TY - JOUR

T1 - Sustainability Reporting at Schools

T2 - Challenges and Benefits

AU - Carbach, Eva

AU - Fischer, Daniel

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017 by Eva Carbach.

PY - 2017/6/27

Y1 - 2017/6/27

N2 - Despite advances made there is still an implementation gap with regard to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in formal educational systems at the school level. The present paper focuses on sustainability reporting as a recently emerging practice in the school sector. It presents the approach and findings of an exploratory interview study at three pioneer schools in Germany that have started to establish sustainability reporting mechanisms. The study has examined how the reporting process is evaluated by project managers with regard to its benefits and challenges. Findings support the potential of sustainability reporting at schools to contribute to an increase in students’ participation in sustainability-related activities at school, create accountability concerning the school’s efforts, help structure the existing sustainability projects and demonstrate new possible courses of action. The high expenditure of time, the teachers’ high workload and lack of support given to the teachers have been identified as major challenges of the reporting process. Further directions for future research into reporting practices at schools are given.

AB - Despite advances made there is still an implementation gap with regard to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in formal educational systems at the school level. The present paper focuses on sustainability reporting as a recently emerging practice in the school sector. It presents the approach and findings of an exploratory interview study at three pioneer schools in Germany that have started to establish sustainability reporting mechanisms. The study has examined how the reporting process is evaluated by project managers with regard to its benefits and challenges. Findings support the potential of sustainability reporting at schools to contribute to an increase in students’ participation in sustainability-related activities at school, create accountability concerning the school’s efforts, help structure the existing sustainability projects and demonstrate new possible courses of action. The high expenditure of time, the teachers’ high workload and lack of support given to the teachers have been identified as major challenges of the reporting process. Further directions for future research into reporting practices at schools are given.

KW - Sustainability education

KW - sustainability reporting

KW - School development

KW - Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

KW - Sustainability sciences, Communication

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021351262&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1515/jtes-2017-0005

DO - 10.1515/jtes-2017-0005

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 19

SP - 69

EP - 81

JO - Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability

JF - Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability

SN - 1691-4147

IS - 1

ER -