Biodiversity education or biodiversity loss? Mapping biodiversity within the secondary school curriculum across the North and South of Ireland

Karen Kerr, Natalie O'Neill*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

This paper sets out to map biodiversity education within secondary school curricula across the North and South of Ireland. Using Discourse Analysis (Sutherland, 2017), we first examine relevant curricula/specifications to document how biodiversity is represented across the wider national curriculum in Ireland and Northern Ireland. These will include lower secondary science and upper secondary biology, agricultural science, geography and a new senior cycle subject climate action and sustainable development in the republic of Ireland, and we compare this with a similar mapping of relevant GCSE (Agriculture and Land Use, Biology, Geography) and A level specifications (Biology, Environmental Technology, Geography, Life and Health Science) in Northern Ireland.

According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia (2021), biodiversity is a contraction of the term ‘biological diversity’ or ‘biotic diversity’ which refers to the ‘idea of living variation from genes to species to ecosystems.’ Our second level of analysis therefore examines the representation of biodiversity across three areas: genetic variation, species variation and ecosystem variation within the biology curricula in both jurisdictions. Template analysis is used in combination with N’Vivo to code the data as it allows for an inductive coding of overarching key themes combined with a deductive coding of categories within larger themes (King, 2012).

Against the backdrop of the biodiversity crisis (Government of Ireland, 2019), we present a critique of how the vague representation of biodiversity as a topic of study across a range of subjects does not adequately support teaching and learning about biodiversity. We argue that presenting biodiversity within curricula as a deficit (i.e. in terms of biodiversity loss) should be preceded by an appropriate understanding of biodiversity itself as necessary part of life. We draw on the work of Haraway (2016) to support our study with a theoretical frame that rests on the decentralisation of Man from the study of biodiversity.

Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jun 2024
Event2024 CASTeL 10th Science and Maths Education Research Conference - Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
Duration: 13 Jun 202414 Jun 2024

Conference

Conference2024 CASTeL 10th Science and Maths Education Research Conference
Country/TerritoryIreland
CityDublin
Period13/06/202414/06/2024

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Biodiversity education or biodiversity loss? Mapping biodiversity within the secondary school curriculum across the North and South of Ireland'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this