EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: CONTRIBUTIONS TO A SCIENCE CURRICULUM FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION

The Declaration of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development gives an important role to education in helping solve the situation of planetary emergency that humanity faces. In Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), Scientific Literacy (SL) was established as one of the contributions that stimulates the understanding of current issues and problems, so that responsible decisions, although justified in the present time, will not undermine the future. Therefore, education in science should also be directed towards the promotion of SL since early school years. It is not easy to define what a scientific literate is. It is also difficult to say how the formal teaching and learning of science in the first school years can help develop skills that will allow justified actions without compromising the future, in a democratic society characterized by the prevalence of scientific and technological developments occurring in a vertiginous pace, with implications for personal life, society and even the planet. Despite its diversity, the design of programme (as a part of curriculum) proposed to promote SL includes the intention to develop and disseminate the practical teaching and learning of science, ground-breaking and suitable for contemporary demands. These programmes share some questions that can be systematized as follows: i) learn what? ii) how? iii) what are the challenges to teachers? Considering this issue we state a view of SL set out in a programme design framed by the principles of ESD and the guidelines Science / Technology / Society (STS). The programme contains theoretical reference elements organized into four distinct levels: dimensions, components, parameters and indicators. They are organized from broader and more general (dimensions) to narrower and more specific levels (indicators). In each dimension there are different components that allow its characterization. Each component is clarified through its development into several parameters and the latter are specified through the definition of several indicators. We selected three dimensions: ESD, SL, and STS. The selection of these dimensions resulted from: i) recognizing the importance of directing the teaching and learning process towards an ESD perspective from early school years; ii) the importance attached to SL in achieving that purpose; iii) the conviction that STS orientation programmes can shape of a more adequate vision of science and scientific activity, as well as an involvement based in the discussion of scientific and technological problems with critical thinking, sense of responsibility and solidarity. We chose to establish a hierarchy for these dimensions: ESD being the most comprehensive (our primary goal), followed by SL (as a means to achieve our goal) and finally STS. We defined three components for the ESD dimension: environmental, social and economic issues; for the SL dimension we also established three components: scientific knowledge, skills and attitudes, and for STS we established two components: guidelines for science teaching in contexts and the implications of the interconnections between science and technology in society and vice-versa. In each component there are several parameters and the indicators defined for each parameter are as objective as possible. All distinct levels (dimensions, components, parameters and indicators) will be presented in tables and justified.