Olof Franck

A Phronesian Strategy to the Education for Sustainable Development in Swedish School Curricula

The concept of sustainable development is a foundational concept in educational contexts which seems to be interpretable in various terms. With reference to four syllabuses in the Swedish curriculum, our aim is to identify possible ways of conceiving how the concept may be developed in relation to perspectives bringing forth the relation between knowledge about and knowledge for sustainable development. In the analysis, Bernard Williams’s distinction between thin and thick concepts is applied. With this analysis, a phronesian strategy is suggested to bring world-guidedness and the action-guidingness together within a holistic interpretation. The phronesian strategy will require action of the pupils and sensitivity to the individual and society as a whole. The four syllabuses in social science seem to combine theoretical perspectives with more or less explicit implications of practical and action-oriented educational methods and goals. However, an individualistic attitude and approach to problems and solutions in our world seems to be favoured, which pedagogically could be questionable.

Critical religious education: highlighting religious truth-claims in non-confessional educational contexts

In this article, a religious education, which combines a respect for relevant critical demands, when analysing religious truth-claims, and a sensitivity to the need to avoid unwarranted criteriological constraints in the analysing process, is examined. Starting with an analytical comment upon Andrew Wright’s critical realist approach in terms of a ‘pursuit of truth’, the question of how to motivate epistemological analyses within religious education is raised and discussed with reference to three relevant sceptical arguments. These arguments are made objects of critical comments, and an illustration of pedagogical and methodological consequences is presented with reference to the new syllabuses for religious education in Sweden. Finally, a constructive re-interpretation of Wright’s approach is elaborated, and a critical position in relation to it is outlined.

Challenging the concept of ethical literacy within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): storytelling as a method within sustainability didactics

ABSTRACT Ethical literacy seems to be used, within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), in various ways, some more general and others morally specific, emphasising individuals’ responsibility. The overarching aim of this paper is to present some prerequisites for the development of narrative methods that focus on the vision of a good society without compromising individual integrity. Is it possible to develop ESD in a ways that highlight global challenges with a focus on justice and equity without either, as within post-political romanticism, pretending that social sustainability is a non-controversial ethical goal, or, as within liberal individualistic approaches, claiming that no one may escape from the demands of action competence, which, it is claimed, paves the way for making social sustainability a reality? With reference to some threads in narrative theory and by an analysis of six children’s books, this paper critically and constructively examines storytelling as one method to inspire young people to reflect upon what a good society and a good world might be, to catch sight of visions of a sustainable world and of the differences between how things are and how things could be – a method that may also preserve respect for individuals’ integrity.

Varieties of Conceptions of Ethical Competence and the Search for Strategies for Assessment in Ethics Education: A Critical Analysis

Various conceptions of ethical competence are highlighted in this chapter with the aim of presenting a more or less comprehensive analysis of fundamental importance for developing the national tests in RE in Sweden. The chapter starts with an introduction where the Swedish curricula of 2011 are presented. The structure and the content of the syllabus for RE in compulsory school are analysed with reference to an interpretation of the concept of ethical competence that identifies six competences that may contribute to the meaning of the concept in question. The results of this analysis are used as a basis for a critical interpretation of how “ethical competence”, mostly in an implicit way, is understood in the national tests. This interpretation is developed with regard to some perspectives within the virtue and capability approach presented by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. The chapter ends with some suggestions for developing the items on the national tests regarding ethics, in order to take into account a more complex interpretation of ethical competence and to make this interpretation transparent to pupils and teachers.

Conceptions of ethical competence in relation to action readiness in Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract This paper explores notions of ethical competence in relation to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). It carves out a conceptual field for future empirical research, by coupling the promotion of action readiness as an empirical concept with a theoretical understanding of ethical competence. The concept of competence displays interpretative pluralism as a concrete attribute of an individual or task and an unattainable ideal beyond the specific. With interpretive care, ethical competence, with its origin in values education, is suggested as a foundation of action readiness as ESD competence. In educational practice, action readiness is assumed to be fostered through real-world learning opportunities.

Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education – Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals

Abstract The aim of this article is to present varieties of ethical competence that are highlighted in ethics and moral education research articles, and to discuss them in the light of competences stressed in the Swedish curriculum, understood as an example of ethics education in compulsory school. The material consists of 1,940 educational research articles published between 2000 and 2015, and the method of analysis is inductive, focusing on ethical competence. One finding is the similarity between the study’s tentative formulation of identified ethical competences in four categories, and Rest’s understanding of acting morally, captured in the four components: sensitivity, judgement, motivation and implementation. Based on the analysis of the articles, broader understandings of these focuses are developed, and later discussed in relation to Swedish ethics education, characterised as both a conservative and liberal values education. The analyses and comparison show the importance of the components of moral sensitivity and moral implementation and their relative absence in the Swedish curriculum, but also how moral judgement must include a competence to evaluate moral motivations, where empirically testable reasons are also central. Moreover, the risk of neglecting contextual, situational and knowledge-related aspects of ethical competence is highlighted.

Ethical competence : a comparison between the Swedish and the Icelandic curricula and some teachers’ views

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to highlight some conceptions of ethical competence identified in interviews with teachers in religious education in Sweden, and within analyses of policy documents in a Swedish and an Icelandic educational context. As a starting point we take seven interviewed teachers’ comments about what they view as important ethical competences for their pupils to have. A comparative analysis of Swedish and Icelandic policy documents with regard to the conceptual understandings of ethical competence is made, as well as a comparison between the policy documents and teachers’ comments. The Icelandic curriculum is chosen because it differs from the Swedish one in a sense relevant to an analysis of the teacher interviews. The analyses imply a tension between theoretical and analytical conceptions of ethical competence and an action competence. Finally, some possible threads to consider in developing a broadened and deepened understanding of ethical competence are outlined.

Concluding Remarks and Future Directions

In this last chapter, some concluding remarks are presented with reference to the various chapters. These remarks are related to the paths for future research that were presented in the introduction, and these paths are, in an introductive way, correlated to the research questions that are in focus in the research project of which the book is a part.

Highlighting Ethics, Subjectivity and Democratic Participation in Sustainability Education: Challenges and Contributions

In this chapter the challenge of developing democratic education for sustainability, where the aim is not that the students will be fostered into taking specific moral positions but rather that they will become aware of the right to deliberately choose ethical actions and strategies as moral and social subjects, is highlighted. Various concepts of ethics education are elaborated with reference to sustainability education. The tension that is often observed between “analytical” and “normative” approaches to education about ethical issues is claimed to be neutralizable if the focus is on the prerequisites for the pupils’ becoming engaged moral subjects rather than on expected “results” in terms of “moral positioning” and “moral action”. The concept of subjectivity is discussed with regard to the philosophical-pedagogical approaches developed by Gert Biesta, Jacques Ranciere and John Wall.

Challenging the Teaching of Global Ethical Unity: Religious Ethical Claims as Democratic Iterations within Sustainability Didactics.

The aim of this article is to highlight the role of religiously motivated ethics within the field of sustainability didactics. The article starts with critical reflections on the idea that religion, by proposing claims for knowledge of absolute authorities such as ‘divine beings or supernatural dimensions’, offers capacity for uniting various ethical life-views and positions. An alternative position is outlined: religious claims of this kind rather have to be interpreted as democratic iterations, paving the way for constructive agonistic communication inside, as well as outside, classrooms where RE (religious education) and ethics education are carried out with reference to various dimensions of social sustainability. Such teaching contexts may be apprehended as ‘democratic communities’ where religious justifications for ethical positions that refer to absolute divine or supernatural authorities could be seen as constructively challenging the borders for mutually respectful communication, and therefore as being important to highlight within ethics education on sustainability.