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Out of the 42 national and local education systems existing in Europe, environmental protection is included in citizenship education curricula. This is used to build
the student competence relating to ‘acting in a socially responsible manner’ in 21
systems at lower secondary education level, in 20 systems at upper secondary education level and in 19 secondary vocational education systems (European
Commission/EACEA/Eurydice 2017). In most European education systems, citizenship education is taught integrated into other compulsory subjects except where
citizenship education is taught as a separate compulsory subject in schools. At the
same time, environmental activities for environmental awareness are on the rise
among the top-level recommendations for extracurricular activities in 22 education
systems at the secondary education level (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice
2017). One conclusion is that if Environmental Citizenship is to be implemented in
secondary formal schooling, it needs to be done through the curricula of many different school subjects and enacted by subject specialist teachers. This issue is at the
centre of this chapter, and we will revisit this later on.
Another issue of concern is the importance of school organisation and school
culture for including Education for Environmental Citizenship in secondary education (Fullan 2001). Previous studies on school leader perspectives concerning quality education in relation to education for sustainable development have identified
four key factors that School principals recognise in order to achieve a transformation of education (Mogren and Gericke 2017):
First, collaborative interaction and school development, i.e. recognition that school
development is an ongoing process where all the teachers and other co-workers
of the school must actively participate.
Second, student-centred education, i.e. organisation of the education in alignment
with students’ needs, recognising that a good relationship between teachers and
students is a sign of quality.
Third, cooperation with local society, i.e. recognition of the need for school organisations to cooperate with the local and global society.
Fourth, proactive leadership and continuity, i.e. a leadership style based on collective learning, implemented through the gradual progression of far-reaching
plans.
Furthermore, it has been shown that it is important to have a common holistic
vision between school leaders, teachers and students at the same school in order to
transform education towards environmental and sustainable aims (Mogren
et al. 2019).
In contrast, there are rather large discrepancies between school leadership, teachers and students on the view of how to implement environment citizenship education. The latest results from the international civic and citizenship education study
(ICCS in 2016) in 24 countries (including 16 European countries) show that about
one third (38%) of school leaders consider ‘promoting respect for and safeguarding
the environment’ as one of the most important aims of civic and citizenship education, while more than half (51%) of the teachers agreed (Schulz et al. 2017).
N. Gericke et al.
Out of the 42 national and local education systems existing in Europe, environmental protection is included in citizenship education curricula. This is used to build
the student competence relating to ‘acting in a socially responsible manner’ in 21
systems at lower secondary education level, in 20 systems at upper secondary education level and in 19 secondary vocational education systems (European
Commission/EACEA/Eurydice 2017). In most European education systems, citizenship education is taught integrated into other compulsory subjects except where
citizenship education is taught as a separate compulsory subject in schools. At the
same time, environmental activities for environmental awareness are on the rise
among the top-level recommendations for extracurricular activities in 22 education
systems at the secondary education level (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice
2017). One conclusion is that if Environmental Citizenship is to be implemented in
secondary formal schooling, it needs to be done through the curricula of many different school subjects and enacted by subject specialist teachers. This issue is at the
centre of this chapter, and we will revisit this later on.
Another issue of concern is the importance of school organisation and school
culture for including Education for Environmental Citizenship in secondary education (Fullan 2001). Previous studies on school leader perspectives concerning quality education in relation to education for sustainable development have identified
four key factors that School principals recognise in order to achieve a transformation of education (Mogren and Gericke 2017):
First, collaborative interaction and school development, i.e. recognition that school
development is an ongoing process where all the teachers and other co-workers
of the school must actively participate.
Second, student-centred education, i.e. organisation of the education in alignment
with students’ needs, recognising that a good relationship between teachers and
students is a sign of quality.
Third, cooperation with local society, i.e. recognition of the need for school organisations to cooperate with the local and global society.
Fourth, proactive leadership and continuity, i.e. a leadership style based on collective learning, implemented through the gradual progression of far-reaching
plans.
Furthermore, it has been shown that it is important to have a common holistic
vision between school leaders, teachers and students at the same school in order to
transform education towards environmental and sustainable aims (Mogren
et al. 2019).
In contrast, there are rather large discrepancies between school leadership, teachers and students on the view of how to implement environment citizenship education. The latest results from the international civic and citizenship education study
(ICCS in 2016) in 24 countries (including 16 European countries) show that about
one third (38%) of school leaders consider ‘promoting respect for and safeguarding
the environment’ as one of the most important aims of civic and citizenship education, while more than half (51%) of the teachers agreed (Schulz et al. 2017).
N. Gericke et al.