The educational challenge in "education for sustainable development" : Qualification, social change and the political

Abstract: What happens with the aims and purposes of education when sustainability issues of complexity, uncertainty, risk and necessity are to be handled in educational practises? In this thesis Helen Hasslöf analyses how secondary and upper secondary school teachers discuss aims and purposes of their teaching practices in the light of sustainable development as an overarching perspective. Conflicting aims are problematized to discuss purposes of education. The included articles thus elaborate on students’ possibilities to develop as political subjects, how to value what is seen as qualification of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and emerging myths of social change in relation to sustainability. Furthermore, the concept of sustainable development is elaborated from a conflict perspective in an educational setting. Theories and ideas from Bakhtin, Wertsch, Biesta and Laclau & Mouffe are important theoretical foundations. Analytical methods, inspired by discourse theory, are developed to be used for analysis of teachers’ meaning-making discussions.