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Lampert, P., Olsson, D. & Gericke, N. (2023). A research instrument to monitor people's competence to sustain insect biodiversity: the Self-Perceived Action Competence for Insect Conservation scale (SPACIC). International Journal of Science Education, Part B Communication and Public Engagement
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A research instrument to monitor people's competence to sustain insect biodiversity: the Self-Perceived Action Competence for Insect Conservation scale (SPACIC)
2023 (English)In: International Journal of Science Education, Part B Communication and Public Engagement, ISSN 2154-8455, E-ISSN 2154-8463Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The loss of insect biodiversity is a major global sustainability issue that is highly relevant to science education. Science education can support and develop learners' competence to take actions to sustain insect biodiversity and empower learners to deal actively with this sustainability issue. However, we currently lack an instrument to assess these aspects of individual competence. This paper aims to fill this gap by introducing the Self-Perceived Action Competence for Insect Conservation scale (SPACIC). This scale allows for investigating learners' action competence by focusing on self-perceived knowledge, confidence, and willingness to take insect conservation actions. The scale is grounded in theory and face-validated by external experts. The piloting with 180 secondary school students showed a good quality of the instrument in terms of reliability and validity, as the reliability analyses and confirmatory factor analysis show. The SPACIC scale is applicable to various formal and informal educational settings. Applying the scale can yield information about the effects of educational approaches and inform learners, educators, and researchers about changes in self-perceived competence. In this way, the SPACIC scale can contribute to the evaluation and design of educational approaches and eventually boost learners' development into becoming active environmental citizens.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2023
Keywords
Insect conservation, Scale development, Action competence
National Category
Pedagogy Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Biology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-97747 (URN)10.1080/21548455.2023.2281931 (DOI)001112500600001 ()2-s2.0-85178476968 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-12-22 Created: 2023-12-22 Last updated: 2024-01-03Bibliographically approved
Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., Berglund, T., Gericke, N. & Olsson, D. (2023). Developing School Leading Guidelines: Facilitating a Whole School Approach to Education for Sustainable Development. In: Symposium title: Leadership agency and functions in implementation processes towards whole school approaches to education for sustainable development in primary and secondary schools: . Paper presented at Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference, Karlstad, 8-10 May 2023.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Developing School Leading Guidelines: Facilitating a Whole School Approach to Education for Sustainable Development
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2023 (English)In: Symposium title: Leadership agency and functions in implementation processes towards whole school approaches to education for sustainable development in primary and secondary schools, 2023Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

In this multidisciplinary study we have explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD), employing a whole school approach (WSA). School leading and school improvement are both established research fields within leading and development; therefore, it was wise to use the knowledge that is available within these two fields on how to lead and implement improvements in school organizations. A multidisciplinary approach contributes through knowledge regarding the implementation of socially and educationally sustainable qualities. A WSA involves all parts of the school organization contributes to a comprehensive perspective by emphasizing connections between school leading, local school organizations, and ESD implementation. Finally, a practice-informed approach provides valuable insights by investigating principals’ leading and its preconditions in terms of the practice architectures enabling or constraining the realization of a WSA to ESD. Practice architectures exist in a dialectical relationship with the practices that they prefigure, in that they both constitute and are constituted by practice. Undertaking this work required an examination of what happened when ESD was implemented in local school over a period of time. In order to do this, we returned to the five schools in a municipality that had initiated an ESD project in 2016, interviewing principals in 2018 and then again in 2020. The interviews explored whether (or not) the local preconditions had developed into practice architectures that facilitated a WSA to ESD. Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. 

