| 1. |
- Ariza, Marta Romero, et al.
(författare)
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Promoting Environmental Citizenship in Education : The Potential of the Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire to Measure Impact of Interventions
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI. - 2071-1050. ; 13:20, s. 1-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Policy documents across the globe call for citizen engagement to fight climate change emergencies and build more sustainable societies. They also recognize the key role of formal and non-formal education in preparing citizens to address those challenges. However, there is a need to identify appropriate instruments to evaluate the impact of educational interventions on people's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, which are essential components of the action competence required to become environmental citizens and agents of change. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential of the Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire (SCQ) to evaluate different educational interventions aimed at increasing environmental citizenship. It presents three sub-studies from Spain, Belgium, and Sweden using the SCQ with varying contexts, duration, and target groups yet sharing common pedagogical features in the interventions. Pre-intervention scores indicate a common pattern of high sustainability knowingness, moderate sustainability attitudes, and lower sustainability behaviors in the three dimensions (environmental, social and economic) of sustainability consciousness, and a positive impact on sustainability behavior after the intervention. These findings are especially significant when compared to previous studies. We therefore conclude that the SCQ is useful for detecting the effects of learning interventions of varying designs and contexts that address environmental citizenship. The results are discussed in terms of key pedagogical features of the educational interventions, and the appropriateness and sensitivity of the instrument in detecting changes in the intended direction. It concludes with implications for research and practice and suggestions for future lines of work.
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| 2. |
- Berglund, Teresa, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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A cross-cultural comparative study of sustainability consciousness between students in Taiwan and Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environment, Development and Sustainability. - : Springer. - 1387-585X .- 1573-2975. ; 22:7, s. 6287-6313
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Education for sustainable development (ESD) is promoted as one important component in the endeavor toward sustainable development. Goal 4 in the Sustainable Development Goals (UN in Sustainable development goals—17 goals to transform our world, 2017) in particular targets the role of ESD in this respect. The importance of cultural specificity in ESD is emphasized in numerous international policy documents, but there are few cross-cultural studies that focus on the broad context of sustainable development and ESD. The current study investigates the sustainability consciousness of grade 12 students (age 18–19) in Taiwan (N = 617) and Sweden (N = 583) and discusses the implications for ESD policy and practice. The findings indicate that significant differences exist between the two samples, both with respect to their sustainability consciousness and within the three sub-constructs of knowingness, attitudes and self-reported behaviors. The differences are considered in light of the cultural value orientations of the East Asian and Western European regions. Implications for ESD are discussed from the perspective of cultural specificity.
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| 3. |
- Berglund, Teresa, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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ESD-facilitators’ conditions and functions as sustainability change agents
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Proposal information This study seeks to investigate the experiences of teachers working as ESD-facilitators within a whole school approach project designed to implement education for sustainable development (ESD) in their schools. The program activities included school leaders, teachers, and ESD- facilitators. During a period of three school years, five schools in a municipality in Sweden took part in order to integrate ESD in their organization and teaching practice. The ESD-facilitators took part in the design of the development process, workshop activities and content, and facilitated each school’s internal work. This study aims to identify in what ways ESD-facilitators function as sustainability change agents and how contextual factors might contribute to success or form hindrances in their work.The project was designed based on teachers’ learning and collaborative and reflexive work (Desimone, 2009). The purpose was to direct the development work of the schools towards a whole school approach (Mogren et al. 2019), meaning that ESD is fully integrated in the local curriculum. The main areas of development were to increase interdisciplinary teaching with focus on ESD as holistic pedagogical idea, and that ESD should permeate the work in all levels of the internal and external organization of the school (Sund & Lysgaard, 2013), implying that the different actors in the school and its societal context (students, teachers, school leaders and the outer society) work towards sustainability (Mogren et al., 2019). An additional aim was to integrate pluralistic approaches in the teachers’ classroom practice.The project included two project leaders, who also participated as researchers in the project. Together with the school leaders and ESD-facilitators, they took a leading role in the development of the project, which included joint seminars, and meetings between project leaders and a) school leaders (across schools), b) school leaders and facilitators (within schools), and c) facilitators (across schools). The ESD-facilitators were intended to function as a link between school leader, project leaders and the teaching staff. They were supposed to support the teacher work teams in their discussions and implementation work with transforming ESD principles into practice.A recent study by Van Poeck et al. (2017) explored different change agent roles by mapping the different ways in which change agents actively contribute to sustainability. In relation to different roles, various types of learning is being made possible. The authors identified four types of change agents that position themselves in different ways along the two axes of personal detachment vs. personal involvement, and instrumental vs. open-ended approaches (to change and learning). This study investigates the