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Sustainability education (SE), also known as education for sustainability (EfS) or education for SD (ESD), is recognized as an internal element of the fourth (i.e., quality education) of the seventeen United Nations’ (UN) SD goals and has been incorporated into school curricula around the world. China is no exception. As one of the pioneer countries in advocating environmental protection, the Chinese government has called for a paradigm shift in pedagogies that should be problem-solving-based and sustainability-centered.
- sustainability
- sustainability education (SE)
- education for sustainability (EfS)
1. Geography Education in China
China’s revised edition of the new geography curriculum standards for compulsory education (hereinafter the new China’s standards) formulated by the Chinese Ministry of Education (CMoE) in 2021 [1] replaced the 2011 edition. Yet, the new edition has no significant difference from the old one. According to the China’s standards, modern society requires citizens to scientifically and fully understand the importance of the coordinated development of population, resources, environment and society, establishing the concept of SD and constantly explore and follow scientific and civilized production methods and lifestyles. This puts forward the reform of geography curriculum that should help students form positive attitudes, values, behaviors and habits and build their ability to deal with population, resources, environment and development issues. In other words, geography curriculums should help cultivate active and responsible citizens for the environmental protection and SD of the country and the world. The nature of a geography curriculum reflects both natural and social principles and has five major characteristics: regional, comprehensive, ideological, life and practical (see Table 1 for details). Teachers should design a curriculum for students based on the following three basic considerations: (1) learning geography that is useful for life, (2) learning geography useful for lifelong development and (3) constructing an open geography curriculum (see Table 2 for full description).
Table 1. The five major characteristics of a geography curriculum.
| Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|
| Regional | Geography curriculums are mainly based on regional geography, showing the natural and humanistic characteristics of each region and clarifying the geographical overview, development differences and interregional connections of different regions. |
| Comprehensive | Geographical environment is the interconnection of various natural and human elements on the earth’s surface, where such connections and interactions form a complex system. Geography curriculums at the compulsory education stage reveal the complex relationship between the elements of the natural environment and between the natural environment and human activities, reflecting the comprehensiveness of the geographical environment from different angles. |
| Ideological | Geography curriculums highlight the population, resources, environment and development issues facing today’s society, clarify scientific concepts of population, resources, environment and SD and are rich in the ideas of loving hometown, loving the motherland, paying attention to the world and SD. |
| Life | The content of geography curriculums is closely related to the reality of life and highlights the geographical phenomena and possible geographical problems encountered by students in their lives, which helps to improve the quality of life and survivability of students. |
| Practical | Geography curriculums contain a wealth of practical content, including chart drawing, learning tool-making, experiments, demonstrations, field observations, social surveys and rural geological surveys. It is a highly practical subject. |
Source: CMoE [2] (in Chinese, semantic translation with minor modification).
Table 2. Three basic considerations when designing a geography curriculum.
| Description | |
|---|---|
| Learning geography that is useful for life | Geography curriculums should choose basic knowledge of earth and map, world geography, Chinese geography and rural geography, which are closely related to life, to guide students to discover geography problems in life, understand the geographical background that they form, enhance students’ taste in life and enhance students’ survival ability. |
| Learning geography useful for lifelong development | Geography curriculums should guide students to think of problems from the perspective of geography, pay attention to nature and society, so that students gradually form the concept of man-land coordination and sustainable development and lay the foundation for cultivating citizens with geographical literacy. |
| Constructing an open geography curriculum | Focusing on the cultivation of students’ innovative consciousness and practical ability, geography curriculums should attach importance to the development and utilization of curriculum resources inside and outside the school, broaden the learning space, pay attention to diverse geography learning methods and encourage students to learn independently, cooperate and exchange and actively explore. |
Source: CMoE [2] (in Chinese, semantic translation with minor modification).