National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94592 (URN)
Conference
Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference, Karlstad, 8-10 May 2023
Available from: 2023-05-10 Created: 2023-05-10 Last updated: 2023-05-12Bibliographically approved
Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T. & Olsson, D. (2023). Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 29(5), 783-805
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development
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2023 (English)In: Environmental Education Research, ISSN 1350-4622, E-ISSN 1469-5871, Vol. 29, no 5, p. 783-805Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This study explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD) in five Swedish schools employing a whole school approach (WSA). A follow-up study design was used, in which schools that had initiated an ESD project in 2016 were subsequently visited twice for interviews with principals during the project and after it was finalized. The theory of practice architectures in combination with the concept of school improvement capacity was used as the theoretical framework in the analysis. The study showed how school leading should be about enhancing the local school’s capacity to improve. It also showed how specific practice architectures prefigured a WSA to ESD and how school leading in this context was about arranging—or orchestrating—practice architectures in ways that enabled such an approach. The issues of time and endurance were pivotal.Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. The limitations and suggestions for further research are also discussed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2023
Keywords
Education for sustainable development, whole school approach, school improvement, school improvement capacity, theory of practice architecture
National Category
Pedagogy
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-92661 (URN)10.1080/13504622.2022.2151980 (DOI)000893325000001 ()2-s2.0-85144020677 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Institute for Educational Research, 2017-00065
Available from: 2022-12-06 Created: 2022-12-06 Last updated: 2023-07-06Bibliographically approved
Torsdottir, A. E., Sinnes, A. T., Olsson, D. & Wals, A. (2023). Do students have anything to say?: Student participation in a whole school approach to sustainability. Environmental Education Research
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Do students have anything to say?: Student participation in a whole school approach to sustainability
2023 (English)In: Environmental Education Research, ISSN 1350-4622, E-ISSN 1469-5871Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The article demonstrates how a questionnaire gauging students' experiences of participation in decision-making at their school can operationalise student participation in a whole school approach (WSA) to education for sustainable development model. Some 902 students in three upper secondary schools participated in the study by giving their answers to Likert-scale items developed to tap into their experience of participation in the decision-making at their school. The students identified four distinct pathways of participation: (i) School and Leadership, (ii) Teaching and Learning, (iii) Community Connections, and (iv) Student Council. The results are discussed in the light of focus group interviews with eleven of the participants. The student WSA participation questionnaire proved to be a reliable and valid instrument that, together with the student WSA participation model, can be used by school leaders wanting to increase student participation, and by researchers investigating student participation throughout the whole school.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2023
Keywords
Student participation, education for sustainable development, whole school approach, questionnaire development, scale validation
National Category
Didactics Pedagogy
Research subject
Biology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94990 (URN)10.1080/13504622.2023.2213427 (DOI)000990156900001 ()2-s2.0-8515957186 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-06-01 Created: 2023-06-01 Last updated: 2023-06-12Bibliographically approved
Berglund, T., Gericke, N., Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A. & Olsson, D. (2023). ESD-facilitators’ conditions and functions as sustainability change agents. In: : . Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). 22 - 25 August 2023, Glasgow, UK.
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2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Proposal information 

This study seeks to investigate the experiences of teachers working as ESD-facilitators within a whole school approach project designed to implement education for sustainable development (ESD) in their schools. The program activities included school leaders, teachers, and ESD- facilitators. During a period of three school years, five schools in a municipality in Sweden took part in order to integrate ESD in their organization and teaching practice. The ESD-facilitators took part in the design of the development process, workshop activities and content, and facilitated each school’s internal work. This study aims to identify in what ways ESD-facilitators function as sustainability change agents and how contextual factors might contribute to success or form hindrances in their work.The project was designed based on teachers’ learning and collaborative and reflexive work (Desimone, 2009). The purpose was to direct the development work of the schools towards a whole school approach (Mogren et al. 2019), meaning that ESD is fully integrated in the local curriculum. The main areas of development were to increase interdisciplinary teaching with focus on ESD as holistic pedagogical idea, and that ESD should permeate the work in all levels of the internal and external organization of the school (Sund & Lysgaard, 2013), implying that the different actors in the school and its societal context (students, teachers, school leaders and the outer society) work towards sustainability (Mogren et al., 2019). An additional aim was to integrate pluralistic approaches in the teachers’ classroom practice.The project included two project leaders, who also participated as researchers in the project. Together with the school leaders and ESD-facilitators, they took a leading role in the development of the project, which included joint seminars, and meetings between project leaders and a) school leaders (across schools), b) school leaders and facilitators (within schools), and c) facilitators (across schools). The ESD-facilitators were intended to function as a link between school leader, project leaders and the teaching staff. They were supposed to support the teacher work teams in their discussions and implementation work with transforming ESD principles into practice.A recent study by Van Poeck et al. (2017) explored different change agent roles by mapping the different ways in which change agents actively contribute to sustainability. In relation to different roles, various types of learning is being made possible. The authors identified four types of change agents that position themselves in different ways along the two axes of personal detachment vs. personal involvement, and instrumental vs. open-ended approaches (to change and learning). This study investigates the views and practices of the ESD-facilitators in relation to these two dimensions. Thus, different change agent positions may be taken.The ESD-facilitators have a middle leading role in their schools, which means that they enact leading practices from a position in between the teaching staff and the school leader (Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2015). There is limited research focusing on practitioners who facilitate processes of professional development (Perry & Boylan, 2018). Thus, little is known about how facilitators, and particularly those who facilitate a whole school approach to ESD, could be supported to carry out their role and tasks in an effective way, and what adequate conditions and arrangements for this might be. Taken together, this implies a gap in current knowledge about ESD implementation strategies, which this study aims to help bridging.The research questions guiding the research are twofold: in the ESD-facilitators’ descriptions of their roles, functions and practices:        

