How French Students Meet the Environmental Challenges?
Comment les élèves Français rencontrent les défis relatifs à l'environnement?
Résumé
Whilst the science education for the 21st century is meant to foster an engagement and an
understanding of science in society and environmental problems, there is a need to examine those
aspects and issues that are relevant (major issues, role of scientists and experts, role of the future...).
However, little attention was paid to these concerns in the curriculum. Yet, young people’s views of
the future reflect the sociopolitical concerns of the time (Hicks, 1996). In the present article, the
purpose is to document to what extent students do agree with the statements about some
environmental challenges (pollution, overuse of resources, global changes of the climate, future...)
with a data from a questionnaire-based study involving students attending secondary school in France.
This study forms part of a wider international survey, the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE)
project, based at the University of Oslo. Our result show that French students are interesting in
learning about pollution of water and air, but are not interesting in learning about practices that
limit the effects of pollution and pesticides. Students seem to be unaware of the causal chain that is
at the origin of pollution. Lange (2012) ensures the contribution of science partially to equip the
citizen for democratic deliberation within particular contexts. However, environmental knowledge
can be uncertain. This doubt maintains the democratic potential of the environmental issues, arousing
controversies which are the lifestyle choices and the choices of society. Given these findings, we
have to help students to build a relationship to the environment, more relevant on social and personal
level, with more informed and located knowledge. A relationship renewed between humans and
environment based on integrated designs of the future.
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