How Can Teachers Be Encouraged to Commit to Sustainability? Evaluation of a Teacher-Training Experience in Spain

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to design and evaluate an experience for future teachers focused on the participatory search for sustainability through role play so that outcomes related to improving the way they see the world and their commitment to mitigate climate change could be analysed. The study was carried out with a socio-critical focus, using a qualitative approach. To this effect, semi-open interviews were conducted, and their results were codified and studied using content analysis. The outcomes show that this type of educational experience can contribute to improving commitment to climate change and new, more sustainable ways of understanding the world—starting with improving the training of free-thinking, discerning people who are able to use information and collaborate in solving socio-environmental problems. Proposals based on participatory and experiential learning, fostering ethical considerations and the training of people who are more critical and discerning, should be the basis of new models of Environmental Education for Sustainability that seek to educate a society capable of addressing present and future socio-environmental challenges.

The Interdependences between Sustainability and Their Lifestyle That Pre-Service Teachers Establish When Addressing Socio-Ecological Problems

“…In this sense, Nisiforou and Charalambides [9] suggested that awareness of these problems should be focused on the links between production and consumption, individual habits and the conservation of SES. Therefore, it is Sustainability 2019, 11, 5748 4 of 18 necessary to deepen our knowledge of the pressures exerted by our lifestyle and explore how different educational instruction could improve the understanding of how daily activities are essential to the achievement of sustainability [37][38][39][40].…”

Reform of Chinese Universities in the Context of Sustainable Development: Teacher Evaluation and Improvement Based on Hybrid Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Model

“…First, the total influence-relation matrix Q can be divided into two matrices: the attribute level Q C and the dimension level Q D . Second, each row within a dimension in the total influence relation matrix Q C uses Equations 7 Equation 7, in which Q ρ11 C is an example to demonstrate the basic concept of normalizing, as shown in Equations (8) and (9).…”

“…Teachers play a fundamental role in the reforms [3,8]. While higher education institutions are carrying out reforms in response to the goal of sustainable development, sustainability-based teaching activities pose new challenges to teachers at universities.…”

Educating Digital Citizens on Sustainable Development Goals

“…Educating future teachers based on activism and critical pedagogy is essential, as it is one of the measures which most influences their students' results [8]. Initial teacher training must therefore address sustainability skills [9,10], through critical, ethical [11,12], conscious [11,13], interdisciplinary and social interaction practices [14,15,13,8.12].…”