  • What kinds of sustainability change agent roles can be identified?
  • What contextual factors are experienced as successful and/or hindering?

Methodology or Methods

After the project ended, interviews were carried out between November 2020 and April 2021 with seven ESD-facilitators from five different schools. Two of the schools had appointed two facilitators, who either focused on different programs (in upper secondary school) or on different levels in compulsory school (primary or secondary level).The interviews followed a semi-structured approach (Bryman, 2018) and included pre-defined areas concerning the ESD-facilitators’ view on: a) the long term purposes and goals of the project, b) in what ways they viewed their role in the development work in their school, and c) their experiences of factors that were of central importance in order for them to be able to perform their task effectively. Their responses were followed up by the interviewer in a flexible manner.The analysis of data followed a multi-step process. The three parts above constitute the basis for the first step of the analysis, which was performed inductively and followed a broad approach to data driven thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The next step was analyzed deductively, based on the typology of sustainability change agents by Van Poeck et al. (2017). In this step, the utterances connected to the ESD-facilitators’ role in the development work, together with utterances concerning their view of long-term purposes and goals of the project, were analyzed in relation to the four different types of sustainability change agents in the typology. The analysis concerning their role focused mainly on the two dimensions identified as open-ended or instrumental, and personal detachment vs. -involvement. Utterances were identified that could be associated with a specific role description under the four ideal types of change agents. Moreover, utterances of how they viewed the purpose and goal of the ESD development work were analyzed, mainly connected to how different types of change agents may enable different forms of learning (Van Poeck et al., 2017). However, research on middle leading practices as well as research of sustainability change agents emphasizes that roles and practices should be interpreted in relation to the context they are enacted within (Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2015; Van Poeck et al., 2017). Therefore, the analysis also focused on identifying how different contextual factors affect and enable the roles and practices of the ESD-facilitators. Thus, the final step is to look for relationships between expressed purposes and goals, roles, and what factors are experienced as promoting and/or hindering their role and mission.

Findings and conclusions 

The analysis indicates that teachers struggle with transforming ESD theory into teaching practice. The school culture has great impact on the readiness of teacher teams to engage in transformation of their teaching. The ESD-facilitator’ functions and practices are affected by the school culture and whether teacher teams are well functioning or not in terms of collaborative work.All the four roles in the typology (Van Poeck et al., 2017) were identified in their expressions, and different contextual factors were emphasized as either promoting or hindering their functions. Clear support and leadership from the school leader and the presence of a well-defined long term goal was important to provide direction and legitimize the ESD-facilitator role in schools where a broad anchoring of ESD among the staff was missing. Moreover, roles and processes became more open-ended in schools where there was room for collaborative work and reflexive discussions. In those schools where the culture encouraged collaborative work and shared agency, the ESD-facilitators pointed out their functions in mediating the process in terms of initiator, facilitator, mobilizer and/or awareness raiser (ibid.). When there was little space for collaborative work, or the culture was hindering it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach became more instrumental and it became harder to create agency and integrate ESD as a holistic pedagogical idea (see Mogren et al. 2019) among the community of teachers. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of experts, councellors, managers, solution providers and exemplars (Ibid.).A challenge was how to transform ESD theories, which the facilitators expressed as abstract and far from everyday teaching, into concrete practice. In the school where a collaborative culture was present, a way to solve this was to start doing by daring to explore new ways of teaching, and then evaluate in a collaborative, open and reflexive manner

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Bryman, A. (2018). Samhällsvetenskapliga metoder.(tredje upplagan). Liber.

Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational researcher, 38(3), 181-199.

Grootenboer, P.,  Edwards-Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2015). Leading practice development: voices from the middle, Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 508-526, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2014.924985

Mogren, A., Gericke, N., & Scherp, H.-Å. (2019). Whole school approaches to education for sustainable development: a model that links to school improvement. Environmental Education Research, 25(4), 508-531.

Perry, E., & Boylan, M. (2018). Developing the developers: supporting and researching the learning of professional development facilitators. Professional development in education, 44(2), 254-271.

Sund, P., & Lysgaard, J. G. (2013). Reclaim “education” in environmental and sustainability education research. Sustainability, 5(4), 1598-1616.

Van Poeck, K., Læssøe, J., & Block, T. (2017). An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: Mapping a moving and intertwined landscape. Ecology and Society, 22(2).

National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94187 (URN)
Conference
European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). 22 - 25 August 2023, Glasgow, UK
Available from: 2023-04-04 Created: 2023-04-04 Last updated: 2023-08-31Bibliographically approved
Mogren, A., Forssten Seiser, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T. & Olsson, D. (2023). Leadership Actions in Education for Sustainable Development – Establishing Leadership Agency for Permanent Accommodation in Education. In: : . Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). 22 - 25 August 2023, Glasgow, UK.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Leadership Actions in Education for Sustainable Development – Establishing Leadership Agency for Permanent Accommodation in Education
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2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This empirical study on leadership actions investigate Education for sustainable development (ESD) in Swedish schools. School leaders at five schools in one Swedish municipality are interviewed twice in 2018 and 2020, to evaluate effects from a longitude school improvement project focusing ESD.   

Actions can be seen as the school leader individual response on a direct stimuli. The school leader take action. Agency on the other hand is the gathered experience of such stimuli and the alternative possibilities at hand for a school leader to act upon (Feldman & Pentland 2003). Leadership agency in this study is defined the sense making of ESD over time by school leaders acting by experience, or what  Hallenberg (2018) call expert agency, based in their own actions and related to other school leaders way of acting as a collective (Tourish 2014). The study adds knowledge to how individual leadership actions can contribute or counteract ESD implementation. Further aspects that drives and establishes ESD over time in schools; leadership agency on ESD is outlined.  

A review study on school leaders and education for sustainable development, ESD (Mogaji & Newton, 2020) reported the need to make school leaders more aware of ESD,  as a way to empower students to handle sustainable. Research onschool leadership to  raise quality in ESD active schools points out a lack of connection between inner school organizational routines that give support to ESD and the external organizational routines that connect education to the surrounding society (Mogren & Gericke, 2017), which in ESD is a guarantee of the relevance of education to the learner. Knowledge on school leadership and ESD as exemplified is based on case studies that point out important starting points for an effective ESD implementation, holistic ideas (Leo & Wickenberg 2013; Mogren, Gericke & Scherp, 2019) collegial approaches in the school organization (Gericke & Torbjörnsson, 2022) and  legitimizing functions (Mogren & Gericke, 2019). This study builds on the knowledge identified at the formulation arena of ESD and take it one step further,  studying the realization arena, what actually falls out in practice of ESD implementation over time, based on initial intentions. The formulation arena of a project, setting the scene is not a guarantee for successful implementation, instead schools often fail in their ambitions on ESD (Hargreaves, 2008) and certification programs on ESD with initial ambitions is not always successful (Olsson, Gericke & Chang Rundgren, 2016 ). 

Sense making activities is a methodological approach in school improvement and used in this study to understand practice (Weick, 2001). Sense making deals with challenges in the daily work patterns for school leaders, when ordinary frames of reference are disrupted and new understandings needs to be incorporated (Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstefeld, 2005).  How school leaders make sense of ESD; couple the formulated visions  to the practical outcomes of ESD is understood in this study by the  framework of coupling mechanism (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018). The framework of coupling mechanism seeks to understand more than if organizational routines  on ESD are in place, but also their outcome and how they are used in practice.  The coupling mechanisms is categorized according to either accommodation mechanisms leading to permanent changes of structures and routines in the organization for ESD. Mechanisms can also be assessed as assimilation, then leading to superficial changes, or decoupling mechanisms that shows no positive effects of implementation of ESD or  even hinder changes in education. 

