Transformative sustainability education (TSE) is an uncommon pedagogical practice in higher education, even though it has a positive impact on student learning and behavioral change. This qualitative case study explored 20 Israeli graduate students' understanding of the social-ecological systems through the analysis of reflections, interviews, and observations. The findings reported that these graduate students displayed a deep understanding of the social-ecological systems when TSE was applied in a higher education course. As such, TSE contributed to these graduate students' knowledge construction along with encouraging their pro-environmental action. We concluded that teacher professional training, especially in higher education, should emphasize knowledge construction as a key for action, as part of TSE, in creating relational change at ontological and epistemological levels
Purpose Distributed leadership has been reported in the literature as an effective management approach for educational organizations such as institutions of higher education. This study aims to investigate the role of distributed leadership in the promotion of sustainability in an Israeli college of teacher education. Design/methodology/approach Based on the Multi-Level Model of Leadership Practice in higher education, taken from Bolden et al. (2008a) and from Woods et al. (2004), the authors investigated how the characteristics of distributed leadership are expressed in three central organization-wide structures in the college (a student group, the green council and a professional development program). They also explored in what ways aspects of distributed leadership promote sustainability-oriented activities on campus. They used a deductive and inductive interpretive approach in this case study. Findings The authors found three organization-level processes that are based on the principles of distributed leadership and that promote sustainability on campus: distributed leadership enables change in the organization’s internal culture with respect to mainstreaming sustainability; distributed leadership encourages collaboration between the entire campus population and between different departments and distributed leadership on campus enables the development of diverse “bottom-up” and “top-down” structures in the organization. Originality/value While the study’s findings indicated several challenges regarding the implementation of distributed leadership in the organization, they ultimately support the idea that distributed leadership may contribute to the long-term, organization-wide implementation of sustainability in higher education institutes. Therefore, the authors recommend that institutions that are willing to promote sustainability adopt distributed leadership as their major management approach.
As global challenges to sustainable development are increasing, there is a growing pressure for educational systems to embed education for sustainable development (ESD) into formal education. To meet this demand, Eco-School systems were established in many countries during the past decades. Using General Inductive Approach to analyze raw data sources like interviews with experts and eco-school principals, documents, and official as well as educational research databases both in Hungary and in Israel, the paper compares the process and the outcome of the implementation of eco-school movement in Hungary and Israel. The major conclusion is that eco-school system itself has a significant positive but limited effect on the implementation of ESD in educational systems. Without a person, a “change agent,” without the commitment of the principal or the teachers, the central eco-school initiative could not trigger changes on local levels; however, eco-school systems may survive for another decade if eco-school teachers continue innovation and collective learning. On the system level, the existence of the movement demonstrates the sustainability pedagogy for decision-makers – and therefore they can be satisfied without further efforts.
Purpose Students' simplistic observations and uninspired solutions for social-ecological dilemmas were the motivation for this study. The purpose of this paper is to foster systemic thinking in students and study the role of the lecturers. Design/methodology/approach The research was designed as a self-study action-research (AR), which was carried out by the lecturers of an environmental citizenship course in a teachers' college. The paper describes three AR circuits, expressed in three stages of field mapping by students: group mapping at the beginning of the course, initial individual field mapping and field mapping prior to action design. Findings Analyzing the maps after each stage allowed for design modifications. The findings indicate that field mapping helped students better understand the complexity of a social-ecological system and their role within it. Lecturers were required to maintain a delicate balance between teaching and supporting the students' first-hand experience as environmental citizens. Research limitations/implications The study's conclusions are based on a case study and are therefore presented dialectically rather than as global generalizations. Practical implications Mapping the field of action can serve as a powerful tool in fostering a system approach to environmental citizenship in many educational settings. Originality/value The paper presents the use of Kurt Lewin's field theory for environmental education and for fostering environmental citizenship based on systemic and ecological thinking. The diversity of students' conceptualizations of the complexity of a social-ecological system, as revealed in this study, calls for further research of field-mapping as a teaching method.
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