Whole School Approach: an interaction

In Chapter 1 we discussed an important goal of education - how to develop the disposition to make conscious choices in society. We’ve broken down this wide-ranging endeavour into workable goals, called ESD dispositions. In Chapter 2, we put forward the ways of thinking and doing that will help give pupils the opportunity to develop their ESD dispositions. This thinking is supported by the Whole School Approach (WSA). This approach aims not only to implement the ways of thinking and acting explained in chapters 1 and 2 in the classroom, but at every level of school life, from the individual pupil, to the class and to the whole school.

It is important to emphasise here:

– Society influences the goals of education. Education sometimes tends to ‘reproduce’ society, to follow the prevailing rules. While ESD encourages us to transcend the existing paradigms and be conscious of the purpose of education and how to achieve it. By involving ESD in school development, and thus repeatedly stimulating learning about societal issues, the ESD WSA creates the potential to renew society (Mogren 2019).

– The context in which the pupils live is extremely important for the results of their learning and it forms part of the journey that leads to achieving the desired goals.

– It is important to keep re-evaluating our goals on a regular basis (Biesta & Pols 2012).

Specifically, this means that the fields of action defined for the ESD experimental environment apply not only at the level of the pupils in the classroom, but also at the level of the whole school. They give substance to a school organisa- tion and culture that aims to support pupils’ development. Conversely, the school organisation and culture enable and strengthen the ESD experimental environment. They are, in fact, tools for optimising school learning opportunities for pupils to develop their disposition to make conscious choices in society. Interaction takes place.

The prerequisite for this interaction is a school culture in which professional development also forms an integral part. A culture that reflects on the goals of education and their effective application in practice. This requires the school team to be open to examining, questioning and evolving their own pedagogical and didactic practices and vision. This kind of professional development also provides a strong basis for bottom-up, professional learning, based on real-life experiences (Mogren, Gericke & Scherp 2018).

A WSA in ESD stands for stronger interaction between – the opportunities the school offers pupils to develop themselves, especially in the ESD experimental environment, and – the way in which the school chooses to shape its organisation and culture.

The fields of action in the ESD experimental environment give substance to the school organisation and culture, and conversely, the school organisation and culture support the creation of a powerful ESD experimental environment.