Research questions 

A, What leadership actions are identified for reaching accommodation in an ESD school improvement process?

B, How is leadership agency in ESD formed and characterized in practical ESD implementation? 

Methods section  

This study is conducted within  a school improvement project, studied by researchers in  several different studies over time . The project was introduced to five schools in one municipality  starting with a pre-study in year 2016 and followed by research until year 2021. The respondent nine school leaders  from five schools all take part in the continues school improvement project on ESD. The aim of the practical improvement  work for schools is to steer their processes towards an ESD whole school approach (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004) that establishes  ESD in the school organization.            

The theoretical framework of coupling mechanisms, assessing actions as accommodative, assimilative or decoupling (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018) link the formulation arena of ESD and the realization arena with outcomes in practice. School leaders actions  on three specific organizational routines of ESD  are studied  over time (a holistic idea of ESD, the interdisciplinary approach of ESD and leadership legitimization of ESD). Accommodation actions  are searched as they intend to transform and change pre-defined understanding of education, causing real changes that are permanent. Leadership agency on ESD is analyzed by thematization (White, 2009) of collective action by responding school leaders over time. Leadership agency towards an established ESD implementation is outlined by combining the mechanisms used by school  leaders steering their actions  and the identified themes of importance for the whole group in leading towards ESD. Interview data was coded, transcribed and narratives was constructed. nd characterized in practical ESD implementation?

We make use of the analyzation of narratives to answer research question 1, RQ1, What leadership actions are identified for reaching accommodation in an ESD school improvement process? In the second step, thematization of narratives (from RQ1) for each mechanism of ESD (accommodation, assimilation and decoupling) are analyzed to search for characteristics of leadership agency in ESD, answering RQ2, How is leadership agency in ESD formed and characterized in practical ESD implementation?

Conclusions

Results on identified leadership actions for reaching accommodation of ESD confirm the importance of  leadership actions to establish a guiding  holistic idea on ESD in the school organization, as well as acting on communication and feed-back systems where collegial long reaching work can develop over time.  

Results further shows that a realization on ESD towards a permanent implementation is a pathway of  distancing reliance on individual responsibilities of ESD  to instead build structural support in the organization. Accommodating agency, as searched in the study consist of  school leaders that involve collegial with other school leader to find moral support in decision-making  as the same time as they increase their own understanding of the improvement of ESD. Five characteristic expressions for advancement in leadership agency of ESD towards a permanent implementation is identified;

1, changes in the infrastructure of education to establish interdisciplinary teacher teams.

2, the use of a distributed leadership approach  to collaborate collegial on ESD.

3, the active use of steering documents to support and legitimize ESD implementation and as a response to critical voices.

4, the development of  supportive and structural routines as well as continuously keeping school improvement on ESD alive.

5, establishing a terminology about ESD that is used at the local school and that need specific introduction to new staff .  

Over all the pathway towards a permanent accommodation of ESD and the characteristic of accommodation mechanisms state that leadership agency of ESD is a question of nesting ESD to the robust foundations within education to establish structures and processes that prevents ESD implementation  to fade or fail.  In this study robust foundations are identified as ESD common goals in the organization, collegial work, communication, and leadership ambitions.   

References  

Feldman, M. S., & Pentland, B. T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 94–118.  

Gericke, N. & Torbjörnsson, T. (2022). Supporting local school reform toward education for sustainable development: The need for creating and continuously negotiating a shared vision and building trust, The Journal of Environmental Education, 53(4), 231-249.  

Hallgren, E. (2018).  Clues to aesthetic engagement in process drama: Role interaction in a fictional business Doctoral dissertation, Institutionen för de humanistiska och samhällsvetenskapliga ämnenas didaktik, Stockholms universitet.

Hargreaves, L. G. (2008). The whole-school approach to eduation for sustainable development: From pilot   projects to systemic change. Policy & Practice-A Development Education Review, (6).

Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-school approaches to sustainability: An international review of sustainable school programs. Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability:Australian Government                       

Leo, U., & Wickenberg, P. (2013). Professional norms in school leadership: Change efforts in implementation of education for sustainable development. Journal of Educational Change, 14(4), 403-422.  

