Concevoir le futur d'un territoire dans une perspective d'éducation au développement durable

Abstract

If imagining the future is a dominant skill in education for sustainable development, it is infrequently learned. Moreover, when the future is studied, it is often in a negative perspective. This paper describes how primary school pupils (from 8 to 10 years old) imagine the future of their territory in an interdisciplinary context based on landscape evolution studies and enriched by scientific research (Human-Environment Observatory). Pupils have to work with several temporal dimensions (past/present/future) about their local territory. They had to think about probable future and the future of their dreams and represent these futures of their environment. Drawings made by pupils for the dreamt future emphasize low imagination ability. Furthermore, pupils draw a probable future which is very close to the present. The discussion highlights how futures in school education could be considered to allow pupil’s thought in several dimensions of the future, i.e. to imagine possible futures.

Keywords

• territory
• future
• sustainable development education
• images
• primary school