Whole Systems Thinking and Context of the University Teacher on Curricular Sustainability in Primary Education Teaching Degrees at the University of Zaragoza

Abstract

The traditional, mechanistic university context is far from achieving commitment and accountability for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The whole structure must be redefined in terms of teaching, research, management, and the connection with the whole community. The main objective is based on identifying the cognitive perception that university teachers have in relation to curricular sustainability, and how this is linked to the context in which they develop their teaching practice. The sample is made up of 15 teachers, selected purposively and non-randomly: 3 women and 12 men, with a mean age of 45.57 ± 9.72. The information was obtained from focus groups, using a semi-structured questionnaire. The QRS NVIVO 12 software program was used for content analysis. The results show a preponderant lack of knowledge, skills, and abilities in sustainability, given a lack of attitude towards change. The results show that the transformation lies in teacher training, based on workshops, courses, or experiential activities. Finally, assessing their own context, the participants highlighted the lack of a joint institutional strategy on sustainability.

Visión del docente universitario sobre la inclusión de la sostenibilidad curricular en la formación de maes-tros de Educación Física de la Universidad de Zaragoza (University teachers’ views on the inclusion of curricular sustainability in the training of Physical Education teachers at the University of Zaragoza)

“…La formación inicial de maestros/as conforma un marco adecuado para su integración (UNESCO, 2018), sin embargo para conseguirlo, resulta prioritario la reorientación de los entornos de aprendizaje hacia la EDS (Alcalá del Olmo et al, 2020). Por ello, se necesita un cambio de sistema que camine hacia la sostenibilidad curricular (Murga-Menoyo, 2015), transformando la realidad y la comunidad universitaria a partir de liderazgos de cambio que vengan del propio profesorado (Lorente-Echeverría et al, 2023).…”

Service-Learning as an Approach to Educating for Sustainable Development

“…The literature on education for sustainable development calls for pedagogical innovations that provide interactive, experiential, transformative, and real-world learning that mobilizes critical and systemic thinking in the context of sustainable development [20,22,[26][27][28][29]. It is expected that this change in viewpoint will inspire researchers and educators of all disciplines to further the development of pedagogies and teaching resources for sustainable development.…”

“…However, curricular sustainability involves the inclusion of sustainability content in the programs of different subjects, and it has been proven that specific subjects related to sustainability contribute the most to the development of sustainability competencies [29]. Moreover, it also entails global changes in the very conception of the educational process.…”