Regula Kyburz-Graber

Does case‐study methodology lack rigour? The need for quality criteria for sound case‐study research, as illustrated by a recent case in secondary and higher education

There is a tendency to use case-study research methodology for research issues aiming at simply describing a complex situation, and to draw conclusions with insufficient rigour. Sound case-study research, however, follows discriminate rules which can be described in all the dimensions of a full case-study research process. This paper examines dimensions of case-study research methodology, relating them to scientific research quality criteria. The reasoning is illustrated by the example of case-study research which has been conducted on issues of sustainable development in secondary and higher education. The process of data collection and interpretation and the procedure of drawing evidence from the outcomes are shown, leading to conclusions about quality criteria in case-study research.

Environmental Education as Critical Education: how teachers and students handle the challenge

Abstract Previous research studies suggest that environmental education for social change has to be considered as critical education rather than as nature study. In a participatory research approach, classroom projects with teacher teams in five senior high schools were initiated and in‐service seminars were offered. A theorising debate about environmental education resulted in a critical environmental education concept based on human action in local social systems and the questioning of the norms and value judgements of the people concerned. Classroom projects were analysed with respect to locally constructed critical knowledge and in view of the teaching/learning culture. This study shows that teachers are most concerned about ways of handling a complex and value‐laden process. It is concluded that reflection on processes and methods is essential if teachers are to understand their students’ critical exploration of social issues.

Studies on a socio‐ecological approach to environmental education: a contribution to a critical position in the education for sustainable development discourse

This article outlines a critical position in relation to education for sustainable development referring to a socio‐ecological approach to environmental education. This approach was developed in a cooperative research process with pre‐academic secondary schools over several years in Switzerland. For 13 years our research group has been the one in Switzerland to systematically research curriculum and professional development in environmental education in secondary schools. The group was established at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) supported by funding from the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research, and from 1998 proceeded with research projects at the Institute for Teacher Education (upper secondary level) at the University of Zurich. Case studies were carried out to explore the potentials and constraints which teachers and students meet when working with environmental issues. Two case studies from different research phases are shown which illustrate how both teachers and learners are challenged to cope with increasingly unstructured and unknown situations, pluralistic and controversial perspectives, and with the critical role of science in society. Outcomes are discussed in the light of the social process of sustainable development.

Schülerinnen und Schüler debattieren über Biotechnologien — Eine Fallanalyse von Klassengesprächen über ein Thema im Schnittbereich von Naturwissenschaften und Gesellschaft.

Aufgabe des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts an Schweizer Gymnasien ist es unter anderem, die Bereitschaft und Fahigkeit der Gymnasiastinnen und Gymnasiasten zu fordern, gegenuber sich selbst, den Mitmenschen, der Gesellschaft und der Natur Verantwortung zu ubernehmen (Schweizerischer Bundesrat 1995). Dies bedingt, dass naturwissenschaftliche Kenntnisse auch vor einem gesellschaftlichen Kontext betrachtet und reflektiert werden. In diese Richtung geht auch die laufende internationale Debatte um „Scientific literacy” im Rahmen von PISA, besagt doch das Konzept der Scientific literacy, dass die Schulerinnen und Schuler ein Verstandnis fur die Naturwissenschaften als eine Form von menschlichem Wissen und Handeln entwickeln sollen, welches die heutige materielle, intellektuelle und kulturelle Umwelt stark pragt (cf. Prenzel et al. 2003).

Socio-scientific Views on Environment and Health as Challenges to Science Education

Environment and health are interlinked areas that are generating increasing interest and relevance in view of achieving a sustainable society. This is the main argument for increased emphasis on environmental and health issues in science education. However, beyond this foreground goal, environment and health problems provide a background of opportunities to ask questions about the nature and role of science in society. From a positivist technical perspective, environment and health are well-defined measurable resources or states that can be controlled by well-educated individuals. Environmental and health education and related research approaches have, for a certain time, followed this line. From a socio-scientific perspective, the potential of environmental and health issues lies in searching beyond the surface: What notions of environment and health can be identified, how are they represented in society, and how are they represented in science? How do members of society, such as citizens, politicians, and scientists, come to know about what matters in current and future environmental and health developments? And what concepts do people have about how environmental and health problems might be approached? Such questions illustrated by examples and related research approaches are challenges for a socio-scientific orientation in science teaching.

Wie Wissen entsteht: Neue Unterrichtseinheit zur Nature of Science

Schulerinnen und Schuler einer zehnten Klasse diskutieren in Vierergruppen konzentriert uber die Frage, was naturwissenschaftliches Wissen eigentlich ausmacht und wie es entsteht. Die Lektion ist eingebettet in einer neu entwickelten Unterrichtseinheit zur Nature of Science (NoS).