Educating Digital Citizens: An Opportunity to Critical and Activist Perspective of Sustainable Development Goals

Antonia Lozano-Díaz,Juan S. Fernández-Prados

doi:10.3390/su12187260

Antonia Lozano-Díaz, Juan S. Fernández-Prados

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187260

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Sep 4, 2020
Citations: 24	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Almería

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda sets out seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The educational goal is to promote the education of citizens on sustainable development, among other things. Educating today’s digital citizens on sustainability means training them for justice and social activism, commitment and political engagement. However, research into the subject shows a lack of consistency in the education of university students. This paper presents a study of students of Education, on education on sustainability through the practice of active and critical digital citizenship. A quasi-experimental method was used to learn about the behaviors of digital citizens, and intervention was carried out by means of an SDG-focused workshop and observation of the final level of commitment. The results show a positive level of commitment and digital activism around content related to sustainable development, which can be addressed from the university syllabus in a cross-curricular way.

Highlights

Several guidelines have been adopted by the United Nations (UN) and its agencies on how to approach the development of human activity in a sustainable way, culminating in the approval of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [1]
In the case of Spain, the guidelines adopted by university academics are included in documents that lay the foundations on sustainability training for professional qualifications and the all-round education of graduates [4]
In the analysis of the results, a linear transformation of the aggregate scores of the items corresponding to each factor has been carried out to obtain subscales of 0–10

Summary

Introduction

Several guidelines have been adopted by the United Nations (UN) and its agencies on how to approach the development of human activity in a sustainable way, culminating in the approval of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [1]. This document lays out the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals and calls on all countries to work together responsibly in achieving them [2]. In the goal dedicated to education, Number 4, the UN dedicates a specific part, Section 4.7, to the requirement for learners to acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development. In this way, it challenges the educational community at all levels and transfers to them the responsibility to educate learners on and for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the case of Spain, the guidelines adopted by university academics are included in documents that lay the foundations on sustainability training for professional qualifications and the all-round education of graduates [4]

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