PhD defence of Mathilda Brückner
ON THE ARTS OF SUSTAINABILITY TEACHING
Exploring Students’ Experiences with Environmental and Sustainability Education in Denmark
Sign up to attend the defence here
The defence takes place from 13:00 to 16:00 at Kosmopol, Fiolstræde 44, DK-1171 København K
Programme
- Opening by the chair of the defence
- Presentation of PhD project (max. 30 minutes)
- Opposition by the external members of the assessment committee (max. 30 minutes each, including responses from the PhD candidate)
- Potential questions from the audience (max. 30 minutes, including responses from the PhD candidate)
- Conclusion of the defence by the chair of the assessment committee (max. 30 minutes)
- The defence will last no more than 3 hours in total, including breaks
Short summary of thesis
This dissertation investigates how teaching that addresses themes such as sustainability, climate change, nature, and the green transition takes shape in practice. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted at three Danish primary schools that actively integrate these themes into their teaching. Situated within the research field of Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE), the dissertation draws on an affirmative, critical, cartographic approach to examine sustainability teaching as an experienced, enacted, and negotiated process.
The study explores the qualities and tensions that emerge and shape sustainability teaching by foregrounding students’ experiences as analytical entry points. In this way, tensions, dilemmas, and ambiguities are examined not as problems to be resolved through teaching, nor as a matter of students and teachers possessing the right knowledge, but as constitutive conditions of educational practice that require further examination. This approach can be understood in light of the Danish Folkeskole's purpose statement, which emphasises students’ understanding of the interplay (samspil) between humans and nature. These perspectives illustrate how the insights of this dissertation expand the scope of what, where, and who are considered when examining the qualities of sustainability teaching.
Instead of providing pedagogical or didactic prescriptions, the dissertation develops a conceptual and analytical register that opens up further discussion of how students may be understood as part of an educational ecosystem rather than solely as a societal system. Through three publications and the kappa, the dissertation brings these analyses together and develops a sensibility referred to as the arts of sustainability teaching.
The arts of sustainability teaching point to a balancing act in which both qualities and tensions are attended to. In this way, the dissertation demonstrates that quality in sustainability teaching cannot be fixed in advance or located solely in individuals, but instead takes form through relational, place‑based, and situated practices in and beyond school life.
References to the empirical studies and theoretical perspectives informing the dissertation are provided throughout the publications and the kappa. If you would like a printed copy of the dissertation, please contact Mathilda at mbru@sdu.dk.
Leader of the defense
Deputy head of department Thomas Enemark Lundtofte
Department of Design, Media and Educational Science
University of Southern Denmark
Assessment committee
Associate professor Sara Mosberg Iversen (chair)
Department of Design, Media and Educational Science
University of Southern Denmark
Professor Greg Mannior
Faculty of Education
University of Stirling
Professor Ditte Alexandra Winther-Lindqvist
Danish School of Education (DPU)
Aarhus University
Main supervisor
Associate Professor Jonas Andreasen Lysgaard - Danish School of Education (DPU)
Professor Nikolaj Elf - University of Southern Denmark (SDU)
Docent Tom Steffensen - University College (UCC)