Sustainable development (SD) is a complex and occasionally controversial topic within environmental education. Previous studies highlight three main dimensions of SD: environmental, economic, and social. Different perspectives exist on how best to teach SD: (1) SD dimensions can be taught separately, to provide a depth of understanding of each element, or (2) SD dimensions can be presented in an integrated manner, so that students are exposed to potential conflicts among the three dimensions. This study explored how students perceive the different elements of SD when presented separately versus together. The authors aimed to illuminate best practices for teaching the complexities of SD to enhance the impact of this branch of environmental education.
The authors surveyed 638 12th-grade students in high schools across Sweden. The survey included two questionnaires: the first asked students to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with statements related to individual dimensions of SD. These questions were specifically worded to indicate the students' level of awareness and attitudes towards each dimension (environmental, economic, and social). The second questionnaire presented real-life scenarios (such as weekly grocery shopping) designed to assess how students prioritized the different dimensions of SD when they are integrated and in conflict with one another. The authors used statistical analysis to test for significant differences in the students' awareness and prioritization of the three dimensions of SD.
The results showed that students responded differently to the separated versus integrated presentations of SD dimensions. When presented separately, student responses indicated the highest awareness and prioritization of social dimensions, followed by environmental then economic, with significant differences between each. But the integrated approach produced different results: most students generally chose environmental dimensions as the most important aspect of the scenarios. Economic reasons occasionally outweighed the other two dimensions, and social aspects were the least prioritized overall. However, these trends were not consistent across every scenario; the authors concluded that the specific situational context influences students' opinions of which dimension to prioritize.
The authors also noted a pattern relating students' overall SD awareness to their prioritization of the different dimensions: the results suggest that students with higher overall SD awareness were more likely to prioritize environmental aspects in the combined scenarios, whereas students with lower overall SD awareness were more likely to prioritize economic aspects in their decisions. Economic aspects were also associated with the widest variation in students' responses.
The results of this study corroborate previous research indicating that perspectives on SD are flexible and context-dependent. The authors concluded that teachers should present the dimensions of SD in relation to one another through multiple different scenarios for students to gain a full understanding of the complexity of SD and its real-world applications. However, they recommended the pursuit of similar research across different countries, and suggested that future studies could use more diverse integrated scenarios to identify further patterns.
The Bottom Line
Sustainable Development (SD) is a complex subject that combines environment, economic, and social dimensions. Few studies have investigated how students respond to the elements of SD when they are presented individually versus in relation to one another. The results of this study show that when elements were presented separately, students prioritized social dimensions. But, when the dimensions of SD were presented together and in conflict with one another, their prioritization of the different elements changed, and was not always consistent. These results corroborate previous research indicating that views on SD are context-dependent. The authors concluded that the best approach to teaching SD is to use multiple perspectives.