DOI
10.2478/jtes-2018-0012

Summary
This article is concerned with the education of sustainable development at HEIs with a focus here on research conducted in Finland. The article deals with teacher education, theoretical research around sustainability and systems thinking. Hofman-Bergholm begin the article by describing the important relationship between sustainable development and education. They make regular reference to UNESCO with statements such as “Long-term sustainable development can be achieved only if individuals and societies change the way they thick and act. Education is key to achieving this transformation”.

Various pieces of research were reviewed and reported on in the following sections. Here, some key findings will now be summarised.

Degerman’s (2016) dissertation found that 9th grade students in Sweden and Finland had inadequate understandings of climate change. They found it difficult to differentiate between climate change an ozone layer depletion. They were also less knowledgeable on the effect of climate change on humans as they were knowledgeable on its effect on plants and animals.
Hermans (2016) dissertation showed that 9th grade students and geography teachers again needed to have a better understanding on climate change impacts and consequences on the human environment. Hermans also makes the observation that improved understanding does not automatically result in environmentally-friendly behaviour.
Recent studies of Nordic teachers finds that they have low levels of knowledge on species identification and ecological knowledge. As Palmberg (2012) points out, this is the basis for how students will achieve better understanding of environmental issues and sustainable lifestyles (mentioned below in strong points).
Hofman (2012) points out that teacher educators in Finland do not fully grasp the concept of the four sustainable development dimensions.




Hofman-Bergholm state that one of the problems for the lack of sustainable development and environmental knowledge of teachers stems from their university learning experiences and how in Finland these universities are autonomous. The autonomous nature of the universities means that the learning of sustainable development knowledge is not uniform from one institution to the other meaning the focus within the teacher education is left to program leaders.

Some of the suggested courses to integrate into teacher education programs include:

Concepts of sustainability
Ecological economics dealing with consumerism, growth and justice
Critical systems thinking to develop action competence
Basic ecology

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This article is relevant to the sustainable development topic. It focusses on the teaching and teacher education of sustainable development concepts as well as environmental concepts. The paper offers observation sof teacher and teacher educator short comings from studies completed in the Nordic countries. Hofman-Bergholm suggests a number of course to integrate into teacher education programs to build and enhance teacher understanding of these topics in order for the correct information to filter down to students. One of the main implications for integrating sustainable development into teacher education is the fact that the subject is interdisciplinary often requiring a knowledge of systems thinking that is often not attainable from conservative institutions. 

Systems thinking is defined here as “a method of holistic thinking and analysis that promotes the understanding of a system’s interrelated parts and how different systems work and affect larger systems”.

Point of Strength
Palmberg (2012) has stated that students must actualise the importance of species identification and possess an interest in nature and outdoor experiences in order to achieve an understanding of environmental issues and a sustainable lifestyle.

 

The findings of various authors summarised above may have implications for other education systems in other nations. This is stated in the main text of the article also.




The suggested courses to integrate into teacher education could be a useful resource for reimagining education at HEIs.