views and practices of the ESD-facilitators in relation to these two dimensions. Thus, different change agent positions may be taken.The ESD-facilitators have a middle leading role in their schools, which means that they enact leading practices from a position in between the teaching staff and the school leader (Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2015). There is limited research focusing on practitioners who facilitate processes of professional development (Perry & Boylan, 2018). Thus, little is known about how facilitators, and particularly those who facilitate a whole school approach to ESD, could be supported to carry out their role and tasks in an effective way, and what adequate conditions and arrangements for this might be. Taken together, this implies a gap in current knowledge about ESD implementation strategies, which this study aims to help bridging.The research questions guiding the research are twofold: in the ESD-facilitators’ descriptions of their roles, functions and practices: What kinds of sustainability change agent roles can be identified?What contextual factors are experienced as successful and/or hindering?Methodology or MethodsAfter the project ended, interviews were carried out between November 2020 and April 2021 with seven ESD-facilitators from five different schools. Two of the schools had appointed two facilitators, who either focused on different programs (in upper secondary school) or on different levels in compulsory school (primary or secondary level).The interviews followed a semi-structured approach (Bryman, 2018) and included pre-defined areas concerning the ESD-facilitators’ view on: a) the long term purposes and goals of the project, b) in what ways they viewed their role in the development work in their school, and c) their experiences of factors that were of central importance in order for them to be able to perform their task effectively. Their responses were followed up by the interviewer in a flexible manner.The analysis of data followed a multi-step process. The three parts above constitute the basis for the first step of the analysis, which was performed inductively and followed a broad approach to data driven thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The next step was analyzed deductively, based on the typology of sustainability change agents by Van Poeck et al. (2017). In this step, the utterances connected to the ESD-facilitators’ role in the development work, together with utterances concerning their view of long-term purposes and goals of the project, were analyzed in relation to the four different types of sustainability change agents in the typology. The analysis concerning their role focused mainly on the two dimensions identified as open-ended or instrumental, and personal detachment vs. -involvement. Utterances were identified that could be associated with a specific role description under the four ideal types of change agents. Moreover, utterances of how they viewed the purpose and goal of the ESD development work were analyzed, mainly connected to how different types of change agents may enable different forms of learning (Van Poeck et al., 2017). However, research on middle leading practices as well as research of sustainability change agents emphasizes that roles and practices should be interpreted in relation to the context they are enacted within (Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2015; Van Poeck et al., 2017). Therefore, the analysis also focused on identifying how different contextual factors affect and enable the roles and practices of the ESD-facilitators. Thus, the final step is to look for relationships between expressed purposes and goals, roles, and what factors are experienced as promoting and/or hindering their role and mission.Findings and conclusions The analysis indicates that teachers struggle with transforming ESD theory into teaching practice. The school culture has great impact on the readiness of teacher teams to engage in transformation of their teaching. The ESD-facilitator’ functions and practices are affected by the school culture and whether teacher teams are well functioning or not in terms of collaborative work.All the four roles in the typology (Van Poeck et al., 2017) were identified in their expressions, and different contextual factors were emphasized as either promoting or hindering their functions. Clear support and leadership from the school leader and the presence of a well-defined long term goal was important to provide direction and legitimize the ESD-facilitator role in schools where a broad anchoring of ESD among the staff was missing. Moreover, roles and processes became more open-ended in schools where there was room for collaborative work and reflexive discussions. In those schools where the culture encouraged collaborative work and shared agency, the ESD-facilitators pointed out their functions in mediating the process in terms of initiator, facilitator, mobilizer and/or awareness raiser (ibid.). When there was little space for collaborative work, or the culture was hindering it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach became more instrumental and it became harder to create agency and integrate ESD as a holistic pedagogical idea (see Mogren et al. 2019) among the community of teachers. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of experts, councellors, managers, solution providers and exemplars (Ibid.).A challenge was how to transform ESD theories, which the facilitators expressed as abstract and far from everyday teaching, into concrete practice. In the school where a collaborative culture was present, a way to solve this was to start doing by daring to explore new ways of teaching, and then evaluate in a collaborative, open and reflexive mannerReferencesBraun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.Bryman, A. (2018). Samhällsvetenskapliga metoder.(tredje upplagan). Liber.Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational researcher, 38(3), 181-199.Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2015). Leading practice development: voices from the middle, Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 508-526, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2014.924985Mogren, A., Gericke, N., & Scherp, H.-Å. (2019). Whole school approaches to education for sustainable development: a model that links to school improvement. Environmental Education Research, 25(4), 508-531.Perry, E., & Boylan, M. (2018). Developing the developers: supporting and researching the learning of professional development facilitators. Professional development in education, 44(2), 254-271.Sund, P., & Lysgaard, J. G. (2013). Reclaim “education” in environmental and sustainability education research. Sustainability, 5(4), 1598-1616.Van Poeck, K., Læssøe, J., & Block, T. (2017). An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: Mapping a moving and intertwined landscape. Ecology and Society, 22(2).
