Given the intensifying environmental and sustainability crises that societies face, there is an urgent need for transformative change on all levels in society. A key question is what role education can, and should have, in a transformation toward sustainability. In this chapter we suggest one answer to this question by outlining a teaching approach in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) called critical pluralism. By drawing on the wider and established pluralistic tradition in ESE, we outline what a critical pluralistic approach could mean in teaching practice. Central to this approach is that arguments and opinions that are brought up in classrooms must be critically scrutinized by both the teacher and the students. However, discussing environmental and sustainability issues comes with didactic challenges for teachers, such as how to open for plural perspectives without giving into an “anything goes” relativism. In this chapter we address this and similar didactic challenges. In our closing discussion we argue that critical pluralistic ESE is not merely teaching strategy to implement but can be seen as a more fundamental approach to the relation between education, democracy and transformative change.

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Critical Pluralistic Teaching: An Educational Approach to Transformative Change

  • Ásgeir Tryggvason,
  • Johan Öhman

摘要

Given the intensifying environmental and sustainability crises that societies face, there is an urgent need for transformative change on all levels in society. A key question is what role education can, and should have, in a transformation toward sustainability. In this chapter we suggest one answer to this question by outlining a teaching approach in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) called critical pluralism. By drawing on the wider and established pluralistic tradition in ESE, we outline what a critical pluralistic approach could mean in teaching practice. Central to this approach is that arguments and opinions that are brought up in classrooms must be critically scrutinized by both the teacher and the students. However, discussing environmental and sustainability issues comes with didactic challenges for teachers, such as how to open for plural perspectives without giving into an “anything goes” relativism. In this chapter we address this and similar didactic challenges. In our closing discussion we argue that critical pluralistic ESE is not merely teaching strategy to implement but can be seen as a more fundamental approach to the relation between education, democracy and transformative change.