Education, Sustainability and Responsibility–Pedagogic Antinomies for Prospective Teachers?

Abstract

Current approaches of education for sustainable development (ESD) focus on the importance of dealing with sustainability values and ethical judgements in sustainability issues. Vare and Scott (2007) distinguish between different understandings of education for sustainable behavior (ESD I) or education for a reflective awareness of the value of sustainability (ESD II) (Singer-Brodowski, 2016; Sippl et al., 2020; Vare & Scott, 2007). It has not been examined in detail yet, how teachers recognize or reflect on the pedagogical and content-related antinomies (Helsper, 2004) of ESD. However, it is important to reflect on the content related pedagogical antinomies of ESD mentally, if this is to be implemented (Laub, 2021a). The present article therefore considers how prospective teachers integrate the concepts of education, sustainability, and responsibility into an idea of ESD argumentative and which antinomies they reflect on. By a qualitative approach, texts of prospective teachers are analyzed and types of argumentation are build (Kuckartz, 2018). The results show basically two different types of argumentation, that show different degrees of reflection of antinomies and different integrations of their concept of responsibility in ESD.