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Berglund, Teresa, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainability change agents in whole school approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD).
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates the experiences of teachers working as ESD-facilitators in a whole school approach project designed to implement education for sustainable development (ESD). The project included ESD-facilitators, teachers, and school leaders. The ESD-facilitators took part in designing joint seminars and workshop activities, and facilitated each school’s internal work. This study aims to contribute with knowledge concerning in what ways ESD-facilitators function as change agents in development processes and how their work can be supported. Different types of sustainability change agents who position themselves differently along the two dimensions of personal detachment vs. personal involvement, and instrumental vs. open-ended approaches (to change and learning) have been identified in previous research (Van Poeck et al., 2017). This study investigates the views and practices of ESD-facilitators in relation to these two dimensions, and focuses on what sustainability change agent functions are enacted, and what contextual factors they experience as successful and/or hindering in their work. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven ESD-facilitators from five schools. Focus areas were their views on: a) the long term goals of the project, b) their role in the internal development work, and c) factors of central importance for their ability to perform their task effectively. The findings indicate that roles and processes become more open-ended in schools where there is room for collaborative and reflexive work. In schools where the culture encourages shared agency, the ESD-facilitators point to their functions in mediating the process in terms of mobilizer, facilitator, initiator, and/or awareness raiser (Ibid.). When there is little room for collaborative work, or the culture impedes it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach become more instrumental and it is harder to integrate ESD and create agency. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of managers, solution providers, experts, exemplars and councellors (Ibid.).
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| 7. |
- Boeve-de Pauw, Jelle, et al.
(författare)
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Teachers' ESD self-efficacy and practices : a longitudinal study on the impact of teacher professional development
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Education Research. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1350-4622 .- 1469-5871. ; 28:6, s. 867-885
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This longitudinal quantitative study investigated teachers' development of self-efficacy and teaching practices relating to education for sustainable development (ESD) in four compulsory schools in a Swedish municipality. The teachers participated in a professional development program over three school years designed to support them in implementing ESD. The program was based on five seminars that supported teachers to discuss and experiment with the principles, complexities and challenges of ESD. Data was collected at five different time points strategically planned at key moments in the program, using a questionnaire including scales measuring teachers' self-efficacy for ESD and their self-reported ESD practices. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to follow the teachers evolution across a time span of about three years. Results show that the teachers' self-efficacy was boosted early in the program, but fell back to initial levels after confrontation with practice. Through further experimentation in practice, the teachers' self-efficacy increased back to the initial level toward the end of the program. Furthermore, teachers started self-reporting ESD practices as the program progressed, and the correlation between self-efficacy for ESD and ESD practices grew. These results highlight the importance of providing teachers with long-term opportunities for bringing ESD into their own educational practice. The results also caution against using self-efficacy as an outcome measure in short-term professionalization initiatives.
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| 8. |
- Boeve-de Pauw, Jelle, et al.
