We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
What and why in teaching about sustainability
Summary
This paper is not about microplastics; it is a science education study examining how Swedish high school teachers select and justify content when teaching sustainable development, using a pedagogical content knowledge framework.
Education has responded to global Sustainable Development (SD) goals by drawing on a range of issue-related, context-based, and cross-curricular approaches to teaching SD. This paper aims to examine how teachers describe the content in SD and how they justify this content concerning their teaching practice. The Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework, with its reflective tool Content Representation (CoRe), was used in combination with semi-structured interviews to capture 18 Swedish upper-secondary science teachers’ reflections. The results indicate four themes of content that the teachers emphasise: energy and global warming, ecosystem services and biodiversity, presence of harmful substances and materials in nature, and imbalance of natural substances in nature. The teachers justified these content themes in terms of the importance of students’ gaining different perspectives (local, global, ecological, social, and economic), belief in the future, action competence, and general scientific education. The paper contributes to sustainability education research, as it focuses on teaching sustainability in the light of the PCK framework. Also, it can support and inspire teachers when they decide what content to include when teaching SD.
Sign in to start a discussion.
More Papers Like This
Science Studies teachers’ selection of content when teaching for Sustainable Development
This paper is not about microplastics; it investigates how Swedish Science Studies teachers select content when teaching for Sustainable Development, finding that most teachers struggle to take a truly holistic approach that integrates social, economic, and environmental perspectives. The study is an education research paper with no relevance to microplastic science.
Do future teachers’ sustainability commitments really relate to action-oriented educational approaches?
Researchers analyzed educational proposals designed by 130 future secondary school teachers addressing the socioecological problem of microplastic pollution, examining the relationship between teachers' own sustainability perceptions and their selection of action-oriented educational approaches through mixed qualitative and quantitative methods.
High School Sustainable and Green Chemistry: Historical–Epistemological and Pedagogical Considerations
Not relevant to microplastics — this is a chemistry education paper discussing how to better integrate sustainable and green chemistry into high school curricula, tracing the history of the Science, Technology, and Society movement and advocating for systems thinking approaches.
Sustainable Development Issues in Chemistry Learning as Educational for Sustainable Development Implementation: A Systematic Literature Review
This systematic literature review synthesized research on integrating sustainable development issues into chemistry education. While not directly about microplastics, it identified microplastic pollution as one of the sustainability topics being incorporated into chemistry curricula to help students understand real-world environmental challenges.
What are the valuable lessons from global research on environmental literacy in the last two decades? A systematic literature review
This paper is not about microplastics; it is a systematic literature review of global research on environmental literacy in education over the past two decades, analyzing publication trends and teaching approaches.