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Science education for sustainability, epistemological reflections and educational practices: from natural sciences to trans-disciplinarity

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Abstract

In this three-part article we seek to establish connections between the emerging framework of sustainability science and the methodological basis of research and practice in science education in order to bring forth knowledge and competences for sustainability. The first and second parts deal with the implications of taking a sustainability view in relation to knowledge processes. The complexity, uncertainty and urgency of global environmental problems challenge the foundations of reductionist Western science. Within such debate, the proposal of sustainability science advocates for inter-disciplinary and inter-paradigmatic collaboration and it includes the requirements of post-normal science proposing a respectful dialogue between experts and non-experts in the construction of new scientific knowledge. Such a change of epistemology is rooted into participation, deliberation and the gathering of extended-facts where cultural framings and values are the hard components in the face of soft facts. A reflection on language and communication processes is thus the focus of knowledge practices and educational approaches aimed at sustainability. Language contains the roots of conceptual thinking (including scientific knowledge) and each culture and society are defined and limited by the language that is used to describe and act upon the world. Within a scenario of sustainability, a discussion of scientific language is in order to retrace the connections between language and culture, and to promote a holistic view based on pluralism and dialogue. Drawing on the linguistic reflection, the third part gives examples of teaching and learning situations involving prospective science teachers in action-research contexts: these activities are set out to promote linguistic integration and to introduce reflexive process into science learning. Discussion will focus on the methodological features of a learning process that is akin to a communal and emancipatory research process within a sustainability scenario.

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Notes

  1. A thingified view of the world is currently exacerbated by the loss of nature and experiences of nature in concurrence with a transmissive mode of teaching. It is associated with a sense of exclusion from processes and events to which we are connected and a sense of alienation from topics and problems proposed in the classroom (Désautels and Larochelle 1998).

  2. In its original definition, an ecosystem is the entire set of biotic and abiotic components and their relationships found in a given area. An ecosystem is a dynamic and complex whole, a functional unit in stationary state, characterised by flows of matter and energy between its constitutive elements (Tansley 1935).

  3. In Italy, the two different levels of schooling are catered by two classes of teaching: A059 prepares for teaching in lower secondary school (12–15 years old) and it includes teaching of mathematics and science; A060 prepares for teaching in the upper secondary (15–19 years old) with specialization in the Natural Sciences.

  4. For the data presented in Fig. 7 we gratefully thank Dr. Daniela Marchetti, who developed a research on teaching/learning processes in a perspective of sustainability within her PhD thesis (unpublished).

  5. A059.

  6. For the data presented in this part we gratefully thank Dr. Alessandro Cerutti, who developed a research on teaching/learning processes about evolution as part of his Degree Thesis (unpublished work).

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Acknowledgments

Research partly financed by MIUR and by Assessorato Ambiente, Regione Piemonte (PIES 2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, King’s College, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, AB245UA, UK

    Laura Colucci-Gray

  2. Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, Torino University, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123, Torino, Italy

    Anna Perazzone

  3. Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Sustainability, Torino University, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123, Torino, Italy

    Martin Dodman & Elena Camino

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  1. Laura Colucci-Gray
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Correspondence to Laura Colucci-Gray.

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Colucci-Gray, L., Perazzone, A., Dodman, M. et al. Science education for sustainability, epistemological reflections and educational practices: from natural sciences to trans-disciplinarity. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 8, 127–183 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-012-9405-3

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