(författare)
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Teachers' ESD self-efficacy and practices : A longitudinal study on the impact of teacher professional development
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This longitudinal quantitative study investigated teachers’ development of self-efficacy andteaching practices relating to education for sustainable development (ESD) in four compulsory schools in a Swedish municipality. The teachers participated in a professional development program over three school years designed to support them in implementing ESD. The program was based on five seminars that supported teachers to locally discuss and experiment with the principles, complexities and challenges of ESD. Data was collected at five different time points using a questionnaire including scales measuring teachers’ self-efficacy for ESD and their self-reported ESD practices. Results show that the teachers’ self-efficacy was boosted early in the program, but it fell back to initial low levels after confrontation with practice. Through further experimentation in their own practices, the teachers’ self-efficacy for ESD increased back to the initial level toward the end of the program. Furthermore, teachers started self-reporting actual implementation of ESD practices as the program progressed, and the correlation between teachers’ self-efficacy for ESD and self-reported ESD practices grew. These results highlight the importance of providing teachers with long-term opportunities for bringing ESD into their own educational practice. The results also caution against using self-efficacy as an outcome measure in short-term professionalization initiatives.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Forssten Seiser, Anette, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Developing School Leading Guidelines : Facilitating a Whole School Approach to Education for Sustainable Development
- 2023
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Ingår i: Symposium title: Leadership agency and functions in implementation processes towards whole school approaches to education for sustainable development in primary and secondary schools.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this multidisciplinary study we have explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD), employing a whole school approach (WSA). School leading and school improvement are both established research fields within leading and development; therefore, it was wise to use the knowledge that is available within these two fields on how to lead and implement improvements in school organizations. A multidisciplinary approach contributes through knowledge regarding the implementation of socially and educationally sustainable qualities. A WSA involves all parts of the school organization contributes to a comprehensive perspective by emphasizing connections between school leading, local school organizations, and ESD implementation. Finally, a practice-informed approach provides valuable insights by investigating principals’ leading and its preconditions in terms of the practice architectures enabling or constraining the realization of a WSA to ESD. Practice architectures exist in a dialectical relationship with the practices that they prefigure, in that they both constitute and are constituted by practice. Undertaking this work required an examination of what happened when ESD was implemented in local school over a period of time. In order to do this, we returned to the five schools in a municipality that had initiated an ESD project in 2016, interviewing principals in 2018 and then again in 2020. The interviews explored whether (or not) the local preconditions had developed into practice architectures that facilitated a WSA to ESD. Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization.
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| 13. |
- Forssten Seiser, Anette, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Education Research. - : Routledge. - 1350-4622 .- 1469-5871. ; 29:5, s. 783-805
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD) in five Swedish schools employing a whole school approach (WSA). A follow-up study design was used, in which schools that had initiated an ESD project in 2016 were subsequently visited twice for interviews with principals during the project and after it was finalized. The theory of practice architectures in combination with the concept of school improvement capacity was used as the theoretical framework in the analysis. The study showed how school leading should be about enhancing the local school’s capacity to improve. It also showed how specific practice architectures prefigured a WSA to ESD and how school leading in this context was about arranging—or orchestrating—practice architectures in ways that enabled such an approach. The issues of time and endurance were pivotal.Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. The limitations and suggestions for further research are also discussed.
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Gericke, Niklas, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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How to instituitionalize a whole school approach to ESD
- 2024
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Ingår i: Whole school approaches to sustanibility. - : Springer. - 9783031561719 - 9783031561726 - 9783031561740 ; , s. 57-69
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The theoretical framework and empirical examples presented in this chapter stem from school improvement research and can be used by schools that want to work practically according to a whole school approach (WSA) toward education for sustainable development (ESD) through policymakers who want to establish guidelines enabling the implementation of WSA to ESD and through researchers who want to investigate and analyze the process of institutionalizing WSA to ESD.
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| 19. |
- Gericke, Niklas, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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How to Institutionalize a Whole School Approach to ESD
- 2024
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Ingår i: Whole School Approaches to Sustainability. - : Springer. - 9783031561719 - 9783031561726 ; , s. 57-69
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The literature on whole school approach (WSA) to education for sustainable development (ESD) has mainly been practice-based, lacking empirical and theoretical grounding. Moreover, the existing literature shows that it is difficult to accomplish WSA to ESD. This chapter addresses these issues by grounding WSA to ESD in applied methods and theories from the field of school improvement research and exemplifying with empirical findings of how to build the capacity to reform a local school in line with WSA to ESD. Four identified themes for developing a local school’s capacity are discussed: improvement history of the school, infrastructure of the school organization, improvement processes, and improvement roles. The chapter takes a novel process-oriented perspective and discusses the school improvement process longitudinally from initiation via implementation to reach institutionalization of WSA to ESD. The main conclusion is that it may take 5–8 years to institutionalize WSA to ESD.
