Envisioning the Future – A Question of Distances

Yıl 2013, Cilt: 3 Sayı: 1, 1 - 16, 14.01.2013

Heli Vıllanen Gunnar Jonsson Heli Villanen Gunnar Jonsson

Öz

In this paper we will examine how children view their future. Intergenerational relations are at the core of sustainable development. These concern a human’s moral responsibility to the coming generations. But, can we take for granted that future generations will have the same requirements and preferences as we do? Discussions of the future often take off from an adult perspective, but what would the visions of the future be, if children were asked? Theoretically the study is based on the life-world phenomenology. Our study was conducted in northern Sweden in 2011. Altogether, 22 children aged 11 to 12 years participated. They were asked to make a drawing to answer a question ‘what does the future look like when you are grown up?’ During the analysis, four themes emerged; technology, career, apocalypse and sameness. According to our results, we consider that there is an aspect of distance imbedded within the visions.

Anahtar Kelimeler

children’s visions, future, education for sustainable development, intergenerational relations, phenomenology

Kaynakça

• Adam, B. (1998). Timescape of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards. Florence: Routledge.
• Alerby, E. (1998). Att fånga en tanke. En fenomenologisk studie av barnen and ungdomars tänkande kring miljö. Institutionen för pedagogik och ämnesdidaktik. Sweden: Luleå tekniska universitet.
• Alerby, E. (2000). A way of visualising children’s and young people’s thoughts about the environment: a study of drawings. Environmental Education Research, l6 (3), 205–222.
• Alerby, E. (2003). ‘During the break we have fun’: A study concerning pupils’ experience of school. Educational Research, 45 (1), 17-28.
• Almers, E. (2009). Handlingskompetens för hållbar utveckling. Tre berättelser om vägen dit. School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, dissertation no. 6.
• Almers, E., & Wickenberg, P. (2008). Breaking and making norms – young people’s stories of consumption actions for sustainable development. In Values and Democracy in Education for Sustainable Development. Öhman, J. (ed.). Malmö, Sweden: Liber.
• Barry, B. (1999). Sustainability and intergenerational justice. In Fairness and Futurity. Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Beck, U. (1994). The reinvention of politics: Towards a theory of reflexive modernization. In Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Traditions and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Beck, U., Giddens, A., & Lash, S. (eds.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Breiting, S., & Wickenberg, P. (2010). The progressive development of environmental education in Sweden and Denmark. Environmental Education Research, 16 (1), 9–37. London: Routledge.
• Connell, S., Fien, J., Lee, J., Sykes, H., & Yencken, D. (1999). ‘If it doesn’t directly affect you, you don’t think about it’: A qualitative study of young people’s environmental attitudes in two Australian cities. Environmental Education Research, l5 (1), 95–113.
• Dahlberg, K., Dahlberg, H., & Nyström M. (2008). Reflective Lifeworld Research. Hungary: Studentlitteratur.
• Dewey, J. (1991, orig 1910). How We Think. New York: Prometheus Books.
• Eckersley, R. (1999). Dreams and expectations: Young people’s expected and preferred futures and their significance for education. Futures, 31, 73–90. Oxford: Pergamon.
• Edwards, R., & Usher, R. (2000). Globalisation and Pedagogy. Space, Place and Identity. London: Routledge.
• Einarsdottir, J., Dockett, S., & Perry, B. (2009). Making meaning: Children’s perspectives expressed through drawings. Early Child Development and Care, 179 (2), 217–232.
• Fien, J. (1995). Teaching for a sustainable world: The environmental and development education project for teacher education. Environmental Education Research, l1 (1), 21–33.
• Fleer, M. (2002). Currilum compartmentalisation? A future perspective on environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 8 (2), 137–154.
• Gidley, J. (1998). Prospective youth visions through imaginative education. Futures, 30, 395–408. Oxford: Pergamon.
• Gough, S. (2006). Locating the environmental in environmental education research: What research and why? Environmental Education Research, 12 335–343. London: Routledge.
• Hansson, P. (2010). Klimatet och litteraturen – en klimatkritisk läsning av Robinson Crusoe. In Klimatdidaktik – att undervisa för framtiden. Kronlid, D.O. (ed.). Malmö, Sweden: Liber.
• Held, M. (2001). Sustainable development from a temporal perspective. Time & Society, 10 (2/3). Los Angeles: Sage.
• Hertting, K., & Alerby, E. (2009). Learning without boundaries: to voice indigenous children’s experiences of learning places. International Journal of Learning, 16 (6), 633–648. Australia: Common Ground.
• Hicks, D., & Holden, C. (2007). Remembering the future: What do children think? Environmental Education Research, 13 (4), 501–512.
• Husserl, E. (1970). The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
• Hutchinson, F. (1997). Our children’s future: Are there lessons for environmental educators? Environmental Education Research, 3 (2), 189–201.
• Håkansson, M. (2010). Att våga vara klimatpolitisk. In Klimatdidaktik – att undervisa för framtiden. Kronlid, D.O. (ed.). Malmö, Sweden: Liber.
• Jonsson, G., Sarri, C., & Alerby, E. (2012). Too Hot for the Reindeer – voicing sámi children´s visions of the future. International Research in Geographical and environmental education. May, 2012.
• Karlsson, R. (2005). Why the far-future matters to democracy today. Futures, 37 1095–1103. Oxford: Elsevier.
• Lidstone, J. & Stoltman, P. (2007). Editorial: Sustainable Environments or sustainable Cultures. Research Priorities. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 16 (1), 1 – 4.
• Lundegård, I. (2007). På väg mot pluralism – elever i situerade kring hållbar utveckling. Stockholm: Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm Institutionen för undervisningsprocesser, kommunikation och lärande, Studies in Educational Sciences 101.
• Meadows, D., Randers, J., & Meadows, D. (2005). Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. London: Earthscan.
• Merlau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception. International Library of Philosophy and Scientific Method. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Ojala, M. (2007). Hope and Worry: Exploring Young People’s Values, Emotions, and Behaviour Regarding Global Environmental Problems. Örebro Studies in Psychology 11. Örebro University.
• Persson, L, Lundegård, I., & Wickman, P-O. (2011). Worry becomes hope in education for sustainable development. Utbildning & Demokrati, 20 (1), 123–144.
• Prout, A. (2011). Taking a step from modernity: Reconsidering the new sociology of childhood. Global Studies of Childhood, 1 (1), 4–14.
• Tsevreni, I. (2011). Towards an environmental education without scientific knowledge: An attempt to create an action model based on children’s experiences, emotions and perceptions about their environment. Environmental Education Research, 17 (1), 53–67. London: Routledge.
• Tuncay, B., Yilmaz-Tuzun, O., & Tuncer-Teksoz, G. (2011). The relationship between environmental moral reasoning and environmental attitudes of pre-service science teachers. International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education. 1 (3), 167–178.
• van Manen, M. (1990). Researching Lived Experience. Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press.
• WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development) (1987). Our Common Future. London: Oxford University Press.