Moral impasses in sustainability education? Empirical results from school geography in Austria and Germany

Abstract

The expert-driven and normative character of sustainability education aims to promote societal transformation and global change. While some authors underline the ethical claims of education, others have criticized that there is a problematic tendency to prescribe certain actions beyond ethical education. The article aims to provide an empirical contribution, including students' and teachers' perspectives, and geography textbooks, to the debate. Based on the results of an empirical study with 1001 secondary school students in Austria and Germany, we discuss the "ethical turn" and the moral code in sustainability education. The questionnaires are completed with students' drawings, qualitative interviews with geography teachers and an analysis of geography textbooks. We argue that most students have a precise idea what sustainability and sustainable behavior means, but they harbor right-wrong binary perceptions of sustainable lifestyles. Many students lack knowledge of the interdependence of consumption and production networks, which impedes the understanding of complex sustainability patterns. Therefore, we recommend pluralistic and interconnected perspectives in sustainability, in the frame of school geography. A more democratic classroom contributes to develop an own moral compass. Additionally, passion and participatory approaches can help students reflect on their affective relationships with consumer goods and consider alternative consumption-production paradigms.

Sustainable food choices? A study of students’ actions in a home and consumer studies classroom

“…Parinder (2012) discovered that young people are knowledgeable about the health aspects of food, but lack deeper insights into environmental issues and climate change in relation to food choices. This is an interesting result compared to Kowasch and Lippe (2019) study, which shows that many students lack knowledge about the interdependence between consumption and production, i.e. that they do not understand how these different networks are connected.…”

“…When these different aspects are looked at as a whole, the implication is that aesthetic qualities need to be taken into consideration in teaching. Also, as Kowasch and Lippe (2019) argue, embodied experience and learning with all senses could help the students to develop critical thinking, for example by questioning how production, marketing and taste of food are interconnected.…”

“…that they do not understand how these different networks are connected. Kowasch and Lippe (2019) further argue that this makes it harder for students to understand the complex patterns of sustainability.…”

Just community approach to character education: school change or student change?

“…It also stimulate moral development at a higher stage of childhood. Childrens, especially adolescents are more sensitive to moral issues such as security, justice, honesty, tolerance, and providing space for expressing moral feelings (Kowasch & Lippe, 2019).…”

“…A sense of community is an emotional bond between people which leads to sharing some basics and ensure their needs are met. It is perceived as an individual feeling that it is part of a larger group structure, its community (Sarason, 1974) (Kowasch & Lippe, 2019).…”