Similar to overseas counterparts (e.g., [3]), the core concepts in geography education in China involve space, place, landscape and sustainability. Each geography curriculum in compulsory education is further divided into four parts: earth and maps, world geography, Chinese geography and rural geography [1]. Among them, "Earth and Map" is the basis for learning regional geography. In principle, a curriculum at the junior level should not involve deeper issues of geography. Geographical elements are listed separately and combined with regional geography. For example, the natural part of world geography only lists climatic elements, while other physical geography elements are included in the relevant regional content. In the regional part of world geography and Chinese geography, except for the regions specified in this standard, other regions are selected by the textbook writers and teachers. This standard only lists the basic geographical elements of the region and the basic knowledge and basic skills that must be mastered to learn regional geography, as well as the number of required regions. Rural geography can be used not only as a part of the whole curriculum, but also as the core of comprehensive learning. Students can use their geographical knowledge and skills to conduct exploratory practical activities centered on environmental and development issues through collecting information around them. The general goal of the compulsory education phase of geography learning is to master basic geography knowledge, acquire basic geography skills and methods, understand environmental and development issues, enhance patriotic affection and form global awareness and the concept of SD. Table 3 lists the three important aspects, which form an organic whole in the implementation process.
Table 3. Important aspects for implementing a geography curriculum.
| Description | |
|---|---|
| Knowledge and skills | 1. Master the basic knowledge of the earth and maps and be able to preliminarily explain the role of topography, climate and other natural geographical elements in the formation of the geographical environment and the impact on human activities; preliminary understanding of the regional differences in population, economic and cultural development. 2. Understand the general geography of hometown, China and the world and understand the relationship between hometown and the motherland, China and the world. 3. Understand the major issues facing human beings such as population, resources, environment and development and have a preliminary understanding of the relationship between the environment and human activities. 4. Master the basic skills of obtaining geographical information and expressing geographical information in the form of words, images, etc., grasp the skills of simple geographical observation, geographical experiment and geographical survey. |
| Process and method | 1. Perceive the geographical things and phenomena around a person through various ways and accumulate rich geographical representations; initially learn to form geographical concepts, summarize geographical features and understand geographical laws through the thought processes of comparison, analysis and induction based on the collected geographical information. 2. Use the acquired basic concepts and basic principles of geography to analyze geographical things and phenomena and make judgments. 3. Have a sense of innovation and practical ability, be good at discovering geographical problems, collecting relevant information, using relevant knowledge and methods and putting forward ideas for solving problems. 4. Use appropriate methods and methods to express and communicate the experience, ideas and results of learning geography. |
| Emotions, attitudes and values | 1. Enhance the curiosity of geographical things and phenomena; increase the interest in learning geography and the aesthetic taste of the geographical environment. 2. Caring of the environment and development of the hometown, caring of the basic geographical conditions of our country and enhancing the emotion of loving hometown and the motherland. 3. Respect the culture and traditions of different countries in the world, enhance national self-esteem, self-confidence and pride, understand the meaning of international cooperation and initially form a global awareness. 4. Initially form the awareness of respecting nature, living in harmony with nature, adapting measures to local conditions and the concept of SD, enhancing the awareness of preventing natural disasters, protecting the environment and resources and complying with relevant laws and regulations and developing the habit of caring for and caring for the geographical environment. |
Source: CMoE [2] (in Chinese, semantic translation with minor modification).
2. Geography Taught in Junior Middle Schools
Cai [4] provided some insightful views of both seventh and eighth grades on learning geography. She commented that compared with other core subjects like mathematics, geography is a brand new subject for seventh graders. Students learn the time and space of geographical science. The abstract knowledge of celestial bodies, coupled with the complicated earth movement and the resulting geographical significance, makes junior students feel extremely confused. This difficulty may increase when Chinese students learn the urban spatial structures that are mainly explained by the post-modernist discussions that focus on apparent forms rather than substantive contents [5]. Although capable students can adapt well to the situation, other students may find it difficult to learn the subject. Therefore, how to help seventh graders adapt to geography learning is particularly important. In the eighth grade, geography plays the role of letting students know the motherland affectionately, leading them to “travel” the mountains and rivers of the motherland, admire the rich traditions of various places and experience the unique charm of ethnic minorities. Therefore, in the classroom, geography teachers should let students experience the richness and happiness of geography classes while learning geography knowledge.
