a 24 question Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale as well as nine demographic questions. The survey developed at Ohio State University by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001), measures teacher attitudes towards working with students, student engagement, instructional practices, and classroom management. Specifically, the questions represent essential tasks in teaching such as assessment, differentiating lessons for individual students, dealing with students with learning challenges, repairing student understanding, and encouraging student engagement and interest. The results of the study indicated that pre-service teacher candidates in a year-long student teaching placement were more satisfied with their ability to engage students and manage classroom behavior than their counterparts in a traditional one semester placement.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) guides and empowers educators to reshape their thinking style and move towards a sustainable future. It has attracted a lot of attention and been studied in different perspectives. However, contextual factors have not been studied in relation to sustainable development for teacher education. Therefore, this study aims to find out the possible effects of changing contextual factors on pre-service and in-service teachers in terms of sustainable education for their profession. For this purpose, 267 pre-service teachers from four different universities and 50 in-service teachers from 15 different cities participated in the study. Out of 317 participants, 245 stated that contextual factors influence their teaching habits adversely, while 54 reported that they ignored the outer factors. In light of the data gathered, it can be said that the participant teachers were mostly pessimistic about the effect of contextual differences on ESD. Based upon participant statements, a new theory emerged. According to this theory, there are personal (P), institutional (I), stakeholder-related (S), environmental (E) and training-related (T) factors which positively and/or negatively influence ESD in teacher education. In this regard, the new theory was formed with the first letters of the related factors and called P.I.S.E.T. These findings suggest that pre-service teachers should be exposed to various school settings during their practicum and in-service teachers should receive context-related support from the stakeholders to enhance their professional skills and act in line with the principles of ESD.

This research aims to improve the learning activity and achievement of a 10^th grade class made up of 30 students in a vocational high school located in the city of Surakarta, Indonesia, by applying the Numbered Heads Together (NHT) approach. The experiment was divided into two stages of four activities each: planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. The comparative descriptive procedure was then used to analyze the data. Prior to the researach implementation, the learning activity was relatively low in the pre-stage of the experiment. However, after the NHT approach, the percentage of active students increased in stage 1 and stage 2. The result of the test also suggested a similar trend in student achievement. From this it can be concluded that the application of the NHT learning model improves engagement within the learning activity as well as the level of achievement.

Sustainability is becoming an integral part of vocational schools since schools are called to respond to the environmental crises and unsustainability issues in the community as well as to an unsustainable economic development. Vocational schools have to play a significant role is re-orienting students’ frames of reference towards sustainability for a well-being of the Earth.

The aim of the article is to explore teachers’ views on their gains of integrating sustainability and the use of sustainability pedagogies as a result of participation in three years long international project. The article reflects on teachers’ efforts of reorienting the curriculum of a vocational school towards sustainability within the framework of the international Erasmus+ project “Methods for ESD – competencies and curricula” (MetESD), led by Vechta University.

This article discusses different interpretations of sustainable development in education and if different interpretations of the concept are implemented in Curriculum, with the Swedish Curriculum of Upper Secondary School as an example. According to Agenda 21 sustainable development should be implemented in a multidimensional way. In 2011, a new school reform of upper secondary school was implemented in Sweden which further strengthened the position of sustainable development in school by inserting the term into more syllabuses. However, the multiple instances of the concept do not necessarily mean that a multidimensional interpretation of the concept is implemented in accordance with the objectives of Agenda 21. By using Laclau and Mouffe’s (2008) idea of discursive struggle as a theoretical framework it is possible to discern how descriptions of sustainable development essentially give rise to one discursive formation in the curriculum. The articulations of sustainable development in the curriculum rests on an idea of the ecosystem that seem to enforce the natural scientific rationality instead of letting different rationalities contribute to the meaning. The descriptions of sustainable development in the curriculum can be interpreted as a hegemonic expropriation of elements of other discourses, such as the social and economic, into the environmental (ecological) dimension. These results are consistent with other international studies, and emphasises the importance of taking a critical stance to the writings of Curriculum when putting them into practice.