The development of a unit to integrate international sustainability goals into the ninth grade English language curriculum

Abstract

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century there are important skills we will need to develop to cultivate sustainable global communities. To address these issues on a global scale, people need to be able to communicate with each other. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design a unit of instruction that can be used to develop students’ global English language skills and to contribute to the development of students’ environmental literacy. Aspects of instructional research design was used to develop the unit and to identify how it can be integrated into the existing Ministry of National Education’s English ninth grade English language curriculum. To ensure the validity of the design and to prepare the unit for future pilot testing, a review instrument was administered to post-secondary English instructors who commented on the pedagogic accuracy and shared their perceptions regarding potential integration of the unit. A separate instrument was given to environmental education and biology experts to ensure conceptual accuracy and to ascertain if the unit addressed international goals for sustainable development. Content analysis, supplemented with descriptive statistics of the quantitative data, was used to analyze the qualitative data and to decide how the unit should be revised.