Exploring the shifts to existing schooling practices that students experience in open schooling practices
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12526005 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A S Gregory (0000-0002-4880-971X, Uppsala University, corresponding author), Leif Östman (0000-0002-0404-3601, Uppsala University), Eva Lundqvist (0000-0001-8036-6245, Uppsala University), Malena Lidar (0000-0001-6764-954X, Uppsala University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 190-210 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Education Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-4622 • E-ISSN: 1469-5871 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13504622.2025.2498940 |
| OpenAlex | W4410099860 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
The rhetoric-reality gap is a long-standing debate in environmental and sustainability education (ESE), which exemplifies the barriers that ESE initiatives face due to the contradictory purposes of mainstream schooling and the visions of environmental education. It is known to disrupt the teaching habits of teachers. In this study, we investigated whether students also faced disruptions when they engaged in open-ended problem-solving ESE practices called open schooling, implemented using the LORET method (Locally Relevant Teaching). It involves connecting education to identifying, exploring, and tackling sustainability problems in the school or in the local community. The exploratory case study uses the pragmatist lens of John Dewey to identify points of shift or friction in students' existing learning habits as a result of engaging in open schooling practices. Students experienced three prominent shifts: (1) freedom and responsibility to select tasks, goals, and outcomes, (2) encountering the authentic and practical nature of the projects-long work processes, uncertain timelines, and unclear instruction, (3) problems with group dynamics exacerbated by uncertainty in other areas of the projects. Uncertainty emerged as a common denominator in all the shifts in students' learning habits. Implications for teachers and students are discussed
Environmental education · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Sociology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Psychology
Experience and nature.
Thematic Analysis
Beyond the ‘green bling’
Schooling and environmental education
Fostering students’ systems thinking competence for sustainability by using multiple real-world learning approaches
Buds of collectivity
Negotiating the constraints of schools
When teaching habits meet educational innovation
Teaching action-oriented knowledge on sustainability issues
Do students have anything to say? Student participation in a whole school approach to sustainability
Eco-school evaluation beyond labels
Schooling and ESE
The effect of implementation of education for sustainable development in Swedish compulsory schools – assessing pupils’ sustainability consciousness
Fitting the outreach in
Emancipatory or instrumental? Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the EcoSchool program
Children’s research into their local environment
The Risk and Potentiality of Engaging with Sustainability Problems in Education—A Pragmatist Teaching Approach
Learning to find a way out of non-sustainable systems
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |