Evaluation of school tasks in the light of sustainability education: Textbook research in science education in Luxembourgish primary schools

This article describes a research project that aimed to classify different types of
sustainability-related school tasks in terms of two central approaches in primary school
education: action-based and task-based learning. Using a textbook analysis approach, the
article clarifies implicit and explicit forms of sustainability education in school tasks in
Luxembourgish science textbooks for Grades 1 to 6. The study uses a two-step analysis: first,
scanning textbooks on content relating to sustainability; and, second, evaluating the teaching
practices associated with this content apparent in the textbooks. Step one identifies the school
tasks in which sustainability content is implicitly or explicitly addressed while step two
analyzes which forms of action-based and task-based learning occur in these sustainability-related
school tasks. Based on the results two claims can be made: first, that there is very
little sustainability-related content in Luxembourgish primary science textbooks, and those
topics raised mostly relate to sustainability only indirectly; secondly, action-based and task-based
learning are undervalued in the context of sustainability-related school tasks; neither
of the two was commonly found in school tasks in sustainability education.