Teaching for social justice and sustainable development across the primary curriculum

Transformative Learning and Pedagogical Approaches in Education for Sustainable Development: Are Initial Teacher Education Programmes in England and Turkey Ready for Creating Agents of Change for Sustainability?

“…However, what this article addressed, unlike other recent studies [70] is that by looking into existing policies and documents, there are openings and opportunities for more creative approaches. As a recent study on teaching for social justice and sustainable development in Ireland [71] suggests, there are creative ways of bringing these themes into the training of teachers. What is needed is support for and encouragement of teacher trainers to be innovative, regardless of the wider constraints.…”

Leadership matters in democratic education: Calibrating the role of Principal in one democratic school

“…My understanding of transformation derives from Freire, the idea of learning that occurs in relationship, through humility (particularly when imbalances of power exist, as they do for example between adults and children), learning to love and learning to dialogue. I find that critical theory, such as that used as the theoretical framework of Kavanagh (2021), tends to stop short of describing what transformation might look like and stops at calling for it. In my experience, transformation is highly particular-but it is a concept that becomes clichéd and oversimplified.…”

“…Joanna: Clearly, you attach a lot of importance to children's experiences of learning about democratic citizenship, socio-cultural diversity and social justice. You told me about a research study undertaken at Balbriggan School, and we read and discussed Anne Marie Kavanagh's chapter about her doctoral project, based on her critical case study of intercultural education at the school (Kavanagh, 2021). The focus of this study is on the realisation of positive change in society through the teaching of social justice, and it is shaped by questions related to those dimensions of learning and curriculum.…”

“…A school aspiring to be democratic is one where everyone comes to recognise the necessity of this dependence and acts increasingly interdependently. My criticism of Kavanagh's (2021) essay on Balbriggan school merely concerns her particular deployment of a critical theory lens, which, I feel, leaves the practitioner reader with no feeling or insight as to how dissatisfactions might be addressed. I hope that this conversation, with its practical reason argument, may be of some help to those on the ground and endeavouring to build democratic schools, and in acknowledgement of the groundbreakers of Summerhill.…”

Philosophieren mit Kindern als Pädagogik für eine offene und ungewisse Zukunft

“…Es geht es um den Umgang mit individuellen und kollektiven Entscheidungsdilemmata im Sinne von "Dilemmakompetenz", um Entscheidungsfähigkeit unter der Bedingung von Ungewissheit und allgemein um die Fähigkeit zum moralischen Handeln auf der Basis von Gerechtigkeitsvorstellungen (de Haan et al, 2008;Künzli David et al, 2015). Auf der inhaltlichen Ebene kann das Philosophieren mit Kindern und Jugendlichen eine Grundlage für die Reflexion zentraler Begriffe wie Gerechtigkeit sein (Kavanagh et al, 2021). Als komplexer philosophischer Begriff kann Gerechtigkeit nicht voraussetzungslos zum Kriterium für die Bewertung von Problem-und Konfliktsituationen gemacht werden, sondern es bedarf spezifischer Lernarrangements, die auf eine philosophische Begriffsklärung und die Förderung eigener ethischer Urteilskompetenz abzielen: Was ist Gerechtigkeit?…”