Diskurser om undervisning för hållbar utveckling på ett förskollärarprogram

Abstract

The present study examines the discourses that are formed in texts written by a student group studying education for sustainable development (ESD) at a pre-school teacher programme. Discourse analysis is used to investigate what meaning of this teaching content is created during the course. The result shows that three discourses about teaching that were identified previously could also be identified in this course: fact-based, normative and pluralistic teaching discourse. Three categories of tensions between the discourses arose: tensions between the teacher’s choices and the children’s choices, tension between content and aim and finally tensions within discourses and exams. The tensions show the complexity of ESD and the contradictions that make it difficult to combine the teaching discourses. There is a need of opportunities for teacher students to develop skills to teach in new ways, something that does not appear in the texts of the students in the studied course.