Secondary students’ perception, positioning and insight on education for sustainability

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse and understand the perception about Education for Sustainability from the perspective of secondary school students in the Basque Autonomous Community by means of a qualitative methodological strategy. Specifically, the study was conducted in four educational centres with a total of 39 students, through discussion groups in a total of eight meetings. Environmental education documents of the centres were analysed, and a non-participatory observation process was also applied. The main results showed that the students had sufficient knowledge and information about the socio-environmental problem; however, their behaviour did not correspond to their way of thinking. In order to generate a real impact on attitudes and habits, environmental education should have, not only more presence in the school curriculum, but more experiential approaches and the implication of school managers.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• education for sustainability
• secondary students
• School Agenda 21
• sustainable development goals
• students role

Acknowledgements

To all the members of the Basque administration Ingurugela and all the people involved in the focus groups and the date collection for making this research possible.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 Different editions dedicated to this topic include Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 2005 (Clark, 2007); Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Sustainability; and Sustainability Sciences (Komiyama & Takeuchi, 2006).

2 The conceptual debate has a complex history with divergent opinions (Gonzalez-Gaudiano, 2006), which are not discussed in this paper. It is understood that Education for Sustainability holistically integrates sustainability.

3 The Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), is a region of former industrialisation with a population of 2,188,017 inhabitants (Eustat, 2019) and a density of 300 inhabitants/km². Despite being a highly urbanised territory, it is characterised by a culture closely linked to the natural environment and local gastronomy, which are aspects that constitute significant potential in the territory as elements in the transition towards sustainability. The BAC is part of the Spain. However, a particular characteristic to highlight is its independent competences in terms of Education, since it is the Department of Environment and the Department of Education of the Basque Government that have the competence in the educational centers of the BAC.

4 It is a delivery company; they are dedicated to the purchase, collection and shipment of orders in less than an hour through independent distributors known as "glovers".

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by a grant for PhD researchers provided by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).