Abstract
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects the urgency to embed the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education. ESD, understood as an integral part of quality education and where all educational institutions, from preschool to higher education and in non-formal and informal education, can and should foster the development of sustainability competencies. This Special Issue entitled “Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development II” responds to this urgency and the papers presented deliver recent developments in the field of sustainability and ESD competencies. They focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews and conceptual contributions; curriculum developments and pedagogical approaches to explore competencies’ development, such as action research, serious games, augmented reality, multi-course project-based learning and group model building processes; testing and validation of assessment tools and processes for linking sustainability competencies to employability and quality assurance processes. The contributions show how the field of sustainability and ESD competencies has become a major focus in recent years and present emerging research developments. Further research efforts need to be put into operationalizing sustainability competencies and developing tools that help measure and assess students’ and educators’ competencies development.
Highlights
Target 4.7 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 is devoted to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the sustainability knowledge and competencies to be promoted amongst learners to cultivate global citizens as change agents towards more sustainable societies, embracing human rights, sustainable consumption, gender equality and cultural diversity amongst others [2]
The accepted papers mainly focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews; development of conceptual models; pedagogical approaches and curriculum developments to embed sustainability competencies, which include the use of action research, serious games, augmented reality, multi-course project-based learning and group model building processes; the testing and validation of assessment tools and processes for sustainability competencies and the enhancement of these through quality assurance processes
The results show that the competencies which are more present across frameworks, predominantly address knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that have been identified as those that educators need to mobilize to address current sustainability challenges from a critical and transformative perspective, such as Critical Thinking, Connections and Participation in Community
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The new Education for Sustainable Development: Towards achieving the SDGs (ESD for 2030) framework outlines five priority action areas focused on policy, learning environments, building capacities of educators, youth and local level action, stressing further the key role of ESD for the achievement of the 17 SDGs and the individual and societal transformation required to address climate change and sustainability challenges [3]. The accepted papers mainly focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews; development of conceptual models; pedagogical approaches and curriculum developments to embed sustainability competencies, which include the use of action research, serious games, augmented reality, multi-course project-based learning and group model building processes; the testing and validation of assessment tools and processes for sustainability competencies and the enhancement of these through quality assurance processes
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