Challenges of Implementing Education for Sustainable Development: University Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

There have been proven and successful developments in the field of Higher Education for Sustainable Development over the past 15 years (Leal Filho et al., 2017). Universities, in particular, are essential to achieving the SDGs that equip the next generation with knowledge, and enable them to address sustainability challenges (Avila et al., 2017). In this regard, teacher educators also play their role and use their expertise to train pre-service teachers to adopt sustainable practices. Research has also highlighted that teacher educators face numerous challenges in developing knowledge of sustainability among pre-service teachers. Through a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis procedures, this study explored the viewpoints of twenty-two teacher educators from eight public sector universities in Punjab. The findings indicated that teacher educators face many challenges including lack of commitment from students, lack of support from management, lack of time and lack of instructional resources, narrow-focused courses while integrating sustainability knowledge among pre-service teachers.