Schüler(innen) auf der Suche nach den Wurzeln unserer Umweltprobleme. Umwelthistorische Forschung in technischen Schulen als Beitrag zur Bildung für nachhaltige EntwicklungStudents in Search of the Roots of Our Environmental Problems. Environmental History Research in Technical Schools as a Contribution to Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

We conducted research in environmental history with students from a technical secondary school. Some participants of the project Our Environment Has a History probably doubted the feasibility at the outset of this transdisciplinary project in 2008. After two years' work we discuss the challenges of the project, i.e., the role definitions and cultural differences in the conception of knowledge, research and learning between school and academia, and how they were mastered. This evaluation is based on the experiences made during the cooperation and on results from concomitant research. How to guide the students in their independent research was a defining question. We analyse which factors were decisive for the success of the cooperation and we assess the contribution of the students' research to the relatively new research field of environmental history: They brought in new topics that related to their lives as technical trainees rather than to academic discourse. Their work yielded results at the interface of environmental history, technology and environmental problems. We conclude that the implementation of environmental history in schools can contribute to education for sustainable development.