Education for sustainable development (ESD) faces the enormous challenge of educating students to handle so called wicked problems, i.e., problems that lack true or false solutions and with inherent conflicts of interests and which characterizes the great questions of our time. ESD is internationally a diverse practice with many different approaches to the challenge described above. At the same time the United Nations among others emphasizes the crucial role of educations in developing the action competence needed for the transformation of society towards a more sustainable world. A unique student led initiative started at Uppsala university as a counter-reaction to prevailing traditions within higher education and with the goal of creating an education that does not destroy the planet. The purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about this student led teaching practice by investigating two aspects of learning that are key in developing desired action competences: firstly, desired subject positions which then will be discussed in the light of the second aspect desired educational functions. The study makes use of three central theoretical and methodological perspectives that has shaped the design of the study; Dewey’s transactional perspective is used as an overall starting point that enables an in situ study of actions. Foucault’s conception of power and governance is used to understand how power – in the sense of “actions upon actions” – is manifested in the educational practice. And to make visible and discuss how ESD functions in the teaching practice in relation to the aims of that practice, Biesta’s three dimensions of educational functions – education as qualification, socialization and subjectification, is being used. In accordance with these theoretical perspectives and the aim of the study a qualitative case study of group discussions in the student led classroom was conducted using audio- and video recordings during a university course. The student transactions were analyzed in two steps. The first step consisted of an overall analysis of the explicit aim or focus of the teaching practice where three main focus was found; “learning from each other”, “taking a stand” and “to be critical and creative”. The second step consisted of a specified analysis of desired subject positions which were then discussed in the light of educational functions. Here the students’ actions were found to limit their own and each other’s learning processes, by for instance avoiding conflicting views and facts. The analysis also shows how the students’ emotional reactions on the other hand enable their own and each other’s learning processes by creating “interruptions” thus making space for an existential dimension of environmental and sustainability issues. Education as qualification and socialization often was put to the foreground in the practice. But in the students’ transactions in their group discussions two unique tools for learning was identified which teachers may not possess, and which have the potential to enable room for subjectification. These tools were identified as the student’s possibility to be private and to have continuous conversations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-468595 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Nordh, Karin |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Examensarbete vid Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier |
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