Environmental education for sustainability in the curriculum of primary teacher training in Spain

Abstract

In this study, we analyse, first, what competences regarding environmental sustainability are envisaged in the curricula of primary teachers at Spanish universities and, second, to what extent these competences guide the aims and content of the subject matter and the topics in the syllabi. From an analysis of the 79 competences which, according to ministerial regulations, should direct primary teacher training, three are directly related to environmental sustainability. The analysis of the content of the curricula from a sample made up of 23 Spanish universities indicates that these three competences have been taken into account in all of them, and that in 73% of the curricula other competences directly related to environmental sustainability are also incorporated. In a few cases, however, their degree of precision is vague. In only 26% of the curricula studied is a specific subject of environmental education – always optional – envisaged, and this topic is where the main educational efforts regarding sustainability are focused. In the absence of studies that analyse other more detailed curricular planning documents, the curricula of future primary teachers in Spain does not seem to ensure good training with respect to environmental sustainability.

Keywords:

• pre-service teachers
• teacher education programme
• European higher education area
• competences for sustainability
• education for sustainability
• environmental education

Notes

1. Evidently, the inclusion of competences related to sustainability, both by the people in charge of the Spanish Ministry and subsequently by the members of the commissions that drew up the curricula in each university, was not the result of spontaneous creation. It is worth remembering two documents that had a special impact when it came to designing the curricula. The first one is the aforementioned ANECA (2005) White Paper, a result of the work of a network of universities, published to guide the adaptation of teacher training degrees to the EHEA standards. Among the transversal competences that are proposed, we find “Sensitivity towards environmental issues”, a competence which, when assessed by 180 teachers, remained in a discreet second or third place (p. 86). The second document is the “Guidelines for curricular sustainabilisation” which, also in 2005, was produced by the Working Group on Environmental Quality and Sustainable Development of the CRUE. In these, the academic authorities responsible for the regulation of official degrees were recommended to ensure “the comprehensive review of the curriculum from the perspective of Sustainable Development in order to ensure the inclusion of the basic transversal contents of sustainability in all degrees, so as to acquire the professional, academic and disciplinary competences necessary” (CRUE, 2005, p. 4).

2. The Spanish universities use indistinctively the concepts module or subject in the curricular documents, in this and in other cases, and there is no single and unique criterion in this regard.