How Can Teachers Be Encouraged to Commit to Sustainability? Evaluation of a Teacher-Training Experience in Spain

Mercedes Varela-Losada,Pedro Vega-Marcote,Uxío Pérez-Rodríguez,Azucena Arias-Correa

doi:10.3390/su11164309

Mercedes Varela-Losada, Pedro Vega-Marcote + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11164309

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Aug 9, 2019
Citations: 16	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade de Vigo, University of A Coruña

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to design and evaluate an experience for future teachers focused on the participatory search for sustainability through role play so that outcomes related to improving the way they see the world and their commitment to mitigate climate change could be analysed. The study