Responding to Global Challenges through Education: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable, and Pro-Environmental Education in Nordic Teacher Education Curricula
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Entrepreneurship Education as an Engine for Promoting Sustainable Transformation
2.2. Sustainable and Pro-Environmental Education in the Nordic Context
2.3. What Could Be the Opportunities of Nordic Teacher Education?
2.4. Curriculum as a Tool for Educational Change?
3. Research Question and Methodology
- How does entrepreneurial, sustainable, and pro-environmental education emerge in Nordic (Finnish, Swedish, and Icelandic) primary teacher education curricula?
- At a minimum, we assessed each curriculum for the following characteristics: expediency, authenticity, relevance, administrative approval within the organisation, accuracy, and objectivity [59]. When it was clear that a curriculum steered the organisation’s actions, all these characteristics were present. However, when curricula were obtained online, authenticity was an important factor to consider.
- Overall, this type of even minor pilot study with three universities is a good place to start looking at how these global aims are manifested in central educational documents. As Cohen et al. argue [59], the generalizability of single experiments (e.g., case and pilot studies) can be further extended through wider replication or multiple experiment strategies, allowing single pilot studies to contribute to the development of a growing pool of data, and allowing the key findings to be more broadly generalized in the future.
4. Case Study Overview
4.1. Finnish Teacher Education: University of Turku, Faculty of Education, Teacher Education, Rauma Campus
4.2. Swedish Teacher Education: Mid Sweden University, Department of Education, Campus Sundsvall
4.3. Icelandic Teacher Education: University of Iceland, School of Education
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Curriculum Case Studies: Country Examples from Primary Teacher Education, Bachelor’s Degree Programme/Steps and Outcomes by Content Analysis |
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The content was read several times in order to build an overall picture of the curriculum | General notes: The programme (180 ECTS) consists of studies in educational science, practical training and studies that provide pedagogical skills required for positions in primary education. The aim of the degree programme is to educate well-qualified academic professionals, active future makers, critical and ethically responsible experts and researchers in the educational field. At the core of a teacher’s work lies the understanding and supporting of a child’s and group’s development. The dialogue between theory and practice takes place particularly during teaching practice periods, which offer a holistic view of a teacher’s work. The objective of the programme is to develop the following areas of competence:
| General notes: The programme (240 ECTS) consists of studies in educational science, practical training and studies that provide pedagogical skills required for positions in primary education, year 1–3 and year 4–6: Primary School Teacher Education Programme in Pre-school Class and School Years 1–3 (Lärarutbildning-Grundlärare med inriktning mot arbete I förskoleklass och grundskolans årskurs 1–3, 240 hp) Primary School Teacher Education Programme, Years 4–6 (Lärarutbildning-Grundlärare med inriktning mot arbete igrundskolans årskurs 4–6, 240 hp) Aim The aim of the program is to for the student through theoretical, scientific and practice-based studies support students with the knowledge and skills needed to be able to work independently as teachers in year 0. 1–3. Subject and subject-didactic studies totalling 165 ECTS in Swedish, Mathematics, English, Civics, Natural science and Technology. For Swedish and Mathematics, 30 ECTS are required and for English 15 ECTS. Further, General Education, 60 ECTS and 60 ECTS Practice-based training. Of the subject and subject-didactic studies 15 ECTS must be subject-related practice-based training | General notes: The programme is a three year 180 ECTS BEd studies (of five obligatory with two years on master’s level to get a teaching permit). It consists of academic and practical studies emphasising teaching and learning of grades 1–5. The programme focuses on:
By reading the obligatory courses and bound electives, the following objectives seem to guide the studies. The competences thus extracted are (such analysed – not presented directly):
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The curriculum was read reflectively, the aim being to find explicit refers to concepts: entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial: learning/ skill/competencies; innovative/creative learning/education; sustainable education, environmental education, SDG | Explicit refers:
| Explicit refers: Primary School Teacher Education Programme, and Years 1–3; Years 4–6 (Utbildningsplan för: Lärarutbildning–Grundlärare med inriktning mot arbete I grundskolans årskurs 4–6, 240 hp) Reflective reading–no references to environment; entrepreneurship; innovative learning. Same for years 1–3 and years 4–6. Values–the history of school, organization and conditions, values, including basic democratic values and human rights. (p. 2) | Explicit refers: No explicit references are made to entrepreneurship (or other forms of entre- enter- entrepreneurial) or action competence. Hardly any direct references to creativity except in two titles of obligatory courses and ways of working but not as a competence. One bound elective course (visual arts) has creativity as a competence aim. Innovative or innovation is not to be found. Sustainability is only mentioned once as an element within one course (5 ECTS Integrative and creative work) in the third year. In the same course critical and creative thinking is presented as a core thread. |
The curriculum was read more reflectively and analytically, the aim being to find inexplicit refers to concepts/themes: entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial learning/skills competencies; innovative/creative learning/education; sustainable education, environmental education, SDG |
Other learning material to support local/school based curriculum design and its implementation which have aims and contents for entrepreneurship education and sustainability.
