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- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Attitudes to sustainable development among Swedish pupils
- 2011
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Ingår i: Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. - Amsterdam : Elsevier BV. - 1877-0428. ; 15, s. 316-320
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The preconditions for education for sustainable development (ESD) differ according to contextual factors. This paper discusses the sources of values connected with sustainable development and also presents findings from a Swedish survey about how attitudes to some aspects of sustainable development are distributed among Swedish pupils. The results show significant differences related to gender and education programme. Boys and students in vocational programs hold stronger anthropocentric values than girls and students in theoretical programmes. There is also a positive correlation between solidarity and biocentric values. Comparison with earlier studies indicates that the differences mentioned above are increasing.
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| 3. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Bakläxa om rättvisa
- 2010
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Ingår i: Aftonbladet. ; 19 November
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 4. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Does ESD support or oppose change in the fundamental socioenvironmental values of pupils?
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Educational policy documents from global to national and local levels give priority to learning how to achieve sustainable development. “Few issues are so important but so elusive as sustainable development, and there can be very few such issues indeed where the role of learning is so crucially important to our future.”(Scott & Gough, 2004, s. xi). A need of change in human values is often expressed as a prerequisite for sustainable development. How ESD can support this change, without yielding to manipulation and indoctrination, is one of the current main issues. How do you as a teacher balance on the edge between “knowing what is right and knowing that it´s wrong to tell others what is right” ?(Wals, 2010) There are abundant suggestions about which values that have to be changed in order to achieve sustainable development. I choose to presuppose the fundamental values underlying The Millennium Declaration of the UN. They are freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility (UN, 2000). Despite their importance not very much is known about how these values help or hinder sustainable development (Leiserowitz, Kates, & Paris, 2006). Studies from many different countries show that students´ primary concern is globally environmental problems. Less is known about how this concern is related to other issues that the students find important (Rickinson, 2001) and how the values mentioned above are correlated to each other.An individual can express values through actions and attitudes. Focus in my research is on how the fundamental values, underlying sustainable development, are expressed in attitudes and how these are combined and distributed among Swedish pupils in upper secondary school. A questionnaire (n=917) with 27 statements, concerning attitudes towards nature and towards fellow human beings is so far the empirical body. I use five-grade Likert items[i] aggregated into four groups, each of them summing up to a Likert scale[ii] measuring different aspects of one value. The four values are; biocentrism, anthropocentrism (two different aspects of respect for nature) equality and solidarity and are consequently connected to the underlying values in The Millennium Declaration of the UN. I use Bogner and Wiseman´s (2003)Model of Ecological Values to measure respect for nature and have constructed a new scale, Model of Social Values, for the purpose of measuring solidarity and equality.Preliminary results show a significant correlation between a strong willingness to preserve nature and to show solidarity with a wide in-group of others. There is also a significant correlation between strong utilization attitudes towards nature and to show solidarity with a narrower in-group and also between strong utilization attitudes and to accept unequal distribution of resources. These findings mainly confirm results from earlier research. People high in empathy tend to be low in materialistic values and high in intrinsic values and more negative environmental attitudes are often associated with less concern for social justice and equality(Crompton & Kasser, 2009).My all-embracing research question is to analyze how pupils today understand how learning processes in elementary school have supported or opposed their own socioenvironmental values. To do that I need to carry out qualitative interviews with individuals representing the main categories in my survey. In those interviews one aim is to catch the essence of how pupils interpret their teachers’ ability to balance on the edge between telling what is right and supporting diversity and pluralism. [i] The respondent mark the level of agreement from 1= strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree[ii] A summated scale of several items which together measure one dimension
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| 5. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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En för alla – Alla för naturen : En studie av ungdomars attityder till hållbar utveckling
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines young people's attitudes to some aspects of sustainable development.The focus is on attitudes to preservation and to utilization of nature and also to solidarity andto equal distribution of resources. Hence the ecological, social and economic dimensions ofsustainable development are examined in the same survey. The study is aiming to examinehow the attitudes are distributed according to sex, educational programmes and urban/ruralliving as well as to examine how the values, from which the attitudes emanate, are correlatedwith each other.The results show that young female students in theoretical programs and students who livein larger cities are most supportive of nature preservation. The same pattern recurs with evengreater clarity on the attitudes to solidarity. Attitudes to utilization of nature can also be distinguishedclearly between the sexes by young men having more positive attitudes to utilizationthan young women. However, the differences between educational programmes andbetween students from urban and rural areas are clearly smaller than when it comes to attitudesto preservation and to solidarity. Attitudes to equal distribution of recources exhibitirregular patterns. Young women have more positive attitudes than young men but the linksbetween attitudes to equality and educational programme or rural/urban living, are not pointingin any clear direction. The results also show that there is a clear and positive correlationbetween positive attitudes to nature preservation and a willingness to show solidarity with awide circle of people. Those who say they care for nature also say that they are prepared tocare for other people.
