A Holistic Approach to Education for Sustainability: Ecofeminism as a Tool to Enhance Sustainability Attitudes in Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

To achieve an effective Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), teachers should possess appropriate sustainability attitudes to transmit those values to their future students. In this article, a holistic educational intervention around the ecofeminist movement is described and its impact on the sustainability attitudes of 188 pre-service teachers is assessed. The quantitative results with a validated questionnaire reveal an initial high level of sustainability awareness and a statistically significant increase in the environmental dimension after the educational intervention. In addition, the qualitative analysis of the stories and activities for children prepared by the students in a process of didactic transposition confirms their ability to effectively integrate different competencies around a topic. Due to their status as future educators in the early stages of the system, pre-service teachers are relevant to disseminate a holistic view of ESD and we can conclude that ecofeminism is a thematic node that integrates key concept and attitudinal content to achieve that goal.

The Psychological Impact of Global Education Approach to SDGs. A Study on Emotions and Sustainability Attitudes of European Teachers

“…The scale is purposely designed to quantify the effects of educational activities consistent with sustainability principles, and the values on the four factors are expected to be sensitive to the different topics faced during the educational path. The scale is applied to investigate teachers' attitudes in different languages, showing sound validity and reliability values in the translated versions (e.g., Richter-Beuschel and Bögeholz, 2019 , 2020 ; Andić and Curić, 2020 ; Echegoyen-Sanz and Martín-Ezpeleta, 2021 ). Internal reliability of the scale in the current study is investigated using Cronbach's alpha (Environment, 0.603 pre, 0.689 post; Economy, 0.759 pre, 0.758 post; Education, 0.756 pre, 0.792 post; Society, 0.658 pre, 0.751 post; Total, 0.844 pre, 0.862 post).…”

Preparing pre-service teachers for integration of education for sustainable development in school: A systematic review (2013-2022)

“…Understanding the field of study will aid in identifying the ESD teacher education gap and main focus. A large percentage of ESD research in teacher education has been accomplished with the participation of pre-service teachers in a mixture of field studies which is 31% of the whole articles included; (Gopalakrishnan et al, 2019;Kang, 2019;Manasia et al, 2020;Avsec & Ferk Savec, 2021;Echegoyen-Sanz & Martín-Ezpeleta, 2021;Kalsoom & Qureshi, 2021;Kang, 2021, Nousheen & Kalsoom, 2022. This demonstrates that the ESD integration does not have any boundaries between fields.…”

Climate Strikes and Curricula: Insights from Norway

“…A related, but somewhat different point of view, comes from Yolanda Echegoyen-Sanz and Antonio Martín-Ezpeleta at the University of Valencia, Spain. In a recent study, they show how ecofeminism offers tools that can contribute to new and more holistic epistemology and practice (Echegoyen-Sanz & Martín-Ezpeleta, 2021). Another approach, with emphasis on creating new epistemology, is focusing on adjusting the pupilís self-understanding in relation to nature and sustainability (SalÓte et al 2021a, pp.…”