Mapping Education for Sustainability in the Nordic Countries

Responding to Global Challenges through Education: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable, and Pro-Environmental Education in Nordic Teacher Education Curricula

“…A critical distinction has been made between education for sustainable development (ESD) and sustainability education (SE). ESD is defined as education that includes first and possibly second order changes, where SE is more radical and includes third order changes [40,41]. First order changes and learning take place within accepted frameworks, leaving basic values unexamined and unchanged.…”

“…Second order changes involve critically reflective learning, where assumptions about the world are challenged. Third order changes are deconstructive and reconstructive, involving a deep awareness of versatile worldviews and ways of doing things, encouraging radicality and action [40,41]. ESD may be seen as a necessary journey towards SE, and entrepreneurship education (EE) could be a part of constructive steps towards SE.…”

“…A comprehensive Nordic report on ESD maps education for sustainability in the Nordic countries, scrutinizing laws, regulations, national curricula, curricula of teacher education institutions, research, and reports in pre-, primary, and secondary education [40]. The report shows that the word sustainability is not mentioned once in the actual law on educational acts in the Nordic countries.…”

“…Sustainability is one of the core values of the Finnish national core curriculum for basic education, where it is mentioned almost 200 times. According to the Jónsson report [40], ESD has been present in the Swedish national curricula since 1994 and was written into law in the Higher Education Act of 2006. The report, however, presents a somewhat confusing picture.…”

“…Though 'sustainability' or variants appear almost 200 times in the Finnish national core curriculum, "the incorporation of sustainability as an educational aim or subject is often superficial" (p. 64). The authors of the report conclude that human existence has become less sustainable, and that conventional education is part of the problem and needs to be drastically redesigned [40].…”