Sustainability is internationally often emphasized as an essential aim of higher education, but more as a principle than on the practical level. This is also obvious in the academic education of primary teachers in Finland. Therefore, it is a great challenge for Finnish teachers to include sustainability in their teaching and everyday life in schools. The aim of this article is to critically analyze why the implementation of sustainability in teacher education is so intricate and to discuss possible solutions with Finland-a country highly valued for its education-as an example. The article reports outcomes from educational policy documents and research on educational, philosophical, scientific and social aspects of sustainability, including evaluation of how sustainability has been implemented in schools and at universities, especially among teacher educators. In addition, the article builds on analyses of comprehensive university strategies and primary school teacher education programs. We found these reasons for the ignoring of sustainability in the Finnish teacher education: sustainability is in conflict with overall trends in society and politics, teacher education takes place at universities and is based on separate academic disciplines. Sustainability is also intricate because it is strongly connected to ecological literacy and it is value dependent. Universities need to overcome these obstacles and become forerunners in the sustainability process.
Social change requires new educational planning and sustainable teaching methods. Shaping an environment of care with animals as a part of the daily school life may produce such a change. In this article, we present a transdisciplinary study with the aim of exploring whether raising chickens in a classroom could promote learning, especially sustainability learning, and how. The study employs an ethnographic approach and we have analyzed the data according to interaction analysis. We collected the data in a culturally-diverse Finnish primary school class during May 2018. The data comprise field notes, videos and photographs from indoor and outdoor school activities; interviews and discussions with teachers and students; and, texts and artifacts that were made by students. The results show that having chickens in the classroom not only improved the students' learning of biology, but also enhanced many other activities. The chicken project became part of a complex learning culture that met several of the aims of the curriculum and in many ways reached beyond the aim of merely learning science. The project became a natural part of sustainability education and promoted the acquisition of knowledge and skills in relation to the ecological and social dimensions of sustainability.any structural obstacles to health, influence, competence, impartiality, or meaning making. The crucial elements that should be maintained in a socially sustainable context are trust, common meaning, diversity, capacity for learning, and capacity for self-organization. Even if these criteria are not especially worked out for schools, they are still applicable in a school context. 'Learning as meaning making' involves identities and emotions and emphasizes that when learning, people try to make sense of the situation with its frame, objects, and relationships based on experiences and cultural resources [6].According to Gadotti [7], sustainability means that people live in harmony with each other and the environment; a crucial goal, therefore, is that there should be harmony among the differences [7]. The social dimension of sustainability supports equality in culturally-diverse settings. Among many other important questions, sustainability education must deal with inequality and power issues [1] and it should recognize challenges on ethical, cognitive, and practical levels [3]. Based on empirical research, Green and Summerwille [8] distinguish four meta-level categories through which they understand the essential elements of sustainability education:
Th is article discusses the way humans value nature, with a focus on the way they value nature aesthetically. Of particular interest are the values of children and adolescents and the role of aesthetics in scientifi c studies. Th e discussion is based on philosophical writings, especially aesthetic sources, and current environmental education empirical research. Our aim is to show the necessity the science lessons have of an unambiguous aesthetic dimension. With fl exible teaching methods that partly take place outdoor, the students' own values and aesthetic experiences become a prompting starting point for understanding humankind's role in nature.Nyckelord Naturundervisning, estetik, miljöestetik, värderingar, naturvärde, naturvetenskap, utomhusundervisning, estetisk erfarenhet, estetisk upplevelse Inledning Naturvetenskapen har sedan länge haft en stark ställning inom västerländsk kultur och tilltron till naturvetenskaplig "sanning" är stor. På alla skolstadier, även i förskolan, lär barn och ungdomar sig naturvetenskapligt tänkande och naturvetenskapliga metoder. Vid sidan om naturvetenskapen har också miljömedvetenhet och förståelse för hållbar utveckling blivit en viktig kanon i skolutbildningen. Det har också gjort att naturundervisningen utvidgats och själva begreppet natur har dolts bakom nya mer trendiga begrepp, som är nog så nöd-vändiga, men som också lätt skapar förvirring. Till sådana begrepp kan räknas miljö, där naturen ryms under den del som går under namnet naturmiljö. Ett annat begrepp är håll-bar utveckling eller med en annan nyans hållbarhet, där det som berör naturen inkluderas i den ekologiska hållbarheten. Ett tredje komplicerat begrepp är biodiversitet som handlar om naturens mångfald på genetisk, art-och ekosystemnivå. Då redan begreppet natur är diff ust och svårt att enhetligt tolka, så är det inte nödvändigtvis lättare när begreppen blir fl er. Det är inte heller alltid så lätt att dra gränsen för vad som hör till undervisning i natur-39 Wolff & Sjöblom: Det är inte enbart frågan om nomenklatur vetenskap och vad som hör till andra ämnesområden. Hållbarhets-och miljvårdsfrågor är överlappande och hör till fl era ämnen.För att människan ska kunna värna om naturen behövs naturvetenskapligt kunnande och för att kunna skydda biodiversiteten krävs kännedom om systematik och taxonomi, men även förståelse av hur natur och naturvetenskap hör samman med samhället i övrigt, såsom politiska angelägenheter och humanitära frågor. Förutom kunskap behövs också praktiska färdigheter, handlingsberedskap och vilja, för att inte tala om sensibilitet. Såväl kunskaper som färdigheter baserar sig dessutom på värderingar, det vill säga hur lärare och elever ser på naturen rent värdemässigt. Även läroplanen betonar specifi ka värden, och utvärderingar av skolsystem gynnar i allmänhet kognitiva mål. Detta är ett generellt problem i många länder och det syns både i nationella utvärderingar 1 och i internationella jäm-förelser såsom PISA-undersökningarna. 2 Även läromedel fokuserar ofta på faktakunsk...
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