The significance of ‘participation’ as an educational ideal in education for sustainable development and health education in schools

Abstract

This article examines the significance of the concept of participation for teacher meaning-making processes in education for sustainable development and health education. In Scandinavian public schools, education for sustainable development and health education focus on a wide palette of societal problems rather than on narrow curricula. Drawing on selected reviews of research literature on education for sustainable development and health education, Lacanian psychoanalysis provides inspiration for our analysis of the concept of participation, and how it is positioned and enacted in these fields of practice. Essentially, we argue that the concept of participation has a dual nature: it serves both as an educational ideal and as a teaching strategy. We also explore how the failure to achieve the ideal of 'true' participation may serve a positive purpose for the teacher; the acknowledgement that participation is not always as genuine as desired establishes a pedagogical situation where ideals of engaging pupils through true participation can continue to exist side by side with clear signs of a less consequential participation.

Promoting Participation in Society through Science Education

“…They perceived success, which may promote social sustainability [3]. Students acknowledged knowledge (facts) as a base of the decision and this may promote students perceived value of physics and careers [12,13], however, this was not clearly indicated in the interviews. Students also highlighted collaboration and shared experiences, which may further create engagement and participation concerning the scientific issues to which they relate [21].…”

“…Student S2 pondered that he/she cannot do that alone. Students 10,12,14,and 15 perceived that they can participate or influence through other people in school such as student council or form master. Students' perceptions on the participation in community level are shown in Table 3.…”

“…Public institutions produce outputs such as regulations or campaigns to citizens who on their part may produce inputs such as data, feedback or consultations for public institutions to the process in order to redirect public policies, or the communication may be mediated through non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media or other mediators [9]. The fundamental importance of participation to notions of citizenship, suggesting sharing power in making decisions relating to children's lives (e.g., [10]), but also learning and gaining important competences while participating (e.g., [11]) has been stressed by Lysgaard and Simovska [12].…”

“…The students were able to bring about positive change [11] leading to the painting of the pedestrian crossing. This intervention, when including an out of classroom context in students' everyday life, may also raise awareness of, interest in and engagement with physics subject and careers [12,13]. Informal science learning was used within formal learning environments as an enrichment to school science [12,14].…”

Knowledge, Perceptions and Attitudes on Education for Sustainable Development of Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers in Greece

“…Teachers need to have subject and pedagogical knowledge to be able to teach about ESD (Summers, Corney, & Childs, 2003). Scholars agree that the preferred teaching approaches to ESD should be student-centered (McNaughton 2012;Tomas, Girgenti, & Jackson, 2017;UNESCO, 1992) experiential, participatory (Lysgaard & Simovska, 2016), praxis-orientated, place-based, interdisciplinary (UNESCO, 1992;Saka & Sahintűrk, 2013), inquiry-based and transformational (Biasutti, 2015;Biasutti & Frate, 2017;Christie et al, 2013;Corney & Reid, 2007;Cotton et al, 2009;Tomas, Girgenti, & Jackson, 2017;Wals & Jickling, 2002). These teaching/learning methods promote changes in behaviors and ways of thinking and relate not only to knowledge but also to processes, because these methods teach learners how to think (Biasutti, 2015).…”