Nazanin Baniasadi, Zahra Bazargan, Nahid Sadeghi and Ali Taghipoor Zahir
This article reports on a 2011-2012 survey of 4th grade elementary students in Tehran. The authors surveyed 558 students from 10 elementary schools (5 boys, 5 girls) of 5 different districts from 4 parts of Tehran (west, east, north, south), The purpose of the study was to estimate the level of sustainability Knowledge and attitudes with respect to ESD Key concepts (energy and recycling, diversity, interdependence, non-violence, sustainable diet, participation in environment protection and stewardship) in social and environmental aspects. The instrument was a questionnaire and a test. Results showed, although students scored rather low on knowledge questions, they displayed higher scores on attitude. There was no significance relationship between gender and school’s district with their Knowledge and attitude. Students’ knowledge and attitude in environmental aspects of ESD is higher than social ones. Thus this article closes with policy suggestions for redirecting curriculum planning in Iran’s elementary education with more attention towards social aspects of ESD, like: social diversity, social interdependence, nonviolence,
civic culture and social participation
