Elective course on degrowth for high school students

CSO: Tasaarengu Eesti MTÜ
Area: Degrowth, education
Location: Rakvere town

Type of project

The project pilots a high-school course that helps students understand the root causes of the environmental and climate crisis through systems thinking, linking ecology, economy, democracy, and social justice. By combining expert input with a student-led public community event, it turns theory into practice and builds a scalable model for sustainable education across Estonia.

Target (Disengaged)

Disengaged groups are reached by using a student-designed public community event that brings climate topics into familiar, non-academic settings and engages parents, local residents, businesses, and decision-makers who would not otherwise interact with these issues.

Science-based

Science-based approach is used by grounding the course in international research and leading scholarship on sustainability and degrowth, adapted for upper-secondary students through evidence-based pedagogy and experiential learning methods.

Gender

Gender equality is adressed by embedding gender and social justice into the curriculum content, promoting equal participation and shared leadership in group work, and modeling balanced representation through a diverse teaching team

Planned activities

• A science-based, upper-secondary degrowth pilot curriculum (21×70 min) and transferable methodological framework are developed by spring 2026.
• At least 80% of participating students significantly improve their understanding of degrowth and sustainability principles.
• Students design and deliver a public community event, actively involving most participants and increasing sustainability awareness within the school and local community.

Action model

• Learn → Apply → Engage: students build science-based systems understanding, apply it through collaborative creation, and translate learning into real-world impact via a public community event.