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About the Research Group
COSER – Challenges of Sustainability in Educational Researcher – is an interdisciplinary group of researchers in education and subject didactics who are rooted in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The goal of COSER is to contribute to research and innovation that can enable schools and teacher education to meet complex societal challenges related to sustainability both today and in the future.
Pedagogical and transformative processes in society also fall within the research group’s field of interest.
Climate and ecological crises require profound changes for society to remain within the Earth’s limits. The research group is based on a broad understanding of sustainability that encompasses natural, social, political, economic, and cultural conditions. The group centers on issues of democracy and justice while safeguarding linguistic, cultural, and natural diversity. The UN Sustainability Agenda gives legitimacy to the research group’s activities and at the same time is the subject of critical examination.
The research group studies learning processes related to interdisciplinarity, collaboration between school and society, multilingualism, and diversity. Several of the researchers work with texts and other cultural expressions. Some COSER studies explore the relationship between the individual, school, and society from a bildung perspective. Curricula and policy documents are the subject of investigation. Researchers consider ethical and political issues while centralizing conflict perspectives.
Examples of specific issues COSER works with through projects and publications are questions such as the following: What kind of knowledge, literacy, and skills do students and citizens need to meet technological, socio-economic, and environmental changes? How can different school-based actors collaborate on sustainability and education? What role can multilingualism in the classroom play in students’ identity and academic engagement?
Several members are interested in the conditions for pedagogy and education in the Anthropocene, including the human relationship to and interaction with other life on the planet. The broad understanding of sustainability and a holistic societal perspective mean that diversity, democracy, multilingualism, identity, and place also become important concepts.