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| 22. |
- Gericke, Niklas, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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The effect of education for sustainable development in Swedish schools
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Perhaps the most important issue in our time is how to sustain our planet’s resources, while developing wealth and well-being for a growing population. This monumental task has been defined in the concept of sustainable development (SD). During the last few decades the world communities have agreed upon addressing SD through international treaties. As a response Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been launched as an answer to cope with sustainability. In the past it has been suggested that education through improved knowledge levels and/or changed values would change people’s behavior in a more environmental friendly way. These suggestions have been criticized since sustainable problems often are ‘wicked’, i.e. problems that are difficult or solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements based on what perspectives you prioritize. Instead transformative perspectives on ESD has been propagated the last decades suggesting that education should foster ‘critical thinkers’ and ‘action competence’ so that the future generation can decided upon and take action in an insightful way to these wicked problems. However, empirical studies are a missing link in the discourse around transformative ESD approaches, where decisions and implementation strategies are heavily based on policy recommendations and gut feelings by practitioners. We used data from 2413 students in grades 6, 9, and 12 from 51 schools across Sweden to study the effectiveness of ESD. In line with the current debate on the definition of ESD, we quantified the extent to which teaching can be labeled as holistic and/or pluralistic. Through a series of descriptive analyses and the estimation of structural equation models, our results indicate that ESD can indeed impact on student outcomes in terms of their sustainability consciousness. The results of this study reveal the key role ESD plays in addressing SD, paving the way for a more sustainable future.
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Gericke, Niklas, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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The Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire : The theoretical development and empirical validation of an evaluation instrument for stakeholders working with sustainable development
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainable Development. - Hoboken, N. J., USA : Wiley. - 0968-0802 .- 1099-1719. ; 27:1, s. 35-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, the concept of sustainability consciousness, an individual's experience and awareness of sustainable development, is introduced. Based on UNESCO's definition of sustainable development, a sustainability consciousness questionnaire (SCQ) is theoretically and empirically developed. Using the data of 638 respondents from Sweden aged 18-19 years old, the scale is developed in two versions. The long version (SCQ-L) can be used to measure individuals' environmental, social and economic knowingness, attitudes and behaviour (nine valid and reliable subscales), in addition to the second order constructs of sustainability knowingness, sustainability attitudes and sustainability behaviour, as well as the third order construct, sustainability consciousness. For the short version (SCQ-S) 27 items were identified that can be used to measure the second and third order constructs. Both versions of the scale present excellent psychometric quality. Possible applications of the questionnaire instruments in the context of evaluation of sustainability policies, practices and stakeholder engagement are discussed.
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| 25. |
- Lampert, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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A research instrument to monitor people's competence to sustain insect biodiversity : the Self-Perceived Action Competence for Insect Conservation scale (SPACIC)
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Science Education, Part B Communication and Public Engagement. - : Routledge. - 2154-8455 .- 2154-8463.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The loss of insect biodiversity is a major global sustainability issue that is highly relevant to science education. Science education can support and develop learners' competence to take actions to sustain insect biodiversity and empower learners to deal actively with this sustainability issue. However, we currently lack an instrument to assess these aspects of individual competence. This paper aims to fill this gap by introducing the Self-Perceived Action Competence for Insect Conservation scale (SPACIC). This scale allows for investigating learners' action competence by focusing on self-perceived knowledge, confidence, and willingness to take insect conservation actions. The scale is grounded in theory and face-validated by external experts. The piloting with 180 secondary school students showed a good quality of the instrument in terms of reliability and validity, as the reliability analyses and confirmatory factor analysis show. The SPACIC scale is applicable to various formal and informal educational settings. Applying the scale can yield information about the effects of educational approaches and inform learners, educators, and researchers about changes in self-perceived competence. In this way, the SPACIC scale can contribute to the evaluation and design of educational approaches and eventually boost learners' development into becoming active environmental citizens.
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