Growing to thrive or growing to die? Analysing high-school students’ perspectives on the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability

Abstract: How and what we should teach children about sustainability, in relation to our current economic system, has become the cornerstone of the debate on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This debate takes place in conjunction with a much broader debate on the concept of sustainable development itself, where the role of economic growth is both questioned and supported, seen as either a necessary support for sustainability or as a barrier to truly sustainable societies. The aim of this study is to understand how Finnish and Swedish high-school students view the role of economic growth in relation to environmental sustainability, as a means to explore the diversity of viewpoints brought forward by students. Such findings are important for shaping an education that fosters critical thinking and inclusive deliberation amongst students who hold different viewpoints. The present study utilises a mixed-methods approach, where the perspectives of 14 students are investigated through a small quantitative questionnaire, in conjunction with qualitative semi-structured interviews. The analysis builds upon previous studies of students’ perspectives on growth in sustainable development, while adding in notions of ecological modernisation, green growth and degrowth, as a theoretical tool to map out the spectrum of arguments and perspectives presented by the students. The results indicate that the students express a large diversity of different arguments on the relationship between economic growth and sustainable development, and that both pro-growth notions and more critical perspectives are prevalent. The implications and results of these findings for learning and teaching are discussed at the end.