Education for Sustainable Development in Primary School: The Position of Pre-Service Primary School Teachers

Abstract

The results of the survey showed that a large proportion of pre-service teachers, when assessing the situation over the next 10 years in nine key areas (air pollution, deforestation, biotic crisis, greenhouse effect, water scarcity, radioactive waste, GMOs, water pollution, global warming), predicted that the situation would worsen in all areas. It is clear that such scenarios are mostly dependent on the socio-economic development of humanity and what measures/actions will be taken at national and international level to minimise the consequences of such predictions for humanity. The results of the study show that in the national context, sprawl and solid waste are seen as the most pressing environmental problems. Endangered species, deforestation, exotic plants and/or animals are not considered to be a pressing issue in Lithuania. The vast majority of preservice teachers consider their knowledge of sustainable development to be insufficient and say that much more is needed. These findings oblige curriculum designers and implementers to take this into account when improving/restructuring/developing curricula and constructing the content of individual subjects. The results suggest that the majority of respondents consider teaching about sustainable development at an early age to be very important. The latter variable is directly correlated with the need for knowledge about sustainable development. Respondents who emphasise the importance of teaching about sustainable development have a correspondingly higher need for knowledge about sustainable development. In addition, it is found that the majority of the respondents have a positive attitude towards sustainable development and only a small number of respondents have a neutral attitude towards it. The study certainly has some limitations. Firstly, the sample size of the study is small, despite the fact that it is in principle in line with the requirements of a preliminary/pilot study. Due to the homogeneity of the population studied, possible gender differences were not analysed. Keywords: education for sustainable development (ESD), quantitative survey, primary school, pre-service teachers, sustainable development