Perceived Barriers to Implementing Education for Sustainable Development among Korean Teachers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify whether there are any homogeneous subclasses of teachers exhibiting different profiles of barriers to implementing ESD among Korean secondary teachers, and to examine whether teachers’ experiences of taking an ESD course in their pre-service teacher education and in their in-service training on ESD are predictive of membership in subclasses of perceived barriers to implementing ESD. Korean secondary teachers from various subjects were selected as a sample. I carried out latent class analysis (LCA) on barrier variables and assessed the association of both the experiences of taking an ESD course in their pre-service teacher education and in-service training on ESD with membership in the latent subclasses using multi-nominal logistic regression. These analyses were performed using PROC LCA. Research results are as follows: Firstly, four latent classes were identified: the few barrier, the individual barrier, the combination of individual and class-driven structural barrier, and the combination of individual and structural barrier. Secondly, both the experiences of taking an ESD course in their pre-service teacher education and in-service training on ESD were significant predictors of latent class membership. The current study could potentially assist both pre-service teacher educational institutions and in-service teacher training organizations with strategies designed to improve ESD competency among teachers.

Barriers to Learning for Sustainability: Reflections from a British Science Teacher

“…Understanding systemic barriers to learning for sustainability is an important step in nding more effective ways to implement holistic approaches to sustainability education [35]. Learning that enables critical re ection upon current worldviews and systems that perpetuate unsustainability is essential to nding a more sustainable trajectory.…”

“…Secondary students are nearing voting age, affording an opportunity to link their learning to "informed and active participation in democratic processes such as voting, choices, civic and community engagement" ( [33], p. 104). However, several obstacles exist to implementing holistic, interdisciplinary education for sustainability at the secondary level [34,35,33]:…”

“…Additional, widely-reported roadblocks to systemic implementation of teaching and learning for sustainability include lack of funding, limited access to effective instructional materials, and school staff members' resistance to adoption of whole-school approaches to sustainability education (e.g., [15,35]).…”

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

“…To put it in a nutshell, research on ESD has been carried out in various countries, including Australia (Tomas & Mills, 2011), Finland (Uitto & Saloranta, 2017), South Africa (Anyolo, K‰rkk‰inen, & Keinonen, 2018), Mexico (Brito, Rodriguez, & Aparicio, 2018;Tapia-Fonllem et al, 2017), the United Arab Emirates (Abu-Alruz, Hailat, Al-Jaradat, & Khasawneh, 2018), Sweden (Boeve-de Pauw, Gericke, Olsson, & Berglund, 2015;Manni, Ottander, Sporre, & Parchmann, 2013), Turkey (Selvi, Selvi, G¸ven-Yildirim, & Kˆkl¸kaya, 2018), Oman (Ambusaidi & Al Washahi, 2016), Germany (Burmeister, Schmidt-Jacob & Eilks, 2013) and Korea (Kang, 2019). Additionally, most studies conducted so far have focused on teachersí perceptions of SD in fields other than English, e.g., chemistry (e.g., Burmeister, Schmidt-Jacob & Eilks, 2013), and home economics (e.g., Dewhurst & Pendergast, 2011;Gisslevik, Wernersson, & Larsson, 2018).…”

Sustainable Development in Teacher Education in Terms of Being Solution Oriented and Self-Efficacy

“…In addition to the general socio-demographic characteristics, the scale includes the association of cognitive, affective, behavioral, application, and sustainability competencies with psychological elements [24]. Another study addressed the appropriateness, complex, and controversial meanings and challenges of sustainable development for school students [25]. Based on these findings, it is clear that ESD carries psychosocial elements not only for teachers but also for students, and its complex structure is tried to be revealed.…”