Student Teachers' Change Agency in Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Previous research shows that teachers are key players in supporting agency in the face of the biggest global challenges of our time, such as climate change and pollution, as teachers educate societies' future decision-makers. The aim of this study was to analyze student teachers' perceptions of change agency and sustainable development. In this qualitative case study, the writings of student teachers (n = 116) were studied in the context of sustainable development education. The data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings of the research confirmed previous studies showing that student teachers' perceptions of sustainable development were quite narrow. The results indicated that the student teachers wrote mainly about social dimensions of sustainable development; few of them considered economic or environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The results provided new information about the current state of student teachers' perceptions of change agency in the teacher education context. Teacher education should focus more on a holistic view of sustainable development aspects. These findings might be useful in implementing teacher education curricula.

Exploring the Connections of Education for Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurial Education—A Case Study of Vocational Teacher Education in Finland

“…Separate courses on ESD have been reported to be somewhat inefficient in creating change agency in teachers [2,7,14,15]. For example, [14][15][16][17] call for a more holistic inclusion of sustainability in strategies and curricula of teacher education. Especially [14] addresses the power of making sustainability competency a visible professional goal in the curriculum.…”

“…The hesitant notions are reflections of teacher students becoming more aware of the "doing and being" potentials of teachers. This is related to becoming aware of how huge and difficult a phenomenon sustainability is [15]. The next step would be to start thinking about how to realize sustainability in their teaching practice.…”

“…Still, a recent review on initial teacher education and ESD discovered a deficit in the development of the professional skills needed to implement ESD, even the students showed positive attitudes towards sustainable development [2]. Often, students do not feel ready or prepared to teach SD topics [14] or have only a partial understanding of SD, often comprising mostly of environmental sustainability [7] or having strong emphasis on social sustainability [15]. Moreover, students' understanding of their possibilities to influence outside school can be weak [15], and they do not consider the competence to teach for a sustainable society as a part of teacher professionalism [14].…”

“…Often, students do not feel ready or prepared to teach SD topics [14] or have only a partial understanding of SD, often comprising mostly of environmental sustainability [7] or having strong emphasis on social sustainability [15]. Moreover, students' understanding of their possibilities to influence outside school can be weak [15], and they do not consider the competence to teach for a sustainable society as a part of teacher professionalism [14]. One part of the phenomenon seems to be that ESD is often a separate course, and the goal for a teacher to be a promoter of change for a more sustainable world is not made visible in the professional competences or goals of the curriculum [2,14,16,17].…”

Student Teachers’ Willingness to Act in the Climate Change Context

“…The results of previous research on climate change from the student teachers' perspective point out the fact that student teachers are mostly aware of the sustainable development issues at both the local and national level, while frequently underestimating the importance of global ecological problems such as climate change (Spiropoulou et al 2007). While reflect-ing on sustainable development as well as their role in shifting towards it, student teachers are mostly focused on its social dimension, while neglecting critical global topics as well as their role in coping with issues such as climate change (Koskela and Kärkkäinen 2021). One potential explanation for this situation can be found in the results of IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study from 2016 that revealed that percentages of teachers in Croatia reporting having participated in training courses on civic-related topics, namely the environment and environmental sustainability during pre-service and/or in-service training was only 28% (Schulz et al 2018).…”