Working with Quality Criteria for ESDschools

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Working with Quality Criteria for ESD-schools

• Michela Mayer
• Finn Mogensen

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ESD-schools, what is that?
Forest schools
Green schools
Eco-schools
Model schools
Outdoor schools
Schools for a sustainable future
This kind of schools are increasing in number and
improving in quality under different names at
European and international level
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Why a comparative research on ESD-schools?

• Schools are at the center of the enSI and of the
  SEED networks
• In our definition ESD-schools are schools that
  have chosen Education for Sustainable Development
  as a central part of their mission and their
  educational plan.
• They aim to offer students a context for
  developing active citizenship and participation,
  embracing the complexity of the combined social,
  economic, political and environmental dimensions
  of sustainable development.

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Why focusing on Quality criteria?

• The schools use explicit or implicit criteria for
  reflecting on the processes and for evaluating
  their achievements
• More often these criteria are given to the
  school networks by educational authorities or by
  NGOs
• Criteria can be used for Quality control or for
  Quality enhancement

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The conceptions underlying our research on
Quality Criteria

• A conception of Environmental Education oriented
  toward Sustainable Development
• A conception of school organisation and of School
  Development
• A conception of Quality and of evaluation of
  Quality

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Conceptions of EE oriented toward SD

• Environmental problems are seen as mainly
  cultural and social problems
• Embedded in a culture of complexity
• Focused on action competence not on behaviour
  modification -
• and on the construction of g-local knowledge
  through action
• The language of critique is complemented by the
  language of possibility
• Students participation is crucial

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Conceptions of School Development

• OECD Schooling Scenarios Schooling for the
  future
• Scenarios attempting to maintain the status Quo
• Bureaucratic School Systems Continue
• Teachers Exodus - The Meltdown Scenario'
• Re-schooling Scenarios
• Schools as Core Social Centres
• Schools as Focused Learning Organisations
• De-schooling Scenarios
• Learning Networks and the Network Society
• Extending the Market Model

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Conceptions of quality

• Quality and quantity are not in contrast ..
• but quality cannot be reduced to numbers
  (Aristotele)
• Pirsig (The Zen and the art of )
• Static Quality, means good performances in
  defined standards (what we are able to do..)
• Dynamic Quality, means the attempt to do
  something not done before, where no standards are
  fixed
• SD needs both a stable basis is needed to
  sustain the dynamic of innovation

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What are the characteristics of an evaluation
consistent with EE and ESD?

• Deep changes in the conception of EE and ESD
  require research and evaluation
• Awareness of the limit of our knowledge, of the
  unpredictability of both environmental and
  learning process ask for accurate and deep
  understanding of what we are trying to do
• A culture of complexity and participation
  requires an evaluation that takes into account
  this complexity

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3 paradigms for Educational Evaluation
A Positivistic approach Everything can be
measured
A socio-critical approach Something can be
measured and many things can be evaluated through
participation and negotiation
A Relativistic approach Nothing can be measured
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Quality criteria in a socio-critical paradigm

• Quality criteria should not to be confused with
  performance indicators
• A set of Quality criteria may be considered as a
  translation of a set of shared values
  formulated in terms that are more explicit and
  closer to the practice
• Quality criteria give orientation and
  inspiration, they are not a tool for quality
  control, but an opportunity for quality
  enhancement
• Quality criteria are open to on going debate and
  participation

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Quality Criteria as bridges
Values Conceptions Principles
criteria
descriptors
reality
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The Quality Criteria ENSI-SEED comparative
research

• Three stages
• national reports on identifying implicit and
  explicit criteria used to guide, support or award
  Eco-Schools involved in incorporating principles
  and actions for sustainability in whole school
  plans
• a publication comprising the national reports and
  a comparative analysis
• development of a set of quality criteria for
  ESD-school Development
• Participating countries
• Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Denmark,
  Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway,
  Spain (Catalonia), Sweden
• Australia and Korea

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Explicit and implicit quality criteria

• For each type of national initiative, the
  reporters have been asked to describe
• the explicit set of criteria that rule the
  belonging to the initiative, i.e. the
  expectations the school has to fulfil
• the implicit set of criteria, i. e. aims and
  general values proposed, importance given to one
  set of explicit criteria compared to others, the
  way explicit criteria are realised in
  practice,..
• the kind of development process the initiative
  proposes (number and type of steps role of
  self-evaluation role of the community research
  based processes presence of external
  evaluation).

