Norwegian Youths’ Reflections on Education for Just Sustainable Futures

Abstract

While education is often seen as a main strategy for enabling sustainable futures, youth question the ability of modern schooling to provide them with the necessary tools to mitigate our current planetary crises. In this paper, we argue for the need for more critical insight into how youth understand and envision sustainability. The paper is based on a pedagogical intervention study, with a design inspired by decolonial pedagogy (Pashby & Sund, 2019, p. 38). Data was collected in two interconnected workshops at three Norwegian upper secondary schools. We share reflections communicated by students in conversations during the workshops. The material shows that although the students display criticality and an acknowledgement of the need for alternative ways of thinking, they also express a frustration over not being provided with the necessary tools to express this critique through their current education. We argue that if sustainability is to provide an educational avenue of hope and change, it requires tools that can help students challenge the limitations of modern-colonial habits of being and knowing. As the students suggest themselves, there is also a need for making space for more creative and imaginative pedagogical practices in education.