Key Issues in Education for Climate Change and Sustainability

Code:

DE339

Acronym:

QAECS

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Educational Sciences

Instance: 2021/2022 - 2S (since 07-02-2022 to 28-05-2022)

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Master Degree in Educational Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MCED	10	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	12	98	324

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

As a curricular unit in the domain of "Education for Climate Change and Sustainability", its first objective is to deepen and problematize the concepts of climate emergency, climate action, sustainability, environmental citizenship and their implications in the field of education. A second phase will be aimed at promoting the identification of lines of work within the scope of this domain, and the last phase will address the construction of the students' research or internship projects.

Learning outcomes and competences

Competencies

At the end of the curricular unit, the students should be able to:

- Analyze and problematize different policies, programs, projects and strategies for socio-educational intervention in the fields of climate education and for sustainability.
- Mobilize skills developed in their training for the analysis of theoretical and methodological devices of research / socio-educational intervention projects in the field of sustainability and education/climate action.
- Build a research object and/or socio-educational intervention and justify its relevance within the field of Educational Sciences.
- Structure a research or socio-educational intervention plan to promote environmental citizenship and civic/political participation in decision-making processes related to climate change and sustainability.

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes will be assessed by the students' demonstration of their ability to:

- Explain the theoretical-methodological dimensions of research / socio-educational intervention projects in the field of sustainability, in general, and climate education in particular.

- Produce a research / socio-educational intervention project in these same areas, favouring mixed methods and participatory approaches.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

n.a.

Program

1. Climate and sustainability education: key concepts, policies, programs, guidelines and strategies

2. Projects and practices in climate education and for sustainability: an exploration of theoretical and methodological devices and contacts with agents of research and socio-educational intervention

3. Design and development of a socio-educational research or intervention project: the architecture of the project, lines of investigation/intervention, building an object, methodological and ethical challenges.

Mandatory literature

Louis Cohen; Research methods in education. ISBN: 0-415-10235-9
Virginia Braun; Successful qualitative research. ISBN: 978-1-84787-582-2
Ion Dafinoiu; Research methods in the social sciences. ISBN: 3-631-50434-9
Thomas Macintyre, Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Arjen Wals, Coleen Vogel, & Valentina Tassone ; Towards transformative social learning on the path to 1.5 degrees, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2017
UNESCO; Education for Sustainable Development Goals Learning Objectives, UNESCO, 2017

Teaching methods and learning activities

Considering the objectives, as well as its nature of context for the development of a research or internship project  in Educational Sciences, the curricular unit will include three major moments:

1 - Explorations and discussions around the main lines of work in climate education and for sustainability.

2 - Explorations of ongoing projects and practices in the field of Education

3 - Individual construction of the research or internship project by the students

Active and participatory methodologies of analysis and discussion of documents of a varied nature will be privileged; seminars and debates; design and implementation of exploratory interviews and context observation; interspersed with moments of synthesis and reflection in group-class, guided by the teachers.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	30,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	70,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	14,00
Elaboração de projeto	44,00
Estudo autónomo	138,00
Frequência das aulas	84,00
Trabalho de investigação	44,00
Total:	324,00

Eligibility for exams

The student completes the frequency of the curricular unit if, having been regularly enrolled, he / she does not exceed the limit number of absences corresponding to 25% of the planned classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

Distributed evaluation with final exam

The evaluation of students' learning will take into account the following components:
Component 1 - Presentation/discussion of a project  abstract and design
Component 2 - Research or internship project

The classification of the curricular unit is expressed on a scale from 0 to 20 and will take into account a weighting of 30% in component 1 (presentation and justification of the project idea)  and 70% in component 3 (written proposal of the project).

Examinations or Special Assignments

n.a.

Internship work/project

n.a.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Students, in situations foreseen by the legislation and regulations in force, who do not attend classes, may replace the evaluation in component 2 with an individual assignment, under conditions to be agreed with the curricular unit teachers in the first classes.

Classification improvement

For the purpose of improving the final classification, without new curricular unit attendance, or as a resource assessment, students will have to deliver and defend the project identified above in a deepened and improved version.