Sustainability education is solutions-oriented learning that parallels a larger movement of teaching complex problem-solving in K–12 education. Some researchers and practitioners suggest that sustainability education differs from more traditional environmental education in that it includes more of an emphasis on ethics and social factors in problem-solving and focuses on generating use-inspired knowledge and solutions. Sustainability education is often thought of as one solution for creating a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society, but measuring its ability to reach these goals can be challenging.
In this study, the researchers called attention to the ambiguity and lack of standards surrounding sustainability education. More metrics are needed to measure the efficacy of sustainability education. The authors created and tested a metric for measuring the concept of interconnectedness within schools that emphasize sustainability. The authors define interconnectedness as “the facilitation of the interactions, collaborations, and integrations between diverse and relevant disciplines, ideas, and educational stakeholders in order to teach students that our actions may, and often do, result in unintended consequences.” They then developed items aligned with this definition that would assess each of these elements.
The study investigated 289 sustainability projects within 59 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS). The study included schools that ranged in size and were in various locations across the United States. The participating schools included 26 elementary schools (grades K–6), nine middle schools (grades 6–8), 21 high schools (grades 9–12), and three K–12 schools. Each study school submitted an application to be considered for EDGRS status; the authors used those initial applications as data sources. The authors also obtained data through teacher interviews, as well as environmental education and sustainability reports.
The authors then placed the data within an “educational scale,” which included recording data related to curriculum, campus, and community. They coded the data using a sustainability lens, which included aspects such as a healthy environment, population wellness, and economic efficiency. The authors measured the construct of interconnectedness by considering how one project linked to more than one scale or focal category. Overall, the authors calculated each school's level of interconnectedness by considering the number of connections divided by the number of projects.
The researchers then used the results to compile recommendations that were based on successful projects and strategies. These recommendations addressed three main questions: (1) What types of Green Ribbon School projects are prone to interconnection across different types of school programs, and why? (2) What types of Green Ribbon Schools achieve high levels of project interconnectedness, what types of schools do not, and why? (3) What common factors are shown to increase the interconnectedness of schools' Green Ribbon programs?
In this sample, the Green Ribbon Schools that appeared to achieve higher levels of project interconnectedness were those that integrated sustainability across all curricula; typically, those schools had good organizational culture in addition to strong goals and norms. They also tended to be private or charter schools and, as such, had greater flexibility in their curriculum. The authors found that campuses that focused on student health and wellness were more likely to have higher levels of project interconnectedness. Other common factors shown to increase the interconnectedness of schools' Green Ribbon programs included considering sustainability in schoolwide decisions, undertaking fewer projects overall, forming strong community partnerships, receiving investment from administrators and other key stakeholders, providing professional development for teachers, emphasizing problem-solving in curriculum, and encouraging interdisciplinary curriculum development.
The schools with lower levels of interconnectedness typically had less time or flexibility within the curriculum. They were also often inner-city public schools with a large student body. Schools with lower levels of interconnectedness tended to have rigorous projects, but failed to adequately educate students and community members about the projects' impacts. Moreover, the findings suggested that lower levels of interconnectedness existed among schools with projects billed as green, such as those with renewable energy systems, green roofs, onsite wastewater treatment systems, and National Wildlife Federation-certified schoolyard habitats. The authors speculate that the lower level of success of these projects, in terms of interconnectedness, may be due to the projects' high visibility and the fact that the projects may feel somewhat disconnected from, and, therefore, less integrated with, the rest of the school. The authors suggest that those projects might help improve sustainability and interconnectedness if the successful projects, or elements of them, are integrated into other classes.
The authors suggest some steps for improving the interconnectedness of programs in sustainable schools, such as incorporating sustainability across the curriculum by emphasizing problem-solving and interdisciplinary learning. If sustainability is related to the community and campus—rather than relegated to the classroom setting— it is more effective. Educators and administrators can use the assessment metrics employed in this study to evaluate the efficacy of sustainability education.
The Bottom Line
In an increasingly complex world, it is crucial for students to learn to solve complex problems and be able to incorporate many ways of thinking and learning into decision making. Schools that connect curriculum, campus, and community to address problems and provide real-world solutions offer a model for helping students develop those skills. Environmental educators can help students become engaged with complex problems by implementing a strong culture of goals and norms, emphasizing student health and wellness as part of the focus on global issues of sustainability, forming partnerships across communities, and emphasizing problem-solving skills. Doing so enhances relevance, improves understanding of environmentally related connections, and empowers students to become engaged with critical and complex issues.