STEPS - Sensitise perception, recognise multiplicity: Children’s path to sustainability through narrative and participatory research

Since the early 1990s, the concept of sustainable development has become an internationally recognised paradigm. However, measures to promote sustainability in the context of education, such as the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) 2005-2014, the UNESCO World Action Programme on ESD (WAP ESD 2015-2019) and ESD 2030 as global framework programmes (UNESCO, 2019), do not appear to be having the desired effect.

The STEPS project - Sensitise perception, recognise multiplicity: Children's path to sustainability through narrative and participatory research aims to demonstrate a different approach to education for sustainable development: By sharing perspectives among the children, the aim is to raise awareness of their perceptual processes, increase sensitivity to the views of their peers and stimulate a vision of their school as a sustainable, inclusive learning and living environment. By enabling the children to contrast their own perceptions, the transformative potential of the experience in relation to their understanding of the world and themselves is to be taken seriously and the gap between attitudes and actions is to be bridged.

Based on a combination of Childhood Studies and a body-phenomenological perspective, the research project attempts to explore the topic of sustainability in a participatory way using a mixed-methods approach. The qualitative part of the research is orientated towards the mosaic approach in order to capture the views and experiences of children in a multi-method way and to be reflective, participative and adaptable to the experiences and needs of all children. In this way, the research project attempts to transform institutional education processes on the topic of sustainability, starting from the perspectives and lifeworld of the children, and thus to promote an awareness of otherness and diversity.

Project team:

• Petra Auer (Proposer)
• Elisabeth Gsottbauer (Proposer)
• Stephanie Mian (Proposer)
• Evi Agostini, Giorgio Camuffo, Anna Döring, Denis Francesconi, Alessandra Imperio, Elena Makarova, Susanne Schumacher, Ricarda Scholz, Gerda Videsott