Enabling effective education for sustainable development: Investigating the connection between the school organization and students’ action competence

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the relation between the school organization and outcomes of education for sustainable development, namely students’ action competence in sustainable development. Data were collected among 629 students. At the organizational level, we collected data among 207 school staff concerning organizational characteristics including school resources, sustainable leadership, pluralistic communication, supportive relations, collective efficacy, adaptability, democratic decision-making, and shared vision. Results indicate that the school organization is primarily connected to students’ knowledge and willingness. They also show that organizational characteristics such as sustainable leadership, pluralistic communication, adaptability, and democratic decision-making have a significant correlation with student level outcomes.

Keywords:

• action competence
• education for sustainable development; school effectiveness
• school organisation

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jonas Dockx from the Educational Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit at the Catholic University of Leuven for his critical feedback concerning our methods and analysis.

Notes

1 Signif. codes: ‘***’ ≤ 0.001, ‘**’ ≤ 0.01, ‘*’ ≤ 0.05

2 Dummy variable set for “boy.”

3 All -2-log likelihood tests were significant.

4 Signif. codes: ‘**’ ≤ 0.01, ‘*’ ≤ 0.05

5 Signif. codes: ‘***’ ≤ 0.001, ‘**’ ≤ 0.01, ‘*’ ≤ 0.05

6 Dummy variable set for “boy.”

7 All -2-log likelihood tests were significant.

Additional information

Funding

This study is part of the VALIES project. The Flanders Research Foundation (FWO) funded our study under grant agreement S010317N within the Strategic Basic Research Program.