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Future challenges

• Awareness of
• student actions are environmental/sustainable
• teachers actions are educational
• The concept of participation
• What kind of participation we are looking for?
• Why it is important?

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A quest for scenariosWhat images of a
sustainable future?

• Science and techniques driven future sustainable
  development is a matter of management and
  control, the aim of EE is the forming of
  citizens who respect the rules, the main changes
  are in individual behaviours and in lifestyles.
• Relation with nature driven future sustainable
  development is a matter of individual choices,
  mainly related to new relations with nature. The
  main changes concern individual attitudes and
  behaviours.
• Social change driven future sustainable
  development is a social and cultural challenge.
  The main aim of EE is to prepare people to
  actively participate in the social change,
  accepting complexity and uncertainty, and the
  values of democracy.

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What images of the teaching-learning processes?

• Teaching as transfer of correct information and
  strategies active methodologies and concrete
  experiences enhance motivation and foster
  meaningful learning. The teacher is responsible
  for learning and for the correctness of the
  information.
• Learning as an individual challenge, teaching as
  a facilitation process experiential learning in
  a natural environment allows to link emotions to
  values to rational thoughts. Students are
  responsible for their learning, the teacher
  facilitate the contrast among different
  perspectives.
• Learning as a social process, teaching as an
  introduction in the democratic dialogue. Local
  situational knowledge and critical reflection
  are tools for clarification of values and for a
  propositive critical thinking. Teacher is an
  agent for personal and joint knowledge
  construction. Learning as a part in
  decision-making process and making visions for
  future actions

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What images of School Development?

• School as an ecological enterprise. Improvement
  of the school efficiency from a
  technical-economical ecological perspective.
  School and community make the best use of budget
  and expertise. The research is technological, the
  attention is on quality control.
• School as a family. Improvement of the internal
  and external relationships, and of the sense of
  identity. The school is a core social centre
  for the community. The research is on the social
  aspects, the networking is aimed to the exchange
  of good practices.
• School as a educational research community,
  learning from practice and accepting conflicts
  and critiques. The school act as a centre for
  local sustainable development. The research is an
  action research and the attention on quality
  enhancement.

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3 main scenarios for the development of ESD
schools
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Quality criteria for ESD-Schools
A document for international debate by the SEED
and the ENSI networks by Soren Breiting, Michela
Mayer and Finn Mogensen
Criteris de qualitat per a Escoles Sostenibles
A Fenntartható Fejlodés iskoláinak minoségi
kritériumai
Kvalitetskriterier for ESD-skoler
Critères de qualité pour les établissements
scolaires écoresponsables (ESD)
Bildung für Nachhaltigen Entwicklung in Schulen
Criterios de Calidad en la Educación para el
desarrollo sostenible escolar
Criteri di qualità per 'Scuole per lo Sviluppo
Sostenibile'
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Quality criteria for ESD-schools

• Aimed at facilitating discussions within the
  school to clarify the main aims and changes and
  to develop the schools own list of quality
  criteria, adapted to the schools own situation
  and the schools plans for change.
• 3 groups of criteria
• Quality criteria regarding the quality of
  teaching and learning processes
• Quality criteria regarding the school policy and
  organisation
• Quality criteria regarding the schools external
  relations

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How they are organised

• An example
• The rationale
• The quality criteria
• The .open dots

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Future challenges the use of Quality Criteria
for an ESD school development

• A System of Quality Criteria is an instrument
  which summarises and specifies the School
  Environmental Education philosophy.
• In order to really be a frame of reference and a
  binding element of a programme or a school, it
  must be jointly constructed and accepted by all
  the participants.
• The SEED-ENSI proposal as a non-exhaustive list
  of quality criteria to be used as a starting
  point for reflections, debates and further
  development.

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Other challenges

• Intercultural challenges
• What examples, criteria or rationales are
  meaningful in our local, regional, national
  context?
• Teachers training challenges
• What kind of teachers training we need in order
  to be consistent with these criteria?
• Research challenges
• How the criteria can be used for quality
  enhancement in ESD?