Facts

Contact person:
Hanna Hofverberg
Financer:
  • Swedish Research Council
Responsible at MaU:
Hanna Hofverberg
Project members at MaU:
External project members:
  • Leif Östman - Uppsala University
  • Chris Shilling - University of Kent UK
  • Jim Garison - Virgina Tech USA
  • Katrien Van Poeck Ghent - University Belgium
Time frame:
01 September 2024 - 01 September 2028
Faculty/department:
Research subject:
  • Environmental and Sustainability Education Technology Education Design and Craft Education

About the project

This 4-year project aims to investigate the teaching and learning of action competence in relation to sustainability problems as an embodied and practical practice.

The purpose

The purpose is:

  1. to investigate the entanglement of the bodily and cognitive dimensions of action competence connected to sustainability issues,
  2. to investigate the impact of teachers’ interventions in the classroom on students’ learning of action competence
  3. to develop the concept of action competence and to identify crucial principles/strategies for teaching it.

Two case studies in grades 7-9 are conducted: “(re)making lab” in Sloyd and Technology Education where students engage with resources, developing creative and problem-solving skills, and “living labs” in Physical and Health Education where students learn sustainable and healthy mobilities. They are chosen because they involve both practical and embodied actions. Observations, interviews, and walk-and-talk interviews with teachers and students will be conducted. Transactional didactic theory, practical epistemological analysis, and ‘teachers moves’ analysis, are used to analyze the empirical data. The project is important to develop knowledge that can offer guidance for teachers to bridge the divide between knowing about sustainability problems and acting in the pursuit of tackling them, as well as to avoid ‘ecological grief’ or even ‘eco-paralysis’ that affects students’ health and wellbeing.