| 1. |
- Kramming, Kajsa, 1974-
(författare)
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Miljökollaps eller hållbar framtid? : Hur gymnasieungdomar uttrycker sig om miljöfrågor
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study investigates how young people in upper secondary school express them-selves about environmental issues. The aim of the study is to analyse how expres-sions about the environment can relate to policies of the concept of Education for Sustainable Development, ESD. The study put forward a view of environmental issues also being societal issues. Using a qualitative method of participatory model-ling, partakers creatively visualize their discussions in two workshop-assignments about either consumption or the future in the year 2050 in groups. Young peoples´ expressions about environmental issues can be described in accordance with two-parted ways of thinking about the environment and humanity, either as loosely or firmly connected. Not only do the two-parted ways of thinking apply to relation-ships between the environment and humanity, they are also used in describing a two-parted future trajectory towards either environmental collapse or sustainable futures. Moreover, ways of handling environmental issues are described as two-parted be-tween societal large-scale arrangements and individual efforts. Young people in the study express that they search for “right” things to do in order to reach a sustainable future. While not finding those prescribed solutions fulfilling or feasible either in education, or in society, feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness arise. Participants suggest there is one way to handle environmental issues and evade environmental collapse, which is to urgently turn negative trends into positive ones. Training young people in systemic and complicated ways of thinking open up for feelings of hope and may serve as empowerment in their comprehension of how they can live in the world today. The design, performance and discussions rendered by the study is first and foremost to be seen as a contribution to how young people in upper secondary school can be given time and space to participate in both cognitive and emotional meaning-making processes about environmental issues as societal issues.
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| 2. |
- Hofverberg, Hanna
(författare)
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Crafting Sustainable Development : Studies of Teaching and Learning Craft in Environmental and Sustainability Education
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of the thesis is to contribute with new and deepened knowledge about the teaching and learning of craft when the crafting activity is considered as environmental and sustainability education (ESE). To achieve this, three objectives have been formulated: to examine what constitutes a craft subject content relevant for ESE, to examine what influences the learning process when the crafting activity is considered as ESE, and to examine how the crafting material participates in the learning process when the crafting activity is considered as ESE. The three research objectives are addressed by four studies: one literature study (Paper I) and three case studies where the empirical data is constructed through observations (video recordings) of a remake project (Papers II and IV) and an embroidery project (Paper III) in the craft subject ‘educational sloyd’ in Sweden. The main theories that the thesis draws on are Tim Ingold’s theory of making as a practice of correspondence and John Dewey’s transactional approach to meaning-making. Several methods that acknowledge learning in action are used, which makes it possible to explore how the student–material relations emerge and how both humans and more-than-humans participate in the learning activity. The findings show that a craft activity, for example a remake project, can have different purposes and pedagogies, which produce different learning experiences and sustainability outcomes. Further, I identify and distinguish a process content from a product content, which deepens our understanding of what students learn when the crafting activity is considered as ESE. By focusing on how the student–material relations emerge in the learning process – with concepts that I use and develop such as correspondence, stories, and transactant – I empirically show how the crafting material not only participates with its materiality but also creates the embodied stories that students recognise when they encounter the crafting material in the crafting activity. How humans learn in socio-material relations and what consequences these have for ESE are two key issues that are further discussed when the crafting activity is considered as ESE.
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| 3. |
- Håkansson, Michael, 1967-
(författare)
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Politisk tendens, politiskt ögonblick och kreativitet : Studier av miljö- och hållbarhetsundervisning
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis takes its point of departure in the political dimension in Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE). In the research field different views exist – containing both similarities and differences – regarding what is meant by ‘the political’ in the context of educational practice. What do different authors, policymakers, practitioners etc. mean when they refer to ´the political´ within the context of ESE? The ambiguity that characterises the discussions on the political dimension of (environmental and sustainability) education can impede and blur both research and professional reflection. This can create confusion, particularly amongst teachers, and a clarification of ‘the political’ through an investigation of how it appears in educational practice is vital.The thesis contributes with an educational typology and an analytical model of political moments to identify how the political dimension may emerge in different ways in educational practices. As part of these models the thesis also contributes with two theoretical-analytical concepts – educative moment and creativity – to be used to further discuss how education can use the political to explore new values and new behaviours regarding environmental and sustainable concerns.The theoretical frames of the thesis are poststructural and pragmatic theories, foremost by Chantal Mouffe and John Dewey. The thesis is especially built on a pragmatist and anti-essentialist approach, which argues that we socially construct the meaning of right and wrong, and of what works better in our lives in problematic situations. The thesis has four purposes and the results are presented in four studies. The first purpose examines how Environmental Sustainability Education (ESE) research literature conceptualize the political dimension, and how these findings impact the political dimension as educational content in teaching and learning activities in ESE practice. The second purpose examines different situations in which the political can be handled and experienced in environmental and sustainability education practice. This purpose is dealt with in the second study and the result is a didactical typology called the political tendency. The third purpose is to examine the political and politics in teaching and learning activities, both cognitive and emotional, about antagonism, conflicts, inclusion and exclusion. This purpose is dealt with in the third study and the results are illustrated by empirical examples. The fourth purpose examines the idea of creativity in relation to the political dimension, i. e. where new values can emerge or evolve. These purpose is dealt with in study 2, 3 and 4 and the results are presented as two theoretical-analytical concepts: educative moments and creativity concerning the political dimension in ESE.My ambition is that this thesis will contribute to the discussion about how teaching and learning activities that include a political dimension in ESE can use the presented models to identify educational content of the political dimension, and to further understand how individuals create their relation to their social and physical surroundings. Another ambition is to contribute to philosophical and methodological discussions about the relation between the political dimension, meaning making and embodiment within environmental and sustainability education.
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| 4. |
- Nerdal, Kajsa, 1974-
(författare)
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Gymnasieelevers presentationer av relationer mellan miljö och människor – en studie om utbildning för hållbar utveckling
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study investigates how upper secondary school students constitute relations between the environment and humanity. The aim of the study is to analyse relations that emerge between and within the Earth´s major systems (humanity included) and how these relations are composed when students are faced with a fictional decision of consuming a pair of jeans. Using workshop as a data collection method, students creatively visualize their discussions through participatory modelling in groups. The results of the study are based on the analyses of the concluding presentations of the completed models.The results show difficulties in submitting relations between the three dimensions of the concept of sustainable development together with a dualistic worldview, indicating a lack of complexity in the presentations. Therefore, a gap can be identified between the empirical results and the aims of education for sustainable development (ESD) that, according to the Ministry of Education and Research, should be a part of Swedish upper secondary education. In addition, a gap between the steering documents for the Swedish upper secondary schools and the UNESCO guidelines on ESD is revealed, consisting of the latter more distinctly promoting systems thinking and embracing pluralism. Three national programmes are represented in the study; social science, science and economics. Differences between the three are established. Groups with a focus on social science present complexity to higher extent than groups on science orientation. Groups with a focus on economics present least complexity in their presentations.
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