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Institute
Educational settings such as classrooms provide important opportunities for social learning through interactions with peers. Our paper addresses the research question of whether and to what extent classroom composition characteristics make a difference. We carried out multilevel analyses based on a sample of n = 791 students in 48 classrooms (grades 5 – 7) in inclusive lower-secondary comprehensive schools in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). 22.6 % of the variance in students’ reciprocal friendship nominations were attributable to classroom-level differences. A higher average socioeconomic status and, respectively, a lower percentage of immigrant students negatively affected the number of reciprocal friendship nominations within classrooms. These results indicate that more privileged classroom settings can be related to less dense friendship networks of students. Our findings can be understood as an impulse to consider contextual factors when evaluating and addressing the social structure of classrooms in research and practice.
After the end of the first Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development, coinciding with ongoing international evaluation processes, questions about the implementation of the Education for Sustainable Development programs and assessments continue to be raised. The present study examined Education for Sustainable Development implementation at the local (teachers’) level, assessing what teachers think and know about Education for Sustainable Development and how they implement it in secondary school classes in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. By providing novel data from a teacher survey in 2019, this study revealed that Education for Sustainable Development in some aspects still lacks concrete structural implementation in educational contexts. Using a longitudinal approach, we additionally compared data from an earlier representative assessment in 2007 to the data from 2019. In reference to the preceding evaluation report, the present study showed, for example, that teachers’ attitudes towards Sustainable Development Goals were significantly higher in 2019 compared to 2007. This study provides clarification of the needs and achievements of the Education for Sustainable Development implementation process. In sum, our analysis found that from the teachers’ perspective, more abstract policies are not needed, but instead teachers ask for very concrete support that is close to teaching and the schools’ objectives. The results of our study help, in a larger sense, to navigate society towards a more sustainable direction and towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by highlighting the remaining challenges of these broad objectives.