Narratives of Sustainability on Energy-Related Topics: Empirical Findings from German Geography Textbooks for Secondary Schools

The possibilities of implementing the ideas of sustainable development in the content of school geography

“…Researchers [17] have noted that in the context of the coverage of geography textbooks for high school in Germany on the issues of sustainable development, this issue is not uniform in the content of geography. Based on the data of other researchers, scientists analyzed the level of coverage of topics related to energy, noting that agriculture, spatial differences, water and Coast, and migration flows are considered a little.…”

Ethical Action in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)–An Analysis of Tasks from German Geography Textbooks

“…As learners are socialized in their familial relationship structures, they usually do not act independently/self-determined in their decisions regarding consumption and lifestyle. Furthermore, the groups associated with the learners (e.g., friends, school sphere, leisure sphere, parents' work sphere) are also embedded in a social system that does not (yet) stand up to the criteria of sustainability in many areas (Pettig & Kuckuck, 2021). So, is the call to action and assumption of responsibility ethically justifiable?…”

“…Accordingly, learners should critically reflect on expert knowledge, examine it and probe contradictions. In an analysis of geography textbooks on the topic of energy and sustainability, Pettig and Kuckuck (2021) found that almost half of the textbook pages studied focus on ESD 1, in that the tasks or headings address the students directly, whereas only two textbook pages correspond to ESD 2. Half of the textbook pages examined correspond neither to ESD 1 nor ESD 2, but to a pure transfer of knowledge without showing connections (e.g., mining of brown coal).…”