Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a feature of academic and policy debates within initial teacher education around the world. A theme within these debates is the extent to which ESD is more than just a body of knowledge, and if it suggests different pedagogical approaches which may be prevalent in most countries. Another feature of these debates is whether ESD can be seen as suggesting a transformative approach as opposed to a transmissive approach. As a qualitative study, using examples from research and evidence gathered in England and Turkey through document analysis, this article identifies both the opportunities and challenges for teacher education courses using ESD as a means for promoting a distinctive pedagogical approach and whether they can be seen as posing transformative learning.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the attitudes of pre-service classroom teachers towards sustainable development with respect to the level of development of the city they live in and their fathers' and mothers’ education level. Survey design was used in the study. The participants consisted of 1008 pre-service classroom teachers in 12 universities across Turkey. The data was collected through a data collection tool designed by the researcher. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (MANOVA) were used. The results of descriptive statistical analyses revealed that pre-service classroom teachers had positive attitudes towards sustainable development. The results of MANOVA analysis demonstrated that the level of the development of the city they live in affects pre-service classroom teachers’ attitudes towards sustainable development, whereas their parents’ education level did not affect their attitudes.

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