Systems Thinking for Understanding Sustainability? Nordic Student Teachers’ Views on the Relationship between Species Identification, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Sustainability is a complex concept including ecological, economic and social dimensions, which in turn involve several aspects that are interrelated in a complex way, such as cultural, health and political aspects. Systems thinking, which focuses on a system's interrelated parts, could therefore help people understand the complexity of sustainability. The aim of this study is to analyse student teachers' level of systems thinking regarding sustainability, especially the ecological dimension, and how they explain the relationship between species identification, biodiversity and sustainability. Nordic student teachers (N = 424) participated in a questionnaire and their open answers were content-analysed and categorised. The results indicate the student teachers' low level of systems thinking regarding ecological sustainability. About a quarter of them (25.4%) had a basic level including interconnections (13.7%), additional feedback (8.9%) and also behavioural aspects (2.8%), but none of them reached an intermediate or advanced level. The low level of systems thinking could be explained by two main factors: (1) Systems thinking has not been used as an educational method of developing understanding of sustainability in teacher education programmes; and (2) systems thinking is also a result of life experiences; the older ones showing more systems thinking than the younger ones. Therefore, elementary forms of systems thinking should be an educational method already in primary education.

The Interdependences between Sustainability and Their Lifestyle That Pre-Service Teachers Establish When Addressing Socio-Ecological Problems

“…This work has analysed some of the main difficulties of pre-service teachers in the construction of relationships between sustainability and their lifestyle during an educational intervention, focused on the problem-based learning approach and, more specifically, on the resolution of socio-ecological problems in their surroundings. This approach could promote a systemic vision to interpret the causes and consequences in the different environmental, social and economic dimensions [6, 11,44], basic for EDS [12,77].…”

“…Despite all the plans and policies in recent decades, some goals set for schools and higher education have not yet been reached [2,10]. According to [11] (p. 2), if teachers have not had an 2 of 18 'opportunity to think, practise and develop their own understanding of sustainability during their education, they are not expected to do so in their future teaching either'.…”

Changes in Thoughts and Actions as Requirements for a Sustainable Future: A Review of Recent Research on the Finnish Educational System and Sustainable Development

“…Recent research about Nordic student teachersí views on the relationship between species identication, biodiversity and sustainable development Palmberg, Berg, Jeronen, K‰rkk‰inen, Norrgård-Sillanp‰‰, Persson, Vilkonis, & Yli-Panula, 2015;Palmberg, Jonsson, Jeronen, & Yli-Panula, 2016) implies that Nordic student teachers possess low levels of ecological knowledge and species identification. The importance of integrating systems thinking into education has been emphasized in order to promote an understanding of the complex nature of sustainability (Hofman-Bergholm, 2018;Palmberg et al, 2017;WWF, 2016;Lewis et al, 2014;Sterling, 2003). However, according to Palmberg et al (2017), Nordic student teachers do not seem to develop any form of systems thinking during their teacher education.…”

“…The importance of integrating systems thinking into education has been emphasized in order to promote an understanding of the complex nature of sustainability (Hofman-Bergholm, 2018;Palmberg et al, 2017;WWF, 2016;Lewis et al, 2014;Sterling, 2003). However, according to Palmberg et al (2017), Nordic student teachers do not seem to develop any form of systems thinking during their teacher education. This leads to research around Finnish teacher education.…”

“…Even though the gap between rich and poor is slowly fading (Rosling, 2018), an environmental knowledge gap still exists that makes sustainability less graspable. Ecological literacy is important to bridge this gap, as is a holistic way of thinking and systems thinking (Fedosejeva et al, 2018;Palmberg et al, 2017;Hofman, 2015;Puk & Stibbards, 2012). Here is one example of the intricate nature of sustainability and how systems thinking presents ecological, economic and social aspects as a whole: Emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere result in temperature rises.…”