Education Organisations and Societal Transformation towards a Sustainable Future
Keywords:
educational organisation, eco-social education, transformative learning, sustainable futureAbstract
A necessary precondition for a sustainable future is adopting an ideal of progress in which the aspiration to a good life is obtainable within the limits of one planet. In this article we search for a solution to a structural dilemma in which socialisation and reproduction of our prevailing culture and a comprehensive transformation of society manifest simultaneously as targets for education. We identify the means through which educational organisations can adopt a mission of societal transformation and construct a sustainable future. From the perspective of philosophy of education, the concept of eco-social education, introduced in the Finnish core curricula for early childhood and care, basic education, and general upper secondary education, provides a basis for transformative learning. Based on the theory of levels of learning (Bateson 1972; Sterling 2003), a framework can be derived making it possible to examine the paradigm shift of educational organisation from a reproductive orientation towards forecasting and transformative orientations. We identify an organisation’s relationship with its operational environment, emergence, future
orientation and conception of learning as characteristics for these orientations and as central factors of change. Our model describes how transformative learning extends from individual learning into collective social pedagogy, which further accumulates as societal change through transformative partnerships.