According to the new standards, compulsory education geography aims to help students acquire geographical knowledge, skills and methods, understand the geographical environment, guide students to actively participate in geography practice activities and encourage students to identify and solve geographical problems. Cai [4] attempted to understand the difficulty level of studying geography at junior middle schools. Through the analysis of the learning objectives in terms of knowledge, skills, processes, methods, attitudes and values in the junior geography curriculum standards, she identified the main words that described the learning objectives. Table 4 exhibits the number of occurrences of these words. She found that the level of the overall curriculum objectives was quite shallow. According to the Bloom’s Taxonomy [6], the curriculum was mainly set at the lower-order level. Teachers engaged in junior geography teaching should carefully grasp the requirements of the curriculum standards in order to properly guide their teaching.
Table 4. The number of occurrences of the words that describe the learning objectives.
| Knowledge and Skills | Process and Methods | Attitudes and Values |
|---|---|---|
| Master (4) | Perceive (1); utilize (2) | Care (1) |
| Preliminary describe (1) | Preliminary master (1) | Preliminary form (1) |
| Preliminary understand (2) | Collect (1); propose (1) | Build caring (1) |
| Understand (3) | Express (1); share (1) | Strengthen (4) |
Note: Source from Cai [7] (in Chinese, semantic translation with minor modification); numbers in parentheses are the frequency of occurrence of the words that describe the learning objectives.
Moreover, Cai [4] also investigated into the situation of junior students’ learning of geography. She randomly selected classes of seventh and eighth grades from the school in which she was teaching and established a sample of 72 students at the seventh grade and 60 students at the eighth grade. Their responses to a set of questions, including the level of difficulty and usefulness, were recorded. It can be seen from Table 5 that more than 70% of the seventh grade students thought that the geography subject was very difficult or difficult to learn; only a few respondents said that the geography subject was easy to learn. More than 90% of junior school students thought that the geography subject was useful, and it was positively related to the proportion of people who liked the geography subject. It shows that junior school students were full of interest in geography learning. In terms of teaching methods, students were more inclined to the use of learning activities. It is interesting to find that the eighth grade students were engaged in more self-learning, indicating that students had adapted to the study of geography and started feeling that the knowledge was not difficult to understand. In terms of teaching aids, it is more inclined to integrate modern computer technology as well as the use of geography teaching equipment. The term “digital wisdom” raised by Prensky [8] has been used to define a digitally intelligent person who “uses digital technologies and available techniques to enhance his or her mind, as well as other human capabilities” [9] (p. 169). Therefore, more teaching equipment and computer technology should be introduced in geography teaching of junior middle schools. In terms of classroom practices, the humorous style of teaching was preferable by most of the students.
Table 5. Geography teaching and learning perceived by junior school students.
| Seventh | Eighth | Seventh | Eighth | Seventh | Eighth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty level | Very difficult (5.6%) | Very difficult (8.2%) | Quite difficult (69.4%) | Quite difficult (16.4%) | Easy (25.0%) |
Easy (75.4%) |
| Usefulness | Very useful (34.7%) | Very useful (16.4%) | Useful (58.3%) | Useful (77.0%) | Useless (7.0%) | Useless (6.6%) |
| Likeness | Very like (36.1%) | Very like (45.9%) | Quite like (56.9%) | Quite like (54.1%) | Dislike (7.0%) | Dislike (0%) |
| Teaching method | Teacher-led (12.5%) | Teacher-led (6.5%) | Interactive (84.7%) | Interactive (82.0%) | Self-learning (2.8%) | Self-learning (11.5%) |
| Teaching aids | Printed materials (2.8%) | Printed materials (3.3%) | Multimedia (41.7%) | Multimedia (59.0%) | Teaching equipment (55.5%) | Teaching equipment (37.7%) |
| Teaching style | Humorous (83.3%) | Humorous (88.5%) | Serious (4.2%) | Serious (3.3%) | Random (12.5%) | Random (8.2%) |
Note: Source from Cai [7] (in Chinese, semantic translation with minor modification); numbers in parentheses are the percentages of students who responded to a set of questions, including the level of difficulty and usefulness.
