WholeSchool Approach: thefieldsofaction

To understand the importance of a Whole School Approach to ESD, we need to look at the school as a system. Just as ESD dispositions influence each other, and it is therefore impossible to regard them as completely separate, the fields of action in the ESD experimental environment also influence each other. They form a systemic whole and cannot be viewed in isolation. In this set of interrelationships and connections, WSA must remain a workable concept and therefore Djapo has chosen two aspects on which to focus when implementing quality ESD in schools: school organisation and school culture.

Whole School Approach School Culture

School organisation

The importance of the school organisation

By identifying the school’s organisation structure as a field of action for the WSA, Djapo aims to ensure that the way a school is organised supports the implementation of an ESD experimental environment, and vice versa: that the ESD experimental environment supports the school’s organisation. This creates coherence in the actions of the school, which is crucial for the development of pupils’ ESD dispositions.

In order to define how the school organisation impacts the predefined learning outcomes, we refer to the research vision of the research group, Edubron1. It looked for factors in school organisation structures that could increase the effectiveness of ESD. By incorporating these factors into its organisation, a school can greatly facilitate the development of ESD dispositions. By ‘school organisation’ Edubron means the organisational forces in a school.

The characteristics which the school organisation (Verhelst et al. 2021) can influence in such a way as to make a difference to the integration of an ESD approach can be divided into two groups. Two contextual characteristics form one group and six central characteristics the other. Together they form a systemic whole, a compass that gives direction to the school organisation (Mogren 2019) and at the same time is an expression of the school culture. By focusing on the various characteristics, we also express existing or desired norms, rules of conduct, values and assumptionsincluding unexpressed assumptions.

Example ‘Pluralistic communication’ will be greatly facilitated in the school organisation if we make community thinking ‘visible’ (ESD experimental environment).

Example ‘Action-oriented thinking’ (in the ESD experimental environment) is an interesting way of shaping a ‘shared-vision’ school organisation.

School organisation can support the implementation of an ESD experimental environment and, vice versa, the ESD experimental environment can support the school organisation.

PLURALISTIC COMMUNICATION

SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS

DEMOCRATIC DECISION-MAKING

SHARED VISION

ADAPTABILITY

COLLECTIVE EFFECTIVENESS

ESD-EFFECTIVE SCHOOL