ERIC Number: EJ1149431
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1350-4622
EISSN: N/A
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental and Sustainability Education: Developing Geography Students' Understandings of Sustainable Development Using Poetry
Walshe, Nicola
Environmental Education Research, v23 n8 p1130-1149 2017
Education for sustainable development (ESD) persists as an important concept within international policy and yet, despite considerable debate, there remains a lack of consensus as to a pedagogy for ESD in schools. This paper presents findings from a study investigating how an interdisciplinary approach to ESD in England developed one class of 16- and 17-year-old geography students' understandings of sustainability. The research used students' drawings of sustainable cities alongside questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore their understanding of sustainable development within a constructivist, case study framework. The study found that the use of poetry within a geography lesson developed students' appreciation of the social and economic dimensions of sustainability, although their focus persisted around the environmental. As such, it is argued that an interdisciplinary approach to ESD encourages students to engage more critically and affectively with the concept of sustainable development, thereby developing a more holistic appreciation of it.
Descriptors: Interdisciplinary Approach, Poetry, Environmental Education, Sustainability, Geography Instruction, Teaching Methods, Secondary School Students, Semi Structured Interviews, Foreign Countries, Case Studies, Constructivism (Learning), Questionnaires, Student Attitudes, Freehand Drawing
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A