Eco-reflexive Bildung-oriented subject didaktik

Bildung is an old and complex concept with several elements and dimensions. A socio-political dimension is the most recent. This paper will highlight important elements in contemporary conceptualizations of Bildung (e.g. Sjöström & Tyson, 2022). One such conceptualization is called eco-reflexive Bildung (e.g. Sjöström, 2018) and can be understood as a renewed understanding of Bildung in the Anthropocene epoch. Bildung-views are always connected to values, visions and worldviews as well as identity (e.g. Sjöström, 2018). Contemporary Bildung-interpretations emphasize moral-philosophical-existential-political dimensions of Bildung and can be seen as an educational meta-theory for (subject) didactics in the Anthropocence. Based on such a meta-theory it is interesting to discuss which consequences it has for subject didactics, didactic models and educational practice more generally. How may an eco-reflexive Bildung-oriented subject didactics look like and which theory- and practice-based didactic models (in a broad sense) need to be developed? (a follow up question is how to define the term “didactic model”?) One suggestion for such an eco-reflexive Bildung-oriented didactic model (Yavuzkaya, Clucas & Sjöström, 2022) will be presented. It takes chemistry as an example and relates to ideas of powerful knowledge and knowings as well as transdisciplinary approaches. Carlgren (2020) has problematized powerful knowledge and instead suggested powerful knowings. This concept emphasizes that disciplinary knowledge is embedded in persons and actions. It is about “knowledge-as-a-means-for-cultivation-of-human-powers” (p. 324). In “transdisciplinary (subject) didaktik”, content (in a broad sense) is central, but the context is beyond the individual school subjects (e.g. Sjöström & Rydberg, 2018). It can for instance be about didaktik models concerning complex controversial societal issues involving several different school subjects in support of eco-reflexive Bildung.The paper was part of a symposium: Education, Bildung, and subject didactics in the Anthropocene network (EBAN): The meaning of Bildung in times of unprecedented changes; chaired by Prof. Kenneth Nordgren, Karlstad University, Sweden