| In the national core curriculum: Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare, revised in 2018. (1) There are two references to entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial learning Entrepreneurship is referred to in the general goals, and as a specific goal in the subject Civics. (2) Sustainable development (38 references) to all school forms Here the concept sustainable development is seen in the general goals as well as specific course goals. Home and consumer education, Biology, Chemistry, History, Crafts and Technology. Examples: Chemistry–sustainable development is presented as a general goal, is stated implicitly in year 1–3 and explicitly in year 4–6 regarding grade levels. Biology–implicit goal for 1–3, explicit for 4–6 Creativity The concept creativity appears 15 times. Here, the concept is seen in the fundamental values an tasks, as well as subject goals for Art, Music and Crafts. The concept creative ability occurs once. This is stated as an ability which pupils should acquire. | In the curriculum for Primary Teacher Education, Bachelor’s Degree the signs of these issues or emphasis were either vague or only in some courses or not at all to be seen. Direct references to learning about or using the national core curriculum were to be seen in courses about: Reading and writing, information technology, mathematics, Icelandic, general introductory course, one course about visual arts, drama and music and in a course about curricular studies. However, none of these references were linked to or about the concepts and ideas we looked for. Indicators of emphasis in the spirit of entrepreneurship education and sustainability education can be seen in the description of different courses. For example, in the only course that mentions sustainability there is an indication of ways of working that consider student experience and context: “An emphasis will be put on students’ different experience and premises built on individualised learning and inclusion in a multicultural society where critical and creative thinking will be a core thread throughout the course”. Similarly in the same course critical and analytical thinking and independent work is encouraged in the aim: The student will be able to discuss critically methods, ideas and issues in assessment of learning. In the bound choice obligatory course about philosophy and ideas in education, main ideas and ideologies in education are presented and might therefore cover ideas such as innovation and or entrepreneurship education and sustainability education although no direct mention is in the course’s description. These inexplicit indicators are all dependent on interpretation and guesswork and not clearly visible aims that can be associated with education for sustainable development or entrepreneurship education. It must be mentioned that teacher students can over the three years choose all in all ECTS from 59 courses (5 or 10 ECTS). In these courses some of them have explicit mentions of sustainability, initiative and creativity but they are not courses that all or most students choose and is up to chance which ones students choose. |
Case Conclusions | Entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial and sustainable education are widely approached, primarily through the basic education core curriculum. These studies are available in both compulsory and optional studies. Education is also provided in the preparation and implementation of the curriculum. Thus, it could be assumed that future teachers will be somehow trained to implement both entrepreneurial learning and sustainable development. On the other hand, the aims and contents of the teacher education curriculum hardly explicitly mention this elsewhere than in optional studies. | Entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial learning and sustainable development are approached in the general core curricula. However, in regard to the many goals and values, these concepts are few. The same is true for concepts referring to creativity. In the education program plans for primary education student teachers the concepts of entrepreneurship, sustainable development and creativity are not mention explicitly. This may mean that primary teacher student meet these concepts and content in specific courses. However, as prioritized elements of education, it is most likely that these concepts should be made more explicit to support teacher students in their work. | Entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial education is not visible as a distinctive element in the University of Iceland, School of Education, primary education B.Ed. program. This element “entrepreneurial learning” is once mentioned in the compulsory school core curriculum–however initiative is often mentioned there, often in relation to creativity and or independence. Neither were found in the B.Ed program. The sustainability concept (34 times) is also clearly visible in the compulsory school general curriculum and so is creativity (38 times in different compositions). |
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Seikkula-Leino, J.; Jónsdóttir, S.R.; Håkansson-Lindqvist, M.; Westerberg, M.; Eriksson-Bergström, S. Responding to Global Challenges through Education: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable, and Pro-Environmental Education in Nordic Teacher Education Curricula. Sustainability 2021, 13, 12808. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212808
Seikkula-Leino J, Jónsdóttir SR, Håkansson-Lindqvist M, Westerberg M, Eriksson-Bergström S. Responding to Global Challenges through Education: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable, and Pro-Environmental Education in Nordic Teacher Education Curricula. Sustainability. 2021; 13(22):12808. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212808
Chicago/Turabian StyleSeikkula-Leino, Jaana, Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir, Marcia Håkansson-Lindqvist, Mats Westerberg, and Sofia Eriksson-Bergström. 2021. "Responding to Global Challenges through Education: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable, and Pro-Environmental Education in Nordic Teacher Education Curricula" Sustainability 13, no. 22: 12808. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212808