Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE)

Exploring Interdisciplinary Approaches to Education for Sustainable Development

Robert J. Didham, Hiroki Fujii, Gregor Torkar — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Sustainable Development, Education and Learning: The Challenge of Inclusive, Quality Education for All

Hiroki Fujii — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Review of the book authored by Victoria W. Thoresen, Agenda Publishing, 2023

Teaching and Learning Sustainable Consumption: A Guidebook

Gregor Torkar — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

A Tribute to Professor Wing On Lee

Karen Parish, Heidi Biseth, Halla B. Holmarsdottir, Aihua Hu — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

High School Teachers’ Adoption of Generative AI

Eyvind Elstad, Harald Eriksen — Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

In 2023, the breakthrough of generative artificial intelligence (AI) led to its adoption. While some teachers expressed frustration over pupil misuse of generative AI, others advocated for the availability of a school-relevant chatbot for pupil use. In October 2023, a local chatbot intended to meet that goal was launched by Oslo Municipality. After six weeks, an investigation was conducted to examine how 246 teachers perceived the opportunities and limitations of this new technology. The examination used structural equation modelling to explore antecedents of instructional AI utility. The analysis shows that the pathway between instructional self-efficacy and AI utility has the highest positively charged value, while the pathways between management and AI utility have low numerical value. This last finding can be interpreted as the influence of untapped management potential and must be seen in the context of the fact that no guidelines for the use of AI in schools existed when the survey was conducted. In addition, the pathway between colleague discussion and AI utility has relatively low numerical values. The potential for learning through discussion among colleagues can be utilized to an even greater degree. The pathway between management and colleague discussion is remarkable. Implications are discussed.

Opportunities and Dilemmas in Interactions between the Education Sector and Academia

Mari-Ana Jones, Tessa Eriksen Grevle, Erlend Dehlin, Tony Burner, Sara Bubb — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

International Master’s Degree Students’ Experiences of Support at a Finnish University

Anduena Ballo, Sotiria Varis, Charles Mathies, Kalypso Filippou — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This phenomenographic study explores international master’s degree students’ ways of experiencing support in Finnish higher education. The study draws on Schlossberg’s Transition Model and the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Model as a conceptual framework. The phenomenographic analysis of 17 interviews with international master’s degree students identified four ways of experiencing support as: (a) study system adjustment, (b) learning enhancement, (c) personal growth, and (d) autonomy development. The findings identified participants’ experiencing support in relationships, use of information, communication, services, the flexibility of studies, learning and study environments. The presence of two indicators, Humanizing Educational Environments and Availability of Holistic Support suggested that the campus environment was culturally responsive to academic and personal support of international degree students. The findings contribute to the understanding of support for international degree students in higher education and may be used to develop services to support international degree students’ social, cultural, and career integration into host communities.

Futures Thinking in Middle School Science Textbooks

Khalifatulloh Fiel'ardh — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This research aims to illuminate the characteristics of "Futures Thinking" components within the interdisciplinary units of "Science, Technology, and Humanity" and "Nature and Humanity" and "Sustainable development" within Japanese middle school science textbooks. Grounded in pre-existing literatures, this research meticulously organizes the essential competencies of future-oriented thinking into three distinct components: "Envisioning the Future," "Predicting the Future," and "Planning for the Future." Each component is further broken down into more precise indicators. For "Envisioning the Future," indicators include perspectives on "Multiple Futures," the "Science of Future," and "Hope and Fears." For "Predicting the Future," we delve into the "Scenario" technique, alongside "Forecasting" and "Backcasting" strategies. "Planning for the Future" assesses the "Precautionary" approach, "Evaluating Action," and understanding "Risk and Changes." The research involved a cross-sectional analysis of content types (such as texts, diagrams) and contexts (individual, regional, national, and global), determining the presence or absence of these indicators. The findings reveal: (1) a more frequent articulation of these competencies within the "Science, Technology, and Humans" unit, (2) a scant representation of "Multiple Futures" and "Scenario" methods among the nine indicators, (3) a prevalence of explanatory text in presenting these concepts, and (4) a consistent inclination towards a global context in the textbooks' narratives. These insights imply an extant gap within the current pedagogical tools, underscoring the importance of an expanded, multifaceted approach to teaching these competencies. The implications for future curriculum development and instructional strategies in middle school science education are profound, necessitating a more integrated approach that resonates with the uncertainties and possibilities of the future.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Scenarios on Sustainable Development in Croatia

Veljko Armano Linta — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper reflects on the project for the creation of teaching scenarios for the curricular Interdisciplinary Topic of Sustainable Development, which addressed a wide variety of subjects in Croatian primary and secondary schools. The paper intends to provide insight into potentially replicable approaches for the creation of teaching resources in similar contexts. The paper aims to identify (1) the project’s approaches that stimulated interdisciplinary collaboration during the creation of the teaching scenarios, and (2) the project’s approaches that could facilitate the adoption of the teaching scenarios by a wide variety of subject teachers. The approaches are explored through observation and reflection by the author, who was the key expert and development leader for the teaching scenarios. The interdisciplinary creation is found to be stimulated by creating conditions for authors to explore sustainable development with an awareness of their subject’s important role in it while paying attention to team relationships, processes, and results, including in online collaboration spaces. The teaching scenarios are found to be more likely to support a multidisciplinary type of implementation than an interdisciplinary one due to teaching activities mostly being not integrated enough to enable team teaching. This, however, allows more enthusiastic individual teachers to use the activities autonomously. The scenario adoption may be supported by the efficient simultaneous addressing of subject outcomes and sustainable development outcomes, by the adaptability of teaching activities, and by the connection between scenario topics and real life, including the life of the school community and wider communities.

Education Beyond Green Growth

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Despite the continued popularity of education for sustainable development (ESD) and expanded calls for educators to inspire hope in the face of the climate and nature emergency, scholars from varied disciplines and knowledge systems have pointed to the disavowed social and ecological costs of the promise that we can continue pursuing infinite economic growth on a finite planet. In this article, we offer an alternative approach to education grounded in a regenerative inquiry methodology. Regenerative inquiry can prepare people to honestly confront the limits and harms of “green growth” and support them to “grow up” by expanding their capacity to navigate complexity and uncertainty and activating a sense of intergenerational responsibility. We also offer an example of how this methodology was mobilized in the context of a year-long transdisciplinary program focused on the climate and nature emergency.

“Because they have technology”

Øyvind K. Mellingen — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Over the last forty years, the concept of sustainable development has gained attention in large parts of the world. With it comes the need for comparative research on how the concept is understood in different contexts.

This article is a comparative discourse analysis of how Tanzanian and Norwegian secondary school teachers conceptualize sustainable development. By applying Laclau and Mouffe’s (2014) discourse apparatus, I trace articulations of sustainable development across Tanzanian and Norwegian discourses.

The findings indicate that the Tanzanian teachers in the study primarily conceptualize sustainable development within a socioeconomic discourse, while the Norwegian teachers are rooted in an environmental discourse. The teachers are also embedded in a Western exceptionalism discourse constructed around the myth of “the West” as sustainable, and favour solutions emerging from Western technology and innovation. However, the study also finds that there is a critical discourse opposing this articulation of “the West”.

