ABSTRACT

The aim of this book is to support and inspire teachers to contribute to much-needed processes of sustainable development and to develop teaching practices and professional identities that allow them to cope with the specificity of sustainability issues and, in particular, with the teaching challenges related to the ethical and political dimension of environmental and sustainability education.

Bringing together recent scholarship on the topic, this book translates state-of-the-art academic research into teaching models, methods and tools. Starting with an outline of the challenge of sustainability, it offers insights and models for understanding the interesting yet ambiguous concept of ‘sustainable development’ and the complex process of transforming society in a more sustainable direction (Part I). It then goes on to provide a guide to preparing courses and lessons as well as tools for reflection about teaching practices and the multiplicity of approaches to addressing ethical and political challenges in sustainable development teaching (Part II). Finally, the book offers useful conceptual frameworks, models and typologies about the concrete design and implementation of sustainable development teaching (Part III).

This book will be essential reading for students of education, as well as teachers in compulsory and higher education and sustainability education researchers.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

Sustainable development teaching – ethical and political challenges

part II|68 pages

Choosing teaching content and approaches

chapter 6|10 pages

The ethical tendency typology

Ethical and moral situations in environmental and sustainability education

chapter 8|12 pages

The political tendency typology

Different ways in which the political dimension of sustainability issues appears in educational practice

chapter 9|10 pages

Deliberation and agonism

Two different approaches to the political dimension of environmental and sustainability education

part III|118 pages

Designing and implementing teaching and learning practices

chapter 12|9 pages

Ethical moves

How teachers can open up a space for articulating moral reactions and deliberating on ethical opinions regarding sustainability issues

chapter 13|13 pages

Political moves

How teachers can open up for and handle poignant experiences of the conflictual aspects of sustainability issues

chapter 14|10 pages

Classroom discussions

Students’ learning in argumentation about ethical and political aspects of sustainability issues