202
Moreover, the formal curricula include sustainability as a context in which students
should be able to reason in, for instance, the interaction of ecosystems, biodiversity,
food production and energy conversion, which is more in line with a Future 1 perspective on education. Remarkably, the examination requirements for physics do
not include the word or theme of sustainability or Environmental Citizenship at all,
although teachers indicate they often teach subjects in the context of sustainability,
such as solar cells, wind turbines and nuclear energy. The formal curricula for the
pre-vocational education and the vocational training programme tracks have only
very limited references to Environmental Citizenship or Education for Environmental
Citizenship, one sentence stating such a reference is: ‘to pay attention to the relation
between human and nature and the concept of sustainable development’ (CvTE
2016b, p. 1). However, the attainment targets for lower secondary education the
‘Kennisbases’ (‘Knowledge base’) – which crosscut the different tracks – include
sustainability thinking (‘denkwijze duurzaamheid’) as a specific way of thinking to
the science curriculum.
The importance of citizenship education for sustainability is also reflected by the
Dutch national science curriculum for both lower and upper secondary education.
Next to content-specific examination requirements, a more overarching competence
is included in all science subjects (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) since 2016,
similar to the ‘Working Scientifically’ tenet of the English National Curriculum for
Science. The curricular examination requirement A9 ‘waarderen en oordelen’ (‘to
value and evaluate’) asks for the evaluation of situations in nature and technological
applications, using scientific arguments, normative considerations and personal
opinions (CvTE 2016c, p. 3; 2016d, p. 3; 2016e, p. 3). Here, we can see a more
Future 2-based curriculum aiming for socialisation and subjectification (Biesta
2015) more in line with the goals of Environmental Citizenship and Education for
Environmental Citizenship. The flip side of these more overarching general competences is that these are either not assessed in the national examination or they are
assessed to a lesser extent. As a result, the attention paid to these skills in classroom
practice largely depends on policies of individual schools and teachers. This is
underlined by a comprehensive study initiated by the government on the status quo
of education for sustainable development in the Netherlands. This study reports that
one of the areas where the Netherlands is performing well (in an international perspective) is taking an integrated approach to education for sustainable development
(Het Groene Brein 2015). However, for formal secondary education, support for
schools to move forward on this topic is limited, and structural implementation in
teaching is far from optimal. Since 2014, the attention on education for sustainable
development has increased. This was initiated especially by Dutch youth organisations involved in the process of ensuring proper integration of sustainability in
school curricula. This attention on sustainability is reflected by the increasing
awareness on citizenship education at the national level as well (Platform
Onderwijs2032 2016) and has made the curriculum more future-proof. Since 2018,
national teacher teams and school leaders have updated the curricula for the different
domains in secondary education. The outcomes and suggestions will be presented
to the government in 2019.
N. Gericke et al.
Moreover, the formal curricula include sustainability as a context in which students
should be able to reason in, for instance, the interaction of ecosystems, biodiversity,
food production and energy conversion, which is more in line with a Future 1 perspective on education. Remarkably, the examination requirements for physics do
not include the word or theme of sustainability or Environmental Citizenship at all,
although teachers indicate they often teach subjects in the context of sustainability,
such as solar cells, wind turbines and nuclear energy. The formal curricula for the
pre-vocational education and the vocational training programme tracks have only
very limited references to Environmental Citizenship or Education for Environmental
Citizenship, one sentence stating such a reference is: ‘to pay attention to the relation
between human and nature and the concept of sustainable development’ (CvTE
2016b, p. 1). However, the attainment targets for lower secondary education the
‘Kennisbases’ (‘Knowledge base’) – which crosscut the different tracks – include
sustainability thinking (‘denkwijze duurzaamheid’) as a specific way of thinking to
the science curriculum.
The importance of citizenship education for sustainability is also reflected by the
Dutch national science curriculum for both lower and upper secondary education.
Next to content-specific examination requirements, a more overarching competence
is included in all science subjects (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) since 2016,
similar to the ‘Working Scientifically’ tenet of the English National Curriculum for
Science. The curricular examination requirement A9 ‘waarderen en oordelen’ (‘to
value and evaluate’) asks for the evaluation of situations in nature and technological
applications, using scientific arguments, normative considerations and personal
opinions (CvTE 2016c, p. 3; 2016d, p. 3; 2016e, p. 3). Here, we can see a more
Future 2-based curriculum aiming for socialisation and subjectification (Biesta
2015) more in line with the goals of Environmental Citizenship and Education for
Environmental Citizenship. The flip side of these more overarching general competences is that these are either not assessed in the national examination or they are
assessed to a lesser extent. As a result, the attention paid to these skills in classroom
practice largely depends on policies of individual schools and teachers. This is
underlined by a comprehensive study initiated by the government on the status quo
of education for sustainable development in the Netherlands. This study reports that
one of the areas where the Netherlands is performing well (in an international perspective) is taking an integrated approach to education for sustainable development
(Het Groene Brein 2015). However, for formal secondary education, support for
schools to move forward on this topic is limited, and structural implementation in
teaching is far from optimal. Since 2014, the attention on education for sustainable
development has increased. This was initiated especially by Dutch youth organisations involved in the process of ensuring proper integration of sustainability in
school curricula. This attention on sustainability is reflected by the increasing
awareness on citizenship education at the national level as well (Platform
Onderwijs2032 2016) and has made the curriculum more future-proof. Since 2018,
national teacher teams and school leaders have updated the curricula for the different
domains in secondary education. The outcomes and suggestions will be presented
to the government in 2019.
N. Gericke et al.