Investigating the political dimension of environmental sustainable education

Sustainability issues are multidimensional, often requiring political, social, and emotional reflection. Environmental sustainable education (ESE) generally has a political dimension because of the complexity of sustainability issues. The political dimension can take many forms, including political deliberation and political moments. Scholars have argued that political deliberation, specifically those that are conflict-oriented because individuals do not necessarily agree about a topic, can help teachers emphasize the political dimension of ESE. These deliberations can also become consensus-oriented discussions, where individuals are in agreement about their viewpoints. A political moment occurs when an individual is strongly affected by a discussion about sustainability, resulting in a self-reflection process that determines why they were affected. These moments can be prompted by deliberation. Little research has been conducted to assess the efficacy of political deliberation in classrooms, or the impact of political moments on ESE in classrooms. This study aimed to determine how learning emerges in a conflict-oriented discussion and what students learn from participation in these discussions. The researchers, after interpreting their initial results, also developed a model to analyze situations that could be political moments.

Researchers worked with teachers at an upper secondary (16-19 years) school in Sweden to develop a lesson that would facilitate a conflict-oriented discussion among students. One class of 13 students participated in the lesson, which consisted of a two-part discussion. The class was first split into two groups and given discussion prompts. The first group discussed whether a person should break the law to achieve a sustainable society, while the second group discussed the possibilities of achieving a sustainable society, specifically how to deal with citizens who are not interested in achieving sustainability. After a 35-minute discussion, the entire class participated in a 30-minute conversation to share what they discussed in the small groups. Students were then given a questionnaire and asked to describe how they experienced the lesson, what they learned, and the emotions the discussion raised for them. The discussions were recorded, and the questionnaire responses were collected for analysis.

The researchers found that there were no disagreements between students in the groups, indicating that the discussions, both in the small groups and with the whole class, were consensus-oriented rather than conflict-oriented. The lack of disagreement indicated to the researchers that students were minimally emotionally invested in the opinions they shared with the groups. Though the lesson was designed to facilitate a conflict-oriented discussion, many of the arguments the students made in their groups were aimed at reaching a mutual agreement. However, the results of the questionnaire revealed that students were in fact emotionally invested in the discussions and were not in complete agreement. Student responses indicated that the discussion did create the emotional experience of a conflict-oriented situation, but students did not voice their opposition to arguments and opinions shared in the discussions. Following these contradictory results, the authors conducted additional research to develop the Political Moment Model (PMM), which can help to determine the occurrence of a political moment. There are four criteria to determine if an issue or event is political: the occurrence of a conflict; inclusion in the public domain; disruption of solidarity or communality; and participants communicating emotions. Using the PMM to analyze the responses of two students from the study, the researchers found that the students' reflections dealt with the political dimension, and concluded that both students did experience a political moment.

There were some limitations to this study. The sample size was very small, and only included secondary students from Sweden, which limits the generalizability of results. Also, though the lesson was designed to encourage conflict-oriented discussions, an alternate set of discussion prompts or groupings of participants may have produced different results. The culture of the school and relationships between the students may have influenced their comfort level with sharing opinions in the discussions.

Based on the results of the study and development of the PMM, the researchers had some recommendations. The PMM can be used to help practitioners better understand political moments, which may assist with planning and designing of educational activities. They also recommend further research to determine the effects of participation in conflict-oriented ESE practices.