Making education for sustainable development happen in elementary schools: the role of teachers

Abstract

This study complements the discussion on theoretically derived competence models through an empirical analysis that gives a voice to teachers who are experienced in education for sustainable development (ESD). It adds their insights and expertise to the academic discourse. Our original contributions are threefold: (1) We find justification for aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and content knowledge (CK), which share a common understanding of the relevance of competencies in teaching, and for the importance of acting on an institutional level. (2) We illustrate these competencies via an example from ESD in Germany. (3) We contribute to the discussion of ESD by adding (a) the view of the teachers, (b) the drivers behind and barriers to ESD as reported by the investigated teachers themselves, and (c) an ascertainment of the structural competencies of ESD teachers in terms of their awareness of structures and hierarchies and the communication patterns used therein. We interviewed 12 teachers involved in ESD at German elementary schools and identified two types of ESD teachers. Both types aim to contribute to social change through their ESD activities; however, the teachers display different sets of competencies when it comes to integrating ESD into teaching.

Keywords:

• Education for sustainable development
• teacher education
• teacher competencies
• student learning
• competencies in sustainability

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture as well as the Volkswagen Foundation for its grant, “Educating Future Change Agents – Higher Education as a Motor of the Sustainability Transformation” (A115235) as part of the program “Science for Sustainable Development.” Moreover, the authors wish to thank all the interviewees who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding details

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture & Volkswagen Foundation for the grant “Educating Future Change Agents – Higher Education as a Motor of the Sustainability Transformation” (A115235) through the program “Science for Sustainable Development”

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jana-Michaela Timm

Jana-Michaela Timm is a postdoc researcher at the Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation (CGSC) at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. Her research focus lies on shaping learning settings for future change agents, such as teachers and sustainability entrepreneurs. Dr. Timm is the corresponding author of this article and can be contacted at [email protected].

Matthias Barth

Matthias Barth is a full professor at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. He leads the Institute for Integrative Studies in teacher education and is Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and Learning and of the Center for Global Cultural and Sustainability Transformation. Matthias interests lie in research and teaching for sustainability with an emphasis on competence development, innovative learning settings, and curriculum change.