Post-growth as a Topic in Geography Education: Suggestions from Secondary School Students in Germany in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development

The termPost-growth “post-growth” covers various approaches that decouple from the current economic growth paradigm and strive for human well-being and prosperity beyond economic growth as a goal. As young people’s involvement is central in discussions about shaping our future through developing capacities as change agentsChange agents , this topic offers considerable potential for transformative literacyTransformative literacy in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESDEducation for Sustainable Development (ESD)). In a research project at Leibniz UniversityUniversity Hannover, seven groups of 25 young people from upper secondary schools participated in three online meetings to reflect on their ideas about post-growthPost-growth; the first and last sets of meetings were conducted as focus groups. The first set focused on different points of criticism of the economic growth paradigm and alternative approaches, after which the participants selected a change agentChange agents that was particularly interesting to them. In the second set of meetings, the participants interviewed the change agentsChange agents about their contributions to the co-creation of a post-growthPost-growth society. This chapter focuses on the final set of meetings, which addressed participant insights from the expert interviews and the proposals of the young people on how to implement this topic in geography lessons. Our results emphasise the need for integrating change agentsChange agents into school education and a stronger focus on post-growth-related topics.