Sustainable Development from the Viewpoint of Iranian English Teachers: Practicing what they do not Preach

Abstract

Considering the importance of sustainable development (SD) in developing countries and lack of research on this topic among Iranian English teachers, this study aims at investigating the Iranian English teachers’ awareness and understanding of this concept and the effects of demographic features on their understanding. To this end, a researcher-made 48-item validated Questionnaire that consisted of eight scales was administered among 233 English teachers teaching at high schools, private language institutes, and universities. The data were analyzed through content analysis of the open-ended question and quantitative analysis of the Likert-scale items. One-way ANOVA was used to find out about the effects of gender, workplace, teaching experience, and academic degree on teachers’ understanding and awareness. The results revealed that although some teachers could not define the term, or provided a general or wrong definition of the term, more than half of the teachers rightly emphasized the economic aspect, protecting natural resources, and caring for present and future lives of people. It was also found that Iranian English teachers highly supported equity, appreciated and protected the nature, enjoyed diversity, asked for education for sustainable development, and led a frugal life. Finally, it was revealed that none of the demographic features influenced teachers’ awareness of SD, except for academic degree and workplace factor that affected three out of eight scales measuring SD. The study ends with several implications for materials developers, English teachers, and syllabus designers.

Ecocriticism Course: Development of English Pre-service Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Sustainability

“…It extends the notion of Findik et al (2021), stating that the reorientation of English teacher education towards sustainability can be through English language teaching-specific courses on SD. Besides, the findings, which reveal the integration between ecocriticism course and sustainability in English teacher education developing the PCKS of the pre-service English teachers, put the recommendation of Ganji et al (2020) into reality. They strongly recommend developing courses related to sustainability for English teachers at the university level.…”

Discursive Representations of Education for Sustainable Development in Policy Documents by English Medium Instruction Schools in Estonia and Norway

“…In EFL studies, there is a substantial body of research that addresses the issue of ESD in various EFL settings (Al-Jamal & Al-Omari, 2014;Ganji, Arshadi, & Mahbubzadeh, 2020;Guanio-Uluru, 2019;Guslyakova, 2020;Jodoin & Singer, 2020;Mohammadnia & Moghadam, 2019;Sundh, 2016;Ver Steeg, 2020;Zahoor & Janjua, 2020). In particular, the research literature problematises ESD in EFL educational settings in terms of EFL learnersí and teachersí perceptions of ESD (Ganji, Arshadi, & Mahbubzadeh, 2020;Guanio-Uluru, 2019;Guslyakova, 2020;Ver Steeg, 2020), environmental themes in EFL textbooks (Al-Jamal & Al-Omari, 2014;Jodoin & Singer, 2020;Mohammadnia & Moghadam, 2019;Zahoor & Janjua, 2020), and EFL learnersí written discourse on ESD-related topics (Sundh, 2016).…”

“…EFL learnersí and teachersí perceptions of ESD are explored in the studies conducted by Ganji, Arshadi, and Mahbubzadeh (2020), Guanio-Uluru (2019), Guslyakova (2020), andVer Steeg (2020). Whilst these studies are united by the common research theme associated with the perceptions of ESD in the EFL teaching and learning contexts, they seem to differ in focus.…”

“…Whilst these studies are united by the common research theme associated with the perceptions of ESD in the EFL teaching and learning contexts, they seem to differ in focus. In particular, Ganji, Arshadi, & Mahbubzadeh (2020) aim at establishing EFL teachersí awareness and understanding of ESD. They have found that whereas EFL teachers in Iran exhibit insufficient awareness of ESD, more than half of the teachers perceive ESD as the protection of natural resources.…”

Responses to the Socio-Ecological Crisis: Perceptions of In-Service Teacher

“…Study on the perception of pre-service training teachers on environmental citizenship shows that it has been narrowed down to local scales, individual dimensions, and private spaces (Georgiou et al, 2021). Environmental citizenship can increase as a result of the professional development of teachers (Olsen et al, 2020); there is a need for environmental education that encourages and supports environmental sensitivity and activism (Abd-El-Aal & Steele, 2013); half of the teachers are rightly emphasizing economic aspects, protecting natural resources, and caring for people's lives now and in the future (Ganji et al, 2020). Studies on teacher perceptions of environmental education, in general, have been carried out starting from elementary schools and secondary to higher education for student teacher candidates.…”