Whole School Approaches to Sustainability by Wals, Arjen E.J.; Bjønness, Birgitte; Sinnes, Astrid; Eikeland, Ingrid;

Long description:

In response to urgent global sustainability challenges, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education have been prioritized in the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 under SDG 4.7. There is a growing awareness that treating concepts such as global citizenship, sustainable development, climate urgency, and health and well-being as separate subjects or topics to be added to a curriculum is ineffective as they are highly interconnected. Additionally, this approach is problematic as schools already have an overcrowded curriculum.

This edited volume brings together a range of scholars and reflective practitioners from across the globe who are investigating and enacting a whole school approach (WSA) in education for sustainability. While the WSA and related approaches, such as those advocated by EcoSchools, are becoming more popular, there is a lack of understanding of their underlying principles and the different manifestations in diverging socio-cultural contexts at different educational levels. This collection of chapters provides a deeper understanding of the WSA, while also addressing its effectiveness, possibilities for upscaling, professional development needs for WSA practitioners, interlinkages with more conventional curriculum requirements, expectations of students and parents, and more.

This is an open access book.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1. It takes a whole school: an introduction.- Chapter 2. A Whole School Approach: A synthesis of interconnected Policy, Practice and Research Conceptualisations.- Chapter 3. Insights, challenges and prospects on whole school approach to sustainability in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region.- Chapter 4. How to institutionalize a whole school approach to ESD.- Chapter 5. Getting to a whole school approach: Lessons from school effectiveness and school improvement in ESD research.- Chapter 6. Dimensions and conditions of the development of a sense of empowerment in a whole school approach.- Chapter 7. Accelerating change-making: Reflections on embedding regenerative practices in school climate action.- Chapter 8. How can a whole school approach to sustainability be inclusive to all learners?.- Chapter 9. The whole-school alignment model: Facilitating a teacher team in sustainable entrepreneurship education.- Chapter 10. Architecture as educator for sustainable grown-upness: An ESD-performance framework for school habitats.- Chapter 11. Developing a whole (pre)school approach to sustainability: Insights from global citizenship and early childhood education across Nordic countries.- Chapter 12. Activating the petals in the ‘WSA flower model’: Critical factors for sustaining schools’ pathways towards a whole school approach.- Chapter 13. Piloting a self-assessment tool for a whole school approach to sustainability in Mongolia.- Chapter 14. Critical events in the systematic work at an organizational level towards a whole school approach to sustainability in a Swedish municipality.- Chapter 15. Weaving curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy: Global citizenship experience lab school’s whole school approach to sustainability and global citizenship education.- Chapter 16. Students’ deliberation on ‘greening’ the school’s energy supply: A case discussed from a whole school approach perspective.- Chapter 17. A whole school approach towards sustainability: Assessing the implementation of a school program “recreos residuos cero” (zero waste break time).- Chapter 18. Practicing climate action in a K-12 school using a whole institution approach.- Chapter 19. Utilizing collaborative self-study to explore pedagogies for sustainability.- Chapter 20. Critical eco-reflexive approaches: A case study of “Teaching for sustainability” towards SDG 4.7 transition via a whole school approach perspective in higher education.- Chapter 21. Whole-school project-based approach to promote education for sustainability: A Mauritian experience.- Chapter 22. Exploring a whole school approach at non-formal folk high schools in Norway through common goals and action learning.- Chapter 23. A whole-school approach to building communities of practice of ESD: A case study of two Japanese high schools.- Chapter 24. It takes a whole school: A synthesis.