Research

Master’s Dissertations

Title
The School that Educates and Transforms Children: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Primary School
Author
Ana Rita da Costa Prelhaz
Defense
24-09-2024
Advisor
Professor Isabel Baltazar, PhD
Institution
ISEC Lisboa - Higher Institute of Education and Sciences
Summary
The Sustainable Development Goals are a common vision for humanity, a contract between world leaders and people and "a list of things to do on behalf of people and the planet". They make up the 2030 Agenda and the school is the foundation for sustainable education, starting with the youngest, elementary school students. This work was carried out after researching and reflecting on the presence of the SDGs in school textbooks. To this end, six activity proposals were drawn up in line with the SDGs and the textbook used by the class. The main objective of the study is to "take" the Unitwin Network The City that Educates and Transforms to schools, through the proposed activities, in line with the work being carried out by the Chair's scientific coordinator, Professor Isabel Baltazar, in schools in Portuguese municipalities. It is equally important to include the school that educates in a more sustainable city, through the students who represent the future generation. This work was conducted during the current school year in a 3rd grade class in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education {Primary School). As such, an action-research methodology was adopted to carry out the activities, involving the students and the teacher/researcher. The data collection tools were observation, informal conversations, document collection and the work done by the students. The results of the activities demonstrated the students' involvement and understanding of the theme of sustainability and the objectives proposed by UNESCO. It was possible to involve other subjects in conjunction with environmental studies, providing students with greater knowledge and engagement with the various themes.
Keywords
Unesco, Sustainable Development Goals, Primary School, Activities.