Time for Sustainability: How Students Can (Re-)learn Their Use of Time
Can learning to use one’s time differently be part of Education for Sustainable Development? In a new article in Time & Society, Pascal Frank (Wageningen University & Research), Claire Grauer and Daniel Fischer report on a school intervention from the ReZeitKon project (Time Rebound, Time Wealth and Sustainable Consumption) that invited students to explore their own time use through self-inquiry-based learning.
The intervention was delivered to 156 students aged between 14 and 21 at two Gymnasiums and one vocational school. Following an action research design, the team collected reflexive journals, time use documentations and semi-structured interviews and analysed them using template analysis.
Most students experienced the intervention as positive and gained abilities that helped them with daily struggles around their time use, often resulting in less resource-intensive time use. For some students, the experiential format was also a challenge, and the authors point to the limits of fostering time use competence through isolated learning activities. A whole-school approach could be particularly promising, both for time-related learning and for changing the time structures of schooling itself.
Paper Abstract:
Despite growing evidence for a relation between individuals’ time use practices, their wellbeing, and potential negative outcomes regarding the vision of a sustainable future, knowledge on time-related learning outcomes and how to foster them remains scarce in Environmental and Sustainability Education scholarship and practice. In this explorative study, we aimed to find out how time use competence can be fostered within the framework of a school intervention based on the pedagogy of self-inquiry-based learning. We delivered the intervention to 156 students aged between 14 and 21. Applying Action Research, we inquired into students’ subjectively experienced, time-related learning experiences resulting from participating in the intervention. We collected a series of qualitative data (e.g. reflexive journals, time use documentations, or semistructured interviews), which we analyzed using template analysis. The overall contribution of our study is twofold: First, we provide a novel pedagogical approach allowing learners to experientially access the complex and fluid topic of time within Environmental and Sustainability Education. Second, we show that this approach can enable students to organize their time in a more self-determined and needs-oriented manner. Most students experienced the intervention as positive and acquired abilities helping them to address daily struggles with their time use, often resulting in less resource-intensive time use. However, the experiential format of the intervention also posed challenges to some students. Finally, we identified broader limitations of intending to foster time use competence through isolated learning activities. We discuss our results regarding the broader potential of educational interventions to contribute to the vision of sustainability through time-related learning. We emphasize that a whole-school approach might be particularly promising to foster time-related learning outcomes while also transforming the prevalent time-related structures of schooling. However, schools’ systemic embeddedness and subordination to political educational authorities also make such an approach challenging.
Bibliographic reference:
Frank, P., Grauer, C., & Fischer, D. (2025). (Re-)learning time use and perception for sustainable development in schools – Qualitative results from a self-inquiry-based learning intervention. Time & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X251343830
