Abstract
Environmental education has been included in Czech curricula since the 1980s, albeit without clear evidence of education for sustainable development (SD), which addresses complex socio-economic issues using SD indicators (SDIs), such as charts, single numbers, tables, maps, and (interactive) images. However, understanding such a comprehensive topic requires developing basic mathematical knowledge and skills. In this study, we aimed to analyse the nature, quality, and availability of teaching materials for SD, primarily using SDIs, which could be applied by Czech teachers. For this purpose, we performed a qualitative and basic quantitative content analysis of several descriptors of documents retrieved from a website for teachers, provided by the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic. A full-text search identified 1376 records, which were analyzed for SD pillars and SDIs. Our results showed that most records (95%) do not contain SDIs in teaching materials. Only 59 records mentioned (128) SDIs, mostly covering the environmental pillar, 26 of which contain a single SDI. The most frequent issues were waste production, treatment, savings, water parameters, and energy consumption. Mathematical skills were used in 56 SDIs, primarily for evaluating data sets and quantitative expressions of an amount. Overall, only a small number of SDIs are used in education for SD, economic and social SDIs are in the minority, and the STEM potential remains untapped.
Highlights
Sustainable development (SD) has emerged as a leading concept in the last 30 years.As its integral element, education for sustainable development (ESD)empowers learners with complex knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, and attitudes to make informed decisions and take action in caring for the natural and social environment [3].The central question for educators is how to develop their school curricula to effectively communicate information about sustainability [4].Sustainable development indicators (SDIs) translate such information about complex phenomena into a simple message, which can be () interpreted [5]
Types of Indicators Used in Teaching Materials
Most indicators in this teaching material belong to the environmental pillar, with just one indicator related to social and one to economic pillar
Summary
The central question for educators is how to develop their school curricula to effectively communicate information about sustainability [4]. Sustainable development indicators (SDIs) translate such information about complex phenomena into a simple message, which can be () interpreted [5]. When fulfilling appropriate communicative criteria (see, e.g., the work of [8]), SDIs may be regarded as a key educational tool, providing their users with a complex perspective of sustainability themes. Understanding such indicators requires developing complex skills to interpret data presented in different
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