Discerning the socialization content of environmental education –
implications for education for sustainable development
This research offers an empirical contribution to discussions on content issues in environmental education and education for sustainable development. One way of approaching content issues is to study the socialization content. Socialization content forms an educational context in which subject matter content can develop into meaning. Through their different actions teachers communicate companion meanings to students, which together constitute the socialization content. These are messages about the subject and about education, such as the importance of students’ participation. One important starting point for this research is that the learning of subject matter and socialization content is simultaneous.
This presentation show some results from substantial studies of socialization content. An interview method and analytical tool for researchers has been developed as a result of conducting a literature review and interviewing upper secondary school teachers involved in a general science course. This tool can be used to study the qualitative aspects of socialization content by examining shifts in five important educational aspects.
Socialization content can be regarded as an important value-laden content that needs to be critically examined in an open democratic school system. These discussions could facilitate the development of a more pluralistic environmental education, which in turn could be further developed into an Education for Sustainable Development Approach, ESDA. A general teaching/learning approach on local level clearly separated from the policy levels way of discussing ESD. Researchers have so far been answering ESD issues in two separate ways, for or against, but from the similar ESDA perspective.