Storytelling as an Educational Tool in Sustainable Education

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, a multidisciplinary framework is structured to enable the formation of a shared understanding of the need to combine education for sustainability, traditional knowledge, transformative learning, systems thinking, and storytelling. The paper summarizes results from some fairly new studies on sustainability implementation in education, recognizes problems, and provides alternative suggestions on how to address problems that prevent the integration of sustainability in education. An increase in ecological illiteracy in society and lost contact with nature seem to occur within the now-growing generation. In research literature, it is largely agreed that systems thinking needs to be developed in order to understand the concept of sustainability. Reviewing research in the field, systems dynamics, simulations, and case studies are highlighted as possible pedagogical tools to emerge in the understanding of sustainability. However, do we still only preform information transformation? To transform both education and society, transformative learning must be adopted. This paper would like to emphasize the capacity of storytelling to make sustainability more easily accessible. Storytelling as a pedagogical tool for learning sustainability is still a bit overshadowed, but the idea of sustainability can be traced far back in aboriginal cultures, where storytelling has been used to transfer traditional knowledge from one generation to the next.

How Can Stories in Primary Education Support Sustainable Development in Bangladesh?

“…It is based on a qualitative analysis through a traditional literature review with a thematic analysis of current or recent sources [14]. Being a non-structured qualitative analysis, such a literature review does not aim to provide completeness of coverage but instead aims to understand the nature of the problem [7]. No date restriction was used in the searches so that we could capture relevant literature and identify gaps.…”

“…According to Hofman-Bergholm [7], traditional literature review is a fruitful method when seeking the way forward. It does not aim to cover all possible sources but instead uses the researchers' reasoning to draw insights and conclusions about the role of storytelling in building sustainability values in primary education.…”

“…Storytelling is a useful pedagogical tool in primary education to develop values that encourage sustainability and transformation [7]. To achieve this, the selection of stories and their suitability become major decisions for teachers to make.…”

“…With the idea of sustainability often being traced to traditional cultures, storytelling can also build a bridge between the past and the future by combining different bodies of knowledge, values and practices-local and global, indigenous and scientific. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) specifically highlights the potential of storytelling for transformative engagement [6], encouraging reflective discussions that deepen students' understanding and promote critical thinking [7]. Storytelling can have a transformative pedagogical role at all levels of education for sustainability-from kindergarten to university.…”

“…Notwithstanding this, storytelling is often overshadowed by other pedagogical tools [7] and is not properly integrated into the classroom's learning process. This could be a missed opportunity to link wisdom from the past with the search for solutions for today and tomorrow, particularly given the complex and multifaceted nature of sustainability, which may be difficult to communicate to younger people.…”