Abstract
Dealing with complex sustainability challenges requires an integrated approach to thinking and hence learning. Well-designed, integrated sustainability educational programs at the school level can have a significant positive impact on sensitizing students in this area. We present the case of a cross-curricular educational program designed and implemented at secondary level school with a focus on sustainability of material resources used in electronic products–a fast-growing sector with a significant environmental footprint. Over a 4-week period, teachers of five subjects (science, geography, business, technology and civic, social and political education) tailored their classes to focus on the topic of critical raw materials as it relates to these subjects. Examining a control group against the intervention group before and after the program, we use the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale as a measure of students' environmental beliefs in order to find out the extent to which the program helped the cohort of students develop and retain such an ecological paradigm. Students' pro-NEP improved after the program, including on several facets, such as belief in limits to growth. Findings suggest that our cross-curricular approach was able to influence the young students' environmental orientation in a desirable direction.
Highlights
The complex nature of sustainability challenges demands an integrated approach to tackling them
We present a case of cross-curricular approach for an education program at a secondary level focusing on UN Sustainable Development Goals 12: “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.”
For the students in the intervention, their mean increased for all New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scales—including proNEP scales—and decreased on the anti-NEP scale
Summary
The complex nature of sustainability challenges demands an integrated approach to tackling them. Ensuring sustainable development will require fundamental changes to the extent of renewing our economic system that operates between social and planetary boundaries (Stahel, 2016; Raworth, 2017). The awareness of sustainability issues among other professionals and the general population is rather abstract, which fails to translate into actionable items (Bosselmann, 2001). This keeps individuals from contributing in their capacity as policy makers, in the private sector, or consumers. Enabling people through education and other campaigns to make such positive contributions is crucial in ensuring global sustainability (Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General, 2019)
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