Health and sustainable development education : A paradox of responsibility?

Health and sustainable development are two urgent and global issues that needto be addressed by all societies.The issues are also an important part of the school curricula and present in everyday teaching.By this education has a key function in both qualifyingand socializing students to becomeactive individuals and citizens. Accordingly, health and sustainable development should be considered as both science and social science issues. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze and discuss how health and sustainable development aredescribed in Swedish textbooksforBiology, Science and Physicaleducationand health. The theoretical point of departure is the distinction between individual and societal/political responsibility. Thechapter showsthatthe textbooks create what we call a paradox of responsibility. This means that the issues are de-politicized (individualized) and that the responsibility is placed on the individual rather than on the societal/political level even when such solutions are needed. How textbooks portray issues is of great importance since it influences students understanding of the problems and their thinkablesolutions. We argue that health and sustainable developmentin school alwaysshould be portrayed as both individual andsocietal/political issues in order to empower the students to deal with the issues in a more adequate way