‘This is not going to change in the short term’–Finnish and Spanish primary school student teachers’ views on competencies for promoting sustainability education
Eija Yli-Panula 1 2 * , Isabel Banos-Gonzalez 2 , Eila Jeronen 3 , Maaria Tringham 4
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1 Department of Teacher Education, The University of Turku, Turku, FINLAND2 Department of Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales, University of Murcia, Murcia, SPAIN3 Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Oulu, Oulu, FINLAND4 Teacher Training School, University of Turku, Turku, FINLAND* Corresponding Author

Abstract

In the contest of UNESCO’s eight teacher competencies for sustainable development, this survey study aimed to investigate Finnish (n = 190) and Spanish (n = 170) primary school student teachers’ views on competencies related to sustainability education and the ability to act as sustainability educators. The student teachers’ answers to a questionnaire were investigated using qualitative content analysis. The most common competencies that appeared in the answers were strategic thinking, collaboration and integrated problem-solving. Most often, strategic thinking was reflected in responses related to global, regional and local problems. Normative, critical and systems thinking were the rarest competencies, and self-awareness competency was not detected in the student teachers’ answers. In general, only one or two competencies were found in each answer, and no competency at all was found in the majority of the student teachers’ answers. The educational implications of these results and the implications for initial teacher education are discussed.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 21, Issue 1, January 2025, Article No: em2556

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15793

Publication date: 02 Jan 2025

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