Browsing by Author "Malinen, Mari"

Objectives. There is only scarce research based information on sustainable development (SD) when it comes to class teachers actions and teaching. The aim of this study was to investigate how class teachers take into account education of sustainable development (ESD) and different angles of sustainable development in their actions and teaching. Another aim of this study was to investigate if there is a correlation between teachers SD based actions and SD based teaching and if there are differences in demographic factors (age, sex, location) in how teachers implement ESD. Differences between schools in how teachers implement ESD were also investigated in this study. Methods. The survey data was part of SEED research (Sustainable Food Education for Self-Efficacy Development) which is supported by the Academy of Finland. The aim of the SEED-project is to investigate and support sustainable development in Finnish basic education by charting teachers and pupils actions in terms of sustainable development. PASW 18 was utilized in the quantitative analysis of the survey questionnaires. The nationwide survey was conducted in the spring of 2010 and it was answered by 231 class teachers from 80 different schools. Results and conclusions. The results of the study indicate that class teachers in Finland adhere to sustainable development in their actions and teaching on a mediocre level. Different angles of sustainable development are not in balance in teachers actions and teaching, as social and ecological angles are highlighted whereas the economical angle is the least utilized and recognized. Teachers who adhere to sustainable development in their actions don't take the different angles of sustainable development into account in their teaching very well. The study found that teachers who worked in the cities and teachers who represented the older age group take sustainable development into account the most. Men take into account the economical angle of sustainable development more than women whereas women take more into account the ecological and social angles of sustainable development. There were significant differences between schools in how they take sustainable development into account in teachers actions and teaching.