Environmental Issues in Finnish School Textbooks on Religious Education and Ethics

Solving global environmental problems requires a major change of values. As relates to environmental education, worldview, ethics and spiritual issues are important elements. But how are environmental issues included in such school subjects that especially discuss values and ethics? In this article...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Essi Aarnio-Linnanvuori
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: Karlstads Universitet 2013-08-01
Series:Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-27403
Description
Summary:Solving global environmental problems requires a major change of values. As relates to environmental education, worldview, ethics and spiritual issues are important elements. But how are environmental issues included in such school subjects that especially discuss values and ethics? In this article I examine 24 Finnish religious education and ethics textbooks to analyze, to what extent environmental issues are integrated and discussed in them. I conclude that there is confusion about what environmental education can be in societal school subjects. The environmental texts in textbooks do not always draw on the specific content of the societal subject in question but repeat content from the natural sciences. Therefore, I suggest contexts and perspectives for discussing environmental issues that would comport with these subjects and supplement existing environmental education at school.
ISSN:2000-9879