Vår stad 2030 och efterföljande rådslag : om kapacitet för utbildning och delaktighet

• This report is the result of an external assessment based on qualitative interviews with 5 city planners, 9 teachers and 22 pupils participating in the project in 2015 and 2016.The empirical evidence indicate an appreciated project where city planners highlight the ability to reach out to young city dwellers, usually a difficult group to engage in city planning; teachers that stress the projects concrete but at the same time flexible design as a valuable resource in their present and future work; least but not last the pupils talk about the project as something that was real which in turn spurred their commitment to reach for quality in their work. At the end of the project these pupils expressed increased knowledge and engagement in sustainable development. Especially the social dimensions and the local perspective were seen as fresh and inspiring. At the same time teachers highlighted the solid frame of the project giving them more time to cooperate with each other and attend to supervise the pupils along the way.The assessment also finds that the different time-scales that guide the practices of city planners’, teachers’ and pupils’ pose a challenge for cooperation between the groups, as they work together for the first time. Here teachers has to become brokers between the longer time-horizons of the city planners and the much shorter time-horizon providing meaning to the pupils. Another obstacle is the institutional structures of the education system. Firstly it concerns the information infrastructure. The interviews show that the invitation reached teachers via informal channels and thus only reached teachers that was already known to be engaged in education for sustainable development. Secondly, and especially at the Gymnasium level, the organisation around courses prevented interdisciplinary approaches to education for sustainable development.Looking ahead the assessment finds a consensus among the participants that it has been a valuable experience. That all participating city planners and teachers seek for ways to repeat the project in one way or the other might be the best evidence for the projects quality. The results presented in this report are shortly framed and discussed in relation with some scientific studies concerned with learning, relevance and function of education and connections between education and societal development. The discussions points out the importance of social inclusion, personal fulfilment and education for all as capacities for urban planning and transformative approaches in societal and educational development.As the project moves on to new cities the assessment points to a few possible options for development. It could be valuable to develop strategies for reaching a broader range of teachers, ways to improve administrative support within the institutional structures of the participating schools. Thirdly, one way to strengthen the connection between the pupils increased interest and broader socio-political discussion could be to invite political and non-governmental organisations to participate either at the Rådslag* or in the preparations for it. This might be valuable since the engagement in sustainability issues has mainly been channelled into action at the individual level, mainly to consumption. Many participants have also asked for support for upcoming versions of Vår stad 2030. Developing support for the difficult step that would take Vår stad 2030 from an event to a part of the ordinary practices could perhaps be a valuable step to take in further development.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

social sciences

Educational sciences

Didactics

Samhällsvetenskap

Utbildningsvetenskap

Didaktik

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