Sustainable Development in Basic Education Sciences in Portugal—Perspective of Official Curriculum Documents

Abstract

This study aims to identify and characterize the understanding of the concept of Sustainable Development in the official scientific educational documents of basic education in Portugal. Methodologically, it is a qualitative study that fits into the interpretive paradigm; its implementation is based on an interpretative-descriptive strategy of exploratory nature. The study involved the organization of the analysis corpus and the subsequent content analysis of the selected documents. The documents included in this corpus are the official educational documents on the teaching and learning of Natural Sciences in Basic Education (1st to 9th grade—ages 6 to 15): the Essential Learning and two transversal documents (the Student Profile on Leaving Compulsory Schooling and the Environmental Education Framework for Sustainability). The obtained results show that these documents frame and guide the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development, in all its dimensions, throughout basic education. However, this does not happen in an equitable way, neither in all documents nor in all years of schooling.

In-Service Teacher Education Program through an Educational Design Research Approach in the Framework of the 2030 Agenda

“…The integration of SD concerns into the Portuguese Curricular Guidelines took several years, of which it is worth highlighting some milestones and relating them to several United Nations initiatives to promote ESD (Figure 1). This systematization has already been previously described in detail by the authors [11,12], but a summary will be presented here to support a more consistent understanding of the concerns underlying the Portuguese educational system. In Portugal, the guidelines for citizenship implementation in educational curricula across different school grades were developed in 1989 as part of the Reform of the Educational System.…”

“…If planned from an EDR perspective, the results generated by an ISTEP can support other research projects in science education fostering improvements in teachers' practices and, consequently, in students' learning (e.g., [11,12]).…”

“…Recent studies on the representation of SD guidelines in the Portuguese curriculum documents show that, although all SD dimensions (environmental, economic, and social) are present in most curriculum and guidance documents, they are not equitably explored [11,12]. Those studies also concluded, however, that the existence of guidelines and legal framework for the implementation of SD in the context of Portuguese schools does not by itself guarantee its operationalization in the teaching and learning process.…”