Undervisning på växternas villkor. En intervjustudie om hur lärare implementerar utomhusundervisning i sin undervisning om växter

Abstract

Upper secondary school students’ knowledge of plants is decreasing, and many teachers testify that there is a fundamental bias between plants and animals where animals are seen as more important and more interesting. At the same time the written encouragement to teach about plants are decreasing in the subject plans in biology and natural science. Previous studies show that this is a current problem and that an inability to identify plants and understand their place in nature can lead to greater problems in understanding ecological exchange and the role of plants in both nature and in our lives. Research also shows that outdoor education can be a way to introduce plants to students as it can increase interest in plants, contribute to more knowledge and give students a greater awareness of their surroundings. This study will investigate how teachers choose to use outdoor education to teach about plants, why they use outdoor education as a method and what the teachers themselves have identified as difficulties in teaching outdoors. A qualitative interview study has been performed. The result from the interviews have been analyzed though a thematic analysis. Five teachers have participated in this study, and they are all active teachers that teach in biology or natural science in upper secondary school. The study shows that there is no common structure on how the teachers teach using outdoor education. The teaching takes place in everything from small to large projects and can be both in the vicinity of the school or further away in other environments. Why the teachers choose to teach about plants in the nature is to show the beauty and aesthetics of nature, incite interest in students and show connections between nature and society. Difficulties that had been identified were financial, administrative, students' desire to be outdoors and lack of time. These are the major factors to why outdoor education is difficult to implement in everyday teaching.