Sustainability through curricula - conceptualizations in and recontextualizations from transnational to national contexts

• In Event: Teacher accountability, mentorship, and curriculum case studies

Proposal

Background and Relevance:
Sustainability is now at the center of the social, economic, and environmental concerns, and because education is [seen as] a key lever in that regard, reforms have also responded in tandem in how schools and attendant functions can become the vehicles and engines for sustainable change. A significant area of activity in that direction has been for governments to reform their curricula, often considering global education policy goals. For example, in the last two decades of education reforms, many countries to varying degrees of conception and intensity have embedded sustainability in their curricula. This study explores how the global policies on sustainable education and sustainability diffuse to national contexts in most recent curricular reforms in four countries i.e., England, India, Norway, and Pakistan.

Theoretical Framework:
We have two aims for this study. First, we examine the conceptions of sustainability at transnational level as espoused by the international organizations such the UNESCO, the OECD, and the EU, where sustainability is promoted as a global education policy goal. Second, we compare the curricular reforms involving sustainability as a key theme of action in four countries i.e., England, India, Norway, and Pakistan, where sustainability is presented as a national curriculum goal. Our study is guided by models of diffusion of innovation by Berry and Berry (2018), and Aker’s curriculum framework to understand how countries are framing their curricular objectives around sustainability.

Data and Methods:
We exploit a qualitative exploratory multi-case design, primarily based on document analysis to investigate the conceptualization and diffusion of sustainability in transnational policy documents and national curricula in K-12 contexts in England, India, Norway, and Pakistan. Data sources include policy documents from the UN, UNESCO, the OECD, and the EU/EC related to sustainability as a global education policy goal; and the latest national curriculum documents/frameworks from the four countries.

Findings:
Transnational organizations position sustainability as a key education policy goal, advocating for its integration into national curricula. While definitions aren't always explicitly provided, we find the common thread that sustainability encompasses environmental, social, and economic dimensions with emphasis on equipping learners to become agents of change for a more sustainable future. Curricular reforms in all four countries respond to the global convergence toward recognizing sustainability as a crucial educational goal. Different dimensions of sustainability such as environmental awareness, climate change, global citizenship, social cohesion, tolerance, peace, and sustainable use of resources, appear in curricula to varying degrees in these countries. A comparative lens on the four cases also shows a difference in interdisciplinarity vs compartmentalized approaches to incorporating sustainability. We also see curriculum ideologies (identified by Schiro as scholar academic, social efficiency, learner-centered, and social reconstruction) reflected within the curricula.

Originality and Significance:
We believe our study is in unique in that it compares curricular innovations in countries with varying degrees of socioeconomic development. As a first study of its kind, we employ diffusion of innovation model by Berry and Berry in the multi-case design to understand how transnational policy goals influence curricular reforms in national contexts. For example, through various channels as framed in the model, we observe a pattern of imitation, normative pressures, and competition amongst concepts of sustainability. This diffusion of ideas suggests that international standards, such as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, percolate down to national education strategies, creating a global discourse that recognizes and values sustainability in education. The findings of the study are compelling to suggest that the global push for sustainability highlights the challenges of establishing any single concept as universally "epochal" in educational curricula because educational priorities are shaped by national contexts, cultural values, and policy decisions, leading to varied approaches to the inclusion of globally pressing issues. Deeper research would be necessary to further understand how globally pressing issues are adapted within national education systems.

Authors

• Gulab Khan, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)

• Armend Tahirsylaj, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Tobias Werler, University of Oslo (Ils)