Driving private schools to go "green": The case of Spanish and Italian religious schools

Abstract

Religious schools in Spain and Italy have been focused for centuries on spreading the Bible's message among students. In the beginning of the sacred scriptures, there is a mandate to protect nature as God's steward of creation; however, that reality has played a secondary role amongst believers and educational institutions. 180 Spanish and 135 Italian religious schools participated in the study. Through structural equation modeling (SEM‐PLS), hypotheses were defined based on the understanding of sustainability as a moral issue. Results underscored that religious schools should protect nature by combining religion and environmental science.

Drivers for Sustainability Awareness Development in Tourism Curricula: The Case of Spanish Universities

“…In the last decades, Spanish regional and national governments have timidly started to invest in raising a pro-environmental behaviour in the educational system [36]. To respond to the interconnected economic, social, and environmental needs, training in sustainability has become the main educational issue to mitigate the negative impacts into the environment [37][38][39][40]. According to Ferrer-Balas et al [40], it is clear that universities should play a much more active role in the transition process towards sustainable societies.…”

“…To respond to the interconnected economic, social, and environmental needs, training in sustainability has become the main educational issue to mitigate the negative impacts into the environment [37][38][39][40]. According to Ferrer-Balas et al [40], it is clear that universities should play a much more active role in the transition process towards sustainable societies. Change towards sustainability requires an institutional management compatible with a sustainable development [41] which connects mission and policies with curriculum, campus, research, and teaching [13,21,42].…”

“…To equip students with the necessary skills at universities, innovative practices have emerged from committed work in their operations, curriculum, research programmes, and academic investigation [41]. Thus, in order to reorient teaching methods with sustainability criteria [29,40] investing on research and innovation for sustainable development must become a priority [36,50]. This implies the introduction of a curricular reform for sustainability skills development from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach [51].…”

“…Integrate skills and competences in sustainability (CSC1) Albareda et al [18], Ferrer-Balas et al [40], Puertas and Marti [20], UN [50] Professional competences amongst students (CSC2) Jamal et al [88], Moore [89], Sinakou et al [90] Student's skills and competences in Tourism degree (CSC3)…”

“…Preliminary study and list of indicators. tourism curricula (SSM1) Junyent and Geli [36], UN [50], Wals and Jickling [5] Practical teaching in sustainability (SSM2) Aznar et al [37], Wals and Jickling [5], Robina-Ramírez et al [52], Puertas and Marti [20], Wiek et al [7], Wright [96] Academic involvement in sustainable tourism in the local territory (SSM3) Aznar et al [37], Holdsworth et al [4], Lozano [38], Robina-Ramírez and Medina-Merodio [39], Wiek et al [7,55] Training staff lecturing (TT)Develop training courses at the university Albareda et al[18], Ferrer-Balas et al[40], Puertas and Marti[20], UN [50], Leal Filho et al[49] …”