Sustainability as an emerging curriculum area in Iceland : the development, validation and application of a sustainability education implementation questionnaire

• Main Author: Auður Pálsdóttir 1965-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Doktorsritgerðir; Sjálfbærni; Menntun; Grunnþættir menntunar; Skólastarf; Mat á skólastarfi; Námskrár; Menntarannsóknir; Grunnskólar; Grunnskólakennarar; Skólaþróun; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/23795

Efnisorð höfundar: sustainability - sustainability education - education for sustainable development - action competence - school development - collective teacher efficacy - school self-evaluation - sjálfbærnimenntun - geta til aðgerða - menntun til sjálfbærrar þróunar - trú kennara á getu starfshópsins This PhD-research examined aspects associated with sustainability education, which is one of six fundamental concerns of the 2011 national curriculum in Iceland. The general purpose of the study was twofold. First, it sought to gain an understanding of the constraints and contributors to the implementation of sustainability as an emerging curriculum area at compulsory school level in Iceland. Second, it endeavoured to develop an evaluation tool for teachers and school administrators to use collectively to identify their current situation and course of improvement for working with sustainability education. The study serves to meet the identified need for sources of information for schools to use in measuring collective teacher efficacy for sustainability education. In working with such information schools can map their current development and feasible next steps, including planning of continuous professional development and revision of the school curriculum. The research was carried out between 2009 and 2013 and used a mixed method approach involving two studies in a qualitative phase followed by two studies in a quantitative phase. In the qualitative phase, impacts on sustainability education implementation are identified through in-depth interviews with teachers and school leaders. In the quantitative phase, the Sustainability Education Implementation Questionnaire (SEIQ) is developed and then applied. The results suggest that teachers find the teaching task associated with sustainability education problematic, especially the challenge of developing action competence with students, a key anticipation of sustainability education. This outcome affirms that a new curriculum does not ensure changes at ...