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This research is concerned with how children's processes of imagination, situated in cultural and social practices, come into play when they invent, anticipate, and explore a problem that is important to them. To enhance our understanding of young children's learning and meaning-making related to science and sustainability, research that investigates children's use of imagination is valuable. The specific aim of this paper is to empirically scrutinize how children's imaginations emerge, develop, and impact their experiences in science. We approach imagination as a situated, open, and unscripted act that emerges within transactions. This empirical study was conducted in a Swedish preschool, and the data was collected 'in between' a science inquiry activity and lunchtime. We gathered specific video-sequences wherein the children, lived through the process of imagination, invented a problem together and produced something new. Our analysis showed that imagination has a great significance when children provide different solutions which may be useful in the future to sustainability-related problems. If the purpose of an educational experience in some way supports children's imaginative flow, then practicing an open, listening approach becomes vital. Thus, by encouraging children to explore their concerns and questions related to sustainability issues more thoroughly without incautious recommendations or suggestions from adults, the process of imagination might flourish.

Education is often argued as crucial to reverse development towards a more fair and sustainable world. This article uses a wide range of research and literature in the field of education for sustainable development, to discuss an educational, 'didactic', framework on areas in the intersection between science, technology and society. First, the introduction outlines an overview of the nature of the issue and its relevance. This is followed by a theoretical approach to education and learning that puts the democratic teaching processes at centre. Finally, based on this we present the framework, "Five didactic forms of participation", focusing on student participation in deliberation, agency, creativity, criticism and authenticity as well as recommendations for, research and further development of education in these areas. Demokrati för hållbar utvecklingAll didaktik och undervisning startar i det innehåll som ska behandlas. All undervisning utgår också ifrån att de elever som möter innehållet får genomleva en eller annan form av deltagande. Hur eleverna erbjudas att delta i undervisningen blir då centralt för vilka kunskaper de utvecklar. En väsentlig del av all utbildning och undervisning i hållbar utveckling är demokrati. I den här artikeln vill vi med stöd av filosofiska tankegångar och empiriska undersökningar påvisa vikten av att vrida det pågå-Iann Lundegård är docent i naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik vid Stockholms universitet. Iann's huvudsakliga forskningsintresse är pragmatisk utbildningsfilosofi i med fokus på gymnasieelevers deliberation och meningsskapande i utbildning för hållbar utveckling. Som lektor har Iann en rik erfarenhet av arbete med lärar-och forskarutbildning. Han har skrivit ett flertal läromedel och genomfört en lång rad uppdrag åt det svenska skolverket. Cecilia Caiman är forskare och lärarutbildare inom naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik vid Stockholms universitet. Cecilias forskningsintresse riktas främst mot yngre barns lärande i naturvetenskap med särskilt fokus på lärande för hållbar utveckling. Med hjälp av pragmatisk teori och didaktik handleder även Cecilia verksamma lärare och pedagoger i deras arbete med olika naturvetenskapliga projektarbeten. Vidare är Cecilia involverad i uppdrag för det svenska skolverket.

Cecilia Caiman är doktorand vid Institutionen för naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik vid Stockholms universitet. Hennes forskningsintresse är yngre barns meningsskapande och lärande i naturvetenskap och miljö och hållbarhet. Caiman arbetar även inom förskollärarutbildningen i Stockholm.Iann Lundegård är lektor vid Institutionen för naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik vid Stockholms universitet. Hans forskningsintressen berör framförallt elevers samtal om miljö och hållbar utveckling och ett utbildningsinnehåll som befinner sig i skärningspunkten mellan natur och samhälle. Lundegård är också intresserad av pragmatisk utbildningsfilosofi och hans forskning bidrar till metodutveckling på det området. CECILIA CAIMANMatematik och naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik (MND), Stockholms universitet, Sweden cecilia.caiman@mnd.su.se IANN LUNDEGÅRDMatematik och naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik (MND), Stockholms universitet, Sweden Iann.lundegard@mnd.su.se AbstractBiodiversity loss is becoming an increasingly alarming issue that has significance in the discussion about young children's learning in science. This article, based on a pragmatic perspective, analyses a group of children and teachers when exploring animals in a preschool project concerning biodiversity. It examines the ways in which children create meaning of the content, the order in which the content emerges, and what impact teachers have on how the process develops. Initially, the results reveal that the organisms' appearances and movements received morphological and physiological explanations. Further, the knowledge was gained profoundly in a manner which has similarities with ecological and evolutionary ways of explaining biological phenomena. The teachers' utterances were few, but significant, by raising productive questions in close relation to what the children anticipated they embraced a listening approach.

The aim of this study was to examine the role of aesthetic practice in elementary school and the consequences for children's meaning-making in science. More specifically, we intended to scrutinise what science learning emerges within the process, to target the consequences of adopting art practice in science class and to explore these two dimensions as a whole in order to better understand how children make meaning when exploring animals' ecology. The data, comprising audio recordings, photographs of children's drawings and field notes, were collected in one school which we visited on three occasions over a period of four consecutive days. The school is located in Sweden, and the children participating in the study were between 6 and 7 years old (Swedish grade 1). In this particular study, the children were involved in exploring animals' ecology. Data was analysed by means of practical epistemology analysis (PEA), taking its stance in Deweyan pragmatic philosophy on learning and meaningmaking. The results reveal that art practice was important for children's cognitive and aesthetic learning in science. The entanglement of science learning and art-in-the-making was shown to be of significance for broadening and deepening children's science repertoire. In addition, children's imagination and creativity was a vital part of their meaning-making when exploring a complex phenomenon, such as the spinneret, the Bspider-thread machine^. All along the process, the young learners, in transaction with the contextual features, developed agency meaning that the children owned the problems and developed action strategies through art and speech.