The formation of responsibility for sustainable development: A cross-curriculum analysis of Finnish and German textbooks

This article starts from the premise that responsibility for sustainable development (SD) is crystallizing as a new societal norm, shaping legal, political and socio-economic systems as well as individual practices. Against this background, the study explores how notions of responsibility for SD are being articulated and consolidated and seeks insights into how school textbooks contribute to forming understandings of such responsibility. The analysis of cross-curricular samples of secondary school textbooks from Finland and Germany is guided by Bexell and Jönsson’s socio-political senses of responsibility as cause, obligation and accountability. The findings show a convergence between textbooks, scholarship and international discourses, suggesting that the three dominant understandings of responsibility for SD are becoming institutionalized and culturally embedded. However, textbooks act not only as mirrors but also as moulders of this emerging societal norm. While they reflect prevailing understandings – operationalizing responsibility for SD as an obligation – they also selectively strengthen certain arguments: industrialized countries and corporations are named as causal agents, but their obligations and accountability are less elaborated, whereas individual agency, lifestyle choices and self-reflection receive detailed attention. Although consistent with the scholarly endorsed action-competence approach, this emphasis risks over-individualizing responsibility and underemphasizing systemic and collective dimensions.