The transformative potential of textbooks

Milja Pollari, Minna Autio, Anna-Liisa Elorinne — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Education is recognized as crucial in addressing unsustainable practices, such as food waste. One of the aims of interdisciplinary food education in basic education is to promote sustainable food waste behavior, which can be promoted by transformative learning. This study examined how food waste is addressed in nine Finnish basic education textbooks. The content related to food waste and the pedagogical style of the texts were analyzed from home economics, biology, and geography textbooks designed for secondary level education (grades 7–9, age 13–16). The results were analysed to assess their potential to promote transformative learning. All of the textbooks approached the topic of food waste from the perspective of their own subject, and none presented it as an interdisciplinary phenomenon. Home economics textbooks focused on students' perspectives, emphasizing food waste reduction and waste sorting. Geography textbooks frequently explored the topic in the context of the food supply chain or at a global level, while biology textbooks primarily addressed the sorting of food waste. The textbooks primarily used a neutral text style focusing on information transmission. In some contexts, a persuasive style was employed to encourage critical thinking and action. The participative style, which encourages active student engagement, was utilized the least in all textbooks, and primarily for exercises. By integrating learning-supportive text styles (such as participative and persuasive), including student tasks related to food waste, and fostering an interdisciplinary understanding of food waste, textbooks have the potential to transform student learning and engagement in sustainable food practices.

Humanistic Thought and Education for Sustainable Development

Katrin Kohl, Zainal Abidin Sanusi, Suhailah Hussien — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an education concept, central to what is globally understood as quality education and endorsed by the United Nations as a key enabler of all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ESD has been around for more than three decades and has sparked its own academic discourse and field of research. Yet, ESD is not fully embedded in all education systems and within societies. Although stakeholders from academia and practice are engaged in addressing ESD since its inclusion in Agenda 21 in 1992, there has been a struggle to develop a shared conceptual understanding. The discussion in theory and practice is still underway, with researchers grappling in depth with the understanding of ESD, its thematic width, concrete implementation, and tangible outcomes. Following the current quest by UNESCO to reconsider existing ways of knowing and to question where knowledge comes from and how we add to it, the authors of this article examined a sample of ESD literature on whether epistemic foundations of ESD including its role as a program within UNESCO are considered in the discourse. They concentrate in their review on humanist approaches as an important perspective for UNESCO. The results point to a gap in the current literature. The authors also show that, if ESD was grounded in humanistic thought, it could pose a barrier for certain worldviews to engage with or implement ESD. Therefore, ESD’s foundations require further examination. This paper is a first step in drawing attention to the need to make ESD’s foundations more explicit.

Partnerskap på like premisser?

Gaute Rydland Nilsen, Kristin Helstad — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

‘Partnership’ is used as a collective term for cooperation on competence development between teacher education institutions and schools and is intended to lead to mutual learning. This article deals with experiences with partnerships from the teacher education`s point of view. The data material consists of interviews with teacher educators and leaders in teacher education institutions. The findings show that the staff members have many positive experiences, but they problematize certain organizational and steering challenges. They point out that it is demanding to share knowledge internally, and that research is somewhat connected to the work. They experience that the partnership primarily takes place on the school's premises, which may be related to the fact that steering expectations are directed at the teacher training programs and not at the schools. The study reveals differences in institutional practices, such as how the work is organized at a larger and a smaller teacher training institution, and whether the work is experienced as an individual or a collective project. The study shows that partnership is a complex phenomenon that shapes political and organizational conditions.

“I Stay Because of My Students“: Urban Lower Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Belonging at Work

Martin Skogheim — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This study explores urban lower secondary school teachers’ sense of belonging, focusing on their relationships with students and their work experiences. Despite heightened interest in students’ sense of belonging in educational settings, empirical research on teacher belonging – especially in the context of urban lower secondary education – remains sparse. The limited focus on teachers’ experiences of belonging at work is paradoxical, given their crucial role in fostering student belonging and the global challenges regarding the recruitment and retention of teachers. While previous research on belonging has underscored its importance for job satisfaction, professional identity development, and motivation at work, there has been a lack of focus on understanding how student-teacher relationships specifically influence teachers’ experiences of belonging to their school. This study draws from interviews and observational data to gain a deeper understanding of teachers’ day-to-day practice. It gives voice to the reflections and experiences of teachers and leaders. The findings emphasize the critical role of reciprocal student–teacher relationships through three interrelated themes. Relationships of this nature not only foster student development but also enhance teachers’ sense of belonging. The study also highlights the importance of supportive collegial relationships. In particular, teachers report strong experiences of belonging when their identity as teachers and individual contributions resonate with their school’s values and educational goals.