Liljenberg, M., & Nordholm, D. (2018). Organizational routines for school improvement: exploring the link between ostensive and performative aspects. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 21(6), 690-704.

Mogaji, I. M., & Newton, P. (2020). School Leadership for Sustainable Development: A Scoping Review. Journal of Sustainable Development, 13(5).

Mogren, A., & Gericke, N. (2017). ESD implementation at the school organization level, part 2 investigating the transformative perspective in school leaders’ quality strategies at ESD schools. Environmental Education Research, 23(7), 993-1014.

Mogren, A., & Gericke, N. (2019). School leaders’ experiences of implementing education for sustainable development—Anchoring the transformative perspective. Sustainability, 11(12), 3343.

Mogren, A., Gericke, N., & Scherp, H. Å. (2019). Whole school approaches to education for sustainable development: A model that links to school improvement. Environmental education research, 25(4), 508-531.

Olsson, D., Gericke, N., & Chang Rundgren, S. N. (2016). The effect of implementation of education for      sustainable development in Swedish compulsory schools–assessing pupils’ sustainability    consciousness. Environmental Education Research, 22(2), 176-202.

Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.

Weick, K. Making sense of organization. Oxford:Blackwell, 2001. Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfield, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking.               Organization Science, 16, 409–421. White, J. (2009). Thematization and collective positioning in everyday political talk. British Journal ofPolitical Science, 39(4), 699-709.    

Keywords
education for sustainable development, school leadership, agency
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-95557 (URN)
Conference
European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). 22 - 25 August 2023, Glasgow, UK
Available from: 2023-06-21 Created: 2023-06-21 Last updated: 2023-08-31Bibliographically approved
Mogren, A., Forssten Seiser, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T. & Olsson, D. (2023). Leadership Agency in Education for Sustainable Development. In: : . Paper presented at The 17th annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE). Karlstad University, 8-10 May 2023..
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Leadership Agency in Education for Sustainable Development
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2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This is an empirical study on leadership actions that promote Education for sustainable development and facilitate teachers abilities to realize ESD in Swedish schools. A review study on school leaders and education for sustainable development, ESD (Mogaji & Newton, 2020) reported the need to make school leaders more aware of ESD as a way to empower students to handle sustainable. The aim of this study is to identify the leadership actions that enable and constrains a permanent implementation of ESD. School leaders at five schools in a Swedish municipality is interviewed twice in 2018 and 2020, to evaluate effects from a longitude school improvement project focusing ESD. A theoretical framework; coupling mechanisms (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018), is used to study how school leaders act on three organizational routines of ESD (a holistic idea of ESD, the interdisciplinary approach of ESD and leadership legitimization of ESD) over time. Accommodation mechanisms are searched as they intend to transform and change predefined understanding of education, causing real changes that are permanent. Leadership agency on ESD is demonstrated by thematization of collective acting by the whole group of respondents over time. Leadership agency towards an established ESD implementation is outlined by combining the mechanisms used by school leaders and identified themes of importance for the whole group in leading towards ESD. 

National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work; Educational Work; Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94593 (URN)
Conference
The 17th annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE). Karlstad University, 8-10 May 2023.
Available from: 2023-05-10 Created: 2023-05-10 Last updated: 2023-05-11Bibliographically approved
Berglund, T., Gericke, N., Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A. & Olsson, D. (2023). Sustainability change agents in whole school approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD).. In: : . Paper presented at The 17th annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference, 8-10 May, Karlstad, Sweden.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Sustainability change agents in whole school approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD).
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2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This study investigates the experiences of teachers working as ESD-facilitators in a whole school approach project designed to implement education for sustainable development (ESD). The project included ESD-facilitators, teachers, and school leaders. The ESD-facilitators took part in designing joint seminars and workshop activities, and facilitated each school’s internal work. This study aims to contribute with knowledge concerning in what ways ESD-facilitators function as change agents in development processes and how their work can be supported. Different types of sustainability change agents who position themselves differently along the two dimensions of personal detachment vs. personal involvement, and instrumental vs. open-ended approaches (to change and learning) have been identified in previous research (Van Poeck et al., 2017). This study investigates the views and practices of ESD-facilitators in relation to these two dimensions, and focuses on what sustainability change agent functions are enacted, and what contextual factors they experience as successful and/or hindering in their work. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven ESD-facilitators from five schools. Focus areas were their views on: a) the long term goals of the project, b) their role in the internal development work, and c) factors of central importance for their ability to perform their task effectively. The findings indicate that roles and processes become more open-ended in schools where there is room for collaborative and reflexive work. In schools where the culture encourages shared agency, the ESD-facilitators point to their functions in mediating the process in terms of mobilizer, facilitator, initiator, and/or awareness raiser (Ibid.). When there is little room for collaborative work, or the culture impedes it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach become more instrumental and it is harder to integrate ESD and create agency. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of managers, solution providers, experts, exemplars and councellors (Ibid.). 

