Participatory will-formation by crowdsourcing
Creators: name: Heikkinen, Hannu L. T.
name: Nokkala, Terhi
name: Lehtonen, Anna
name: Mykrä, Niina P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: One of the key objectives of the ECF4CLIM project is to develop, test and validate aEuropean framework for sustainability through a novel hybrid participatory approach,rooted in participatory action research and citizen science. In practice, this was achievedthrough participatory crowdsourcing, implemented in the Task 3.1 (Work Package 3).Task 3.1 comprised crowdsourcing exercise, which solicit civic opinion on how tooperationalise the individual and collective competences to prevent climate change andto promote sustainable development, as well as on the factors that enable or constraintheir adoption and transmission in education. The aim of the crowdsourcing process wasto engender a collective meaning-making process, in terms of education forsustainability, by engaging a large, international group of students, parents, teachers,principals and experts in education in discussions on how to develop sustainabilityeducation. Specific endeavours were made to organise workshops and invite peoplefrom underrepresented communities and otherwise marginalized positions in thesocieties, such as students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, sociallyvulnerable young adults and young people from indigenous communities.The crowdsourcing exercise included two practices: First, the Method of Empathy-BasedStories (MEBS; Wallin, Koro-Ljungberg & Eskola 2019) was applied in crowdsourcingworkshops to stimulate rich discussions on the participants’ experiences on the enablersand constraints of sustainability education. The workshops were tailored to the needsof different participant groups. Second, an online discussion for international audienceswas facilitated on the eDelphi platform to obtain a deeper understanding of the issuesaddressed in the crowdsourcing workshops.The data generated in the workshops includes 1) post-it notes and notes on an onlineFlinga platform written by the participants during the workshops, 2) facilitators’ noteson the presentations of the small group discussions and reflective remarks at the end ofthe workshops, and 3) the national and international stakeholder discussions on theeDelphi platform. The findings presented in this report derive from both inductive anddeductive qualitative analysis.Even though the focus of discussions varied among the participants of different partnercountries, the following issues were generally regarded as essential in advancingsustainability competences in education: awareness raising, sufficient human andmaterial resources, adequate infrastructure, effective management with visions andconcrete strategies, cross-curricular and interdisciplinary education with designedcontinuity including meaningful learning and integration of theory and practice. 

Relations with the society and the surrounding community are also relevant for thepromotion of sustainability education.Participatory approaches were regarded as the key in engaging people in promotingsustainability, and different participatory methods were also discussed on eDeplhi.Governing, creating collective cultures of action, materials and models for change, aswell as developing pedagogical practices of learning in practice were regarded asessential concrete steps forward in developing sustainability education among theparticipants on eDelphi.The differences between countries were manifested in the eDelphi discussions.Awareness campaigns were seen as highly relevant among the participants fromsouthern European countries. The national strategies and structures were muchdiscussed among the Finnish participants. The Finnish participants regarded nationalregulations and strategies as major positive enabler, while the participants of othercountries raised critical thought about hierarchies. This may be related to the fact thatin Finnish society, citizens' trust in the administration is one of the highest in the world,and Finland is the one of the least corrupted countries in the world (TransparencyInternational 2021). People trust that the authorities will work for the common good,and because of this they are ready to accept measures imposed by the state in terms ofenvironmental protection as well.Valuing sustainability and action for sustainability were regarded as the most importantsustainability competences and areas. Besides the ability to communicate and trainingskills, critical and systems thinking were mentioned in different crowdsourcing practices.The findings indicate that environmental performance and the individual and collectivecompetences defined in GreenComp, the European Sustainability CompetenceFramework, are essential in promoting sustainability in various educational contexts.Thus, GreenComp seems to serve as a reasonable springboard for operationalizingsustainability competences.