Becoming Self-Aware—How Do Self-Awareness and Transformative Learning Fit in the Sustainability Competency Discourse?

Abstract

An ever-growing number of scholars are developing and applying competency frameworks in the context of sustainability education. Despite the strong interest, most of the research has ignored the varying meanings of competency, which can be interpreted as a performed ability, but also as personality development. UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) recently suggested self-awareness to be a central sustainability competency. However, the sustainability competency discourse is lacking a thorough analysis of how and if personality development related dispositions can be considered as competencies, how can they be taught in higher education, and how can the potentially transformative experiences resulting from such teaching be considered. This article aims at a deep understanding of the concept of self-awareness and its interpretations. We have reviewed the roots and analyzed the current interpretations of self-awareness in sustainability competency research and explored how the competency frameworks connect to transformative learning. In addition, we give tangible examples from art based and creative practices of design education, in which we have examined how self-awareness is defined and how it connects to transformative learning. The interpretations of self-awareness addressed two perspectives: awareness of oneself and awareness of one’s relation to others and a wider society. Based on our research, becoming self-aware is a process that nourishes transformative learning. We additionally understand self-awareness as a process of internal growth instead of only a performable ability. This needs to be considered when developing the sustainability competency frameworks and their applications in education.

“Let’s transform!”: A systematic literature review of science learning in COVID-19 pandemic era

“…Furthermore, educators usually use the concept of selfawareness in order to describe one's ability to think about, talk about, and define feelings, thoughts, and/or actions. Presently, the term 'self-awareness' is used to describe an overall concept that includes many subconcepts (Flavian, 2016;Jaakkola et al, 2022). Additionally, accurate investigation on self-efficacy of students can provide the basis for how to process and develop it in science learning (Hu et al, 2022;Ketelhut, 2007).…”

Intrapersonal capacities for sustainability: a change agent perspective on the ‘inner dimension’ of sustainability work

“…A tangible development in this area of the inner dimension and sustainability has been the call for an Intrapersonal competence in the context of an emerging and agreed upon sustainability competence framework (Brundiers et al 2021). In addition to the more disparate literature described above, a number of recent studies have attempted to move the field toward a more refined 'Intrapersonal' competence understanding (Frank 2021;Frank and Stanszus 2019;Giangrande et al 2019;Jaakkola et al 2022;Redman and Wiek 2021). For example, Frank (2021) offers a conceptual framework of 'personal competencies' that directly responds to the affective-motivational challenges of sustainability and includes (1) self-awareness, (2) value clarity, (3) emotional resilience, (4) self-care, (5) the ability to access and cultivate ethical virtues and (6) the ability to access and cultivate mindsets of sustainability.…”

“…It aims to identify a set of capacities that describe potential elements of an Intrapersonal competence to provide deepened understanding of the domain. The aim of the paper is to provide empirical data to inform a study area that has to date offered mostly conceptual analysis (Frank 2021;Jaakkola et al 2022).…”

“…The desire for development of an Intrapersonal competence reflects calls by other researchers for greater understanding regarding the role that an individual's inner dimension plays in the implementation of sustainability, a topic seen to be lacking in research and understanding (Frank 2021;Ives et al 2020;Wamsler 2020). Despite this call, convergence on what exactly constitutes an 'Intrapersonal' competence remains challenged with research considering the ambiguous nature of the concept, the variety of language and terminology used to describe it and how a defined Intrapersonal competence can support the implementation of sustainability (Brundiers et al 2021;Jaakkola et al 2022). This study aims to contribute to this discussion by identifying a number of Intrapersonal capacities described as important by sustainability change agents in their work and that could be beneficial in contributing to the development of an Intrapersonal competence understanding.…”

Transformation toward sustainability in Finnish teacher education policy: Promises and shortcomings

“…In relation to sustainability, the '21st century skills' synonym 'key competencies' (also referred to as 'key competences, ' even if the English word competence does not have any plural form) is common both in European research and policy, also in higher education contexts (see Wals, 2014;Novo and Murga-Menoyo, 2015;González-Salamanca et al, 2020;Jaakkola et al, 2022). In addition, the words competence and competency are often mixed, even if they do not mean the same thing (Salman et al, 2020;Arifin, 2021;Jaakkola et al, 2022) 2022). In this report the authors aim at developing a 'European sustainability competence framework' as policy actions set to promote sustainability learning in the European Union.…”