3. SD in Junior Geography Curriculum
As stated in the new China’s standards, the nature of the geography curriculum at the compulsory education stage is to understand the geographical environment and form geographical skills and SD concepts [10]. As noted by Çifçi and Koybaşi [11], “in the context of education, gaining geographical consciousness can be employed as a key to sustainability” (p. 53). Thus, SE has already become a part of the standard geography curriculum. Teaching geography for SD is perceived as critical geography education, which challenges the traditional way of teaching the subject [9]. According to Yli-Panula et al. [12], SE in geography should involve SD learning that can generate holistic experiences around philosophical, theoretical and practical sustainability issues.
Zhang et al. [13] provided examples showing how the concept of SD can be infiltrated in teaching. They mentioned that after learning the content of themes of “continents and oceans” and “transformation of land and sea”, geography teachers can organize students to conduct research and discussion on the theme of “various seas and connecting straits” and learn about crustal movement and the formation process of the continents and oceans, as well as what impacts these will have on human beings. For example, the hazards caused by the violent movement of the earth’s crust, such as the Ya’an earthquake, will not only cause a lot of damages, but will also bring benefits to mankind, such as new energy sources. Further expanding the classroom teaching to let students learn how to avoid danger in an earthquake, protect life and property as much as possible and use geographical knowledge to serve life better may be considered.
Moreover, teachers should let students jump out of the normal textbook content and walk into the life around them. Zhang et al. [13] used “changeable weather” as an example to illustrate that practical activities can be carried out on relevant festivals, such as World Environmental Day on the fifth of June, requiring students to collect relevant news reports regarding the occurrence of haze in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities and arranging role- playing dramas in the class to understand the impact of environmental pollution on daily life. It is crucial to guide students to actively find solutions to problems. Under the guidance of teachers, students may launch special lectures on environmental protection through cultural performance activities, campus broadcasts, green campuses and other forms of publicity in the school, calling for more students to participate in environmental protection, so that they can understand the environment and the importance of protecting it.
Yet, SE is argued to be a complex and controversial approach, and therefore it is a challenge for subject teachers [14]. SE serves as a multi-faceted form of education that will train students in different ways for addressing different sustainability issues [2]. Clearly, there are different approaches that can be used to teach sustainability [15]. For Roberts [7], “it is easier to determine what geography teachers teach than to influence how they deliver the content” (p. 237). Therefore, in order to teach successfully, teachers should help students set up effective learning activities and should be able to evaluate the use of these teaching and learning strategies to bring about the desired aspects of learning in geography [16].
4. Conclusions
Although China has long been regarded as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, it has also become a global environmental forerunner [17]. With a highly centralized approach to the climate challenge, China may be able to derail “environmental Armageddon” [17]. As a country with the largest population in the world, attracting its people, including students, to the concept of sustainability in all relevant aspects is of particular importance. As noted by Zhang et al. [11], education for SD in China has achieved certain results, but there are still unresolved problems, such as low penetration rate of SE in the geography classroom, lack of teacher training for SE, insufficient knowledge of SD of junior middle school students and poor practical skills of SD. In response to these difficulties, teachers should educate students with a mentality that sustainability is imperative. In addition, the government should formulate policies to strengthen teachers’ pre-job and on-the-job training for sustainability, establish a plat-form conducive to the exchange of sustainability teaching, form a virtuous circle goal and promote the progress of SD.
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/su14010513
References
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