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| 6. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-, et al.
(författare)
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In school we have not time for the future : voices of Swedish upper secondary school students about solidarity and the future
- 2015
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Ingår i: International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1038-2046 .- 1747-7611. ; 24:4, s. 338-354
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present article presents results obtained from a survey focusing on attitudes to solidarity among upper secondary school students. A relation between positive attitudes to solidarity and future-orientation was evident. The survey results were reinforced by a second study, exploring how students in the Swedish upper secondary school perceived the value solidarity, and whether the future-dimension was reflected in teaching. Twenty-two third-year students attending theoretical and vocational programmes at five upper secondary schools were interviewed. After coding and transcribing, a thematic analysis was performed, categorizing the interview responses into sub-themes, representing different aspects of solidarity and future-orientation. The analysis revealed that these students were not acquainted with solidarity as a concept. In the cases solidarity had been brought up at all in class, the students primarily contemplated it in a historical context. Notwithstanding, several students expressed a definite ambition and readiness to act in a solidary manner in order to contribute to improved social and ecological justice, also in relation to future generations. The interviews furthermore disclosed that teaching rarely had included the future-dimension; the students considered the future to be an individual rather than a shared challenge. In terms of resolving future challenges, such as the climate threat, their confidence in natural scientists and technologists was high, but few students conveyed trust in politicians, or believed that school, teachers, and students would take on an active role. Conclusively, activating the future-dimension in the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) might be a means to ameliorate the preconditions for youths’ environmental moral learning.
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| 7. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Kan geografi beskriva världen utan värden?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Forskning om undervisning och lärande. - Stockholm : Stiftelsen SAF/Lärarförbundet. - 2000-9674 .- 2001-6131. ; :7, s. 44-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring attitudes towards three values that underlie sustainable development
- 2011
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Ingår i: Utbildning och Demokrati. - Örebro : Örebro University. - 1102-6472 .- 2001-7316. ; 20:1, s. 97-121
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility are, according to UN (2000), specific and fundamental values. According to Shepherd et al. (2009), there is a lack of knowledge about the nature of these sustainability values and more research on these values and how they can be measured are needed. The purpose of this article is to present results from a study that aims to develop more knowledge about young people's attitudes towards sustainability. The study focused on three of these fundamental values: respect for nature, solidarity and equality. The methodology was a questionnaire answered by 918 upper secondary students. A new scale was constructed to measure attitudes towards solidarity and equality. The results show significant differences related to gender, urban or rural living and upper secondary program attended. There is also a positive correlation between solidarity and willingness to preserve nature.
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| 10. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Solidaritet och utbildning för hållbar utveckling : En studie av förväntningar på och förutsättningar för miljömoraliskt lärande i den svenska gymnasieskolan
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The comprehensive ambition of the present thesis was to acquire knowledge about expectations on and preconditions for environmental moral learning within the education for sustainable development (ESD) in the Swedish upper secondary school. The expectations on ESD were explored by examining the description of “sustainable development” in the curriculum, and the prerequisites were examined by analysing environmental attitudes, commitments, and actions of 18-year-old students. The thesis focuses in particular on attitudes to solidarity as a value that unites the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of sustainable development. The theoretical foundation is based on curriculum theory and learning theory, incorporating influences from pragmatic philosophy, while theories of environmental psychology were applied to explain commonalities in attitudes to altruistic and biospheric values. The thesis comprises four studies, and mixed methods were employed as methodological approach. The first study involved a discourse analysis, and aimed at clarifying the description of sustainable development in the curriculum, and to reveal what subject position(s) the discourse implies. The second study was a questionnaire, where statistical methods were used to analyse attitudes to solidarity, equality, and respect for nature. The third study was also a questionnaire, focusing more specifically on attitudes to different aspects of solidarity. The fourth study was an interview study, utilizing a thematic analysis in order to elucidate how students think about solidarity and the future, and how they have encountered the concepts of solidarity and future in teaching. The results disclosed that the expectations on ESD is characterized by an ecological modernization discourse, in which two subject positions are articulated, one scientific and one technical, the latter with expectations on students to be ethical agents. The quantitative studies in the present thesis corroborated previously found correlations between attitudes to altruistic and attitudes to biospheric values. The significant correlation between future orientation and solidarity unveiled by the present thesis constitutes however a pioneering result. The interview analyses imparted that students have experienced little moral reasoning in school with regard to sustainable development, and furthermore conveyed that the future dimension had basically been missing in the teaching they had encountered. The present thesis furthermore contributes methodologically and theoretically by the development of a new scale for appraising solidarity.
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