National Category
Educational Sciences Biological Sciences
Research subject
Biology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94594 (URN)
Conference
The 17th annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference, 8-10 May, Karlstad, Sweden
Note

Symposium title: Leadership agency and functions in implementation processes towards whole school approaches to education for sustainable development in primary and secondary schools 2023

Available from: 2023-05-10 Created: 2023-05-10 Last updated: 2023-05-25Bibliographically approved
Lampert, P., Goulson, D., Olsson, D., Piccolo, J. & Gericke, N. (2023). Sustaining insect biodiversity through Action Competence — An educational framework for transformational change. Biological Conservation, 283, Article ID 110094.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Sustaining insect biodiversity through Action Competence — An educational framework for transformational change
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2023 (English)In: Biological Conservation, ISSN 0006-3207, E-ISSN 1873-2917, Vol. 283, article id 110094Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Insect decline, i.e. the rapid loss of insect biodiversity and species abundance, is an imminent crisis that mirrors the global loss of biodiversity and biological annihilation. Conservation scientists have therefore called for effective public education on how to mitigate insect decline. In this paper, we develop the framework “Action Competence for Insect Conservation (ACIC)” as a tool for improving education and citizen action for insect biodiversity conservation. The ACIC is an educational framework to develop peoples' abilities to take actions that sustain insect biodiversity, connecting insect conservation science with social science. This framework is applicable in various contexts and settings in both formal (e.g. schools, universities) and informal (e.g. outreach) education. It can be used to design and improve educational approaches, develop social interventions for insect conservation more generally, and develop instruments to assess such interventions. ACIC builds on the educational concept of Action Competence that goes beyond traditional education, which has focused on theoretical knowledge. Instead, the ACIC aims to foster peoples' action-oriented knowledge, confidence in their actions and willingness to take action. This explicit focus on actions contributes to overcoming gaps between knowledge and action implementation. The ACIC covers not only actions in private greenspaces, but also highlights the importance of actions that address other people in the community along with relevant stakeholders. We believe that the ACIC framework can contribute to identifying and developing effective intervention approaches, which have the potential to support transformational change in sustaining insect biodiversity. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2023
Keywords
Action competence, Action-oriented knowledge, Education, Insect conservation, Insect decline
National Category
Ecology Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Biology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94658 (URN)10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110094 (DOI)000989722800001 ()2-s2.0-85153889094 (Scopus ID)
Funder
European Commission, 101031566
Available from: 2023-05-15 Created: 2023-05-15 Last updated: 2023-06-12Bibliographically approved
Mogren, A., Forssten Seiser, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T. & Olsson, D. (2023). The Change Agent Guide to Lead Education in Sustainable Development. In: Abstrakts til papersessions: session 1B. Paper presented at Nordisk forskningskonference om Miljø og Bæredygtighed i Uddannelse, Aarhus, Denmark, November 21-22, 2023.. Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Change Agent Guide to Lead Education in Sustainable Development
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2023 (English)In: Abstrakts til papersessions: session 1B, Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2023Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2023
Keywords
Education for sustainable development, Leadership, School organization, whole school approach
National Category
Pedagogy
Research subject
Educational Work; Education; Biology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-95433 (URN)
Conference
Nordisk forskningskonference om Miljø og Bæredygtighed i Uddannelse, Aarhus, Denmark, November 21-22, 2023.
Available from: 2023-06-19 Created: 2023-06-19 Last updated: 2023-12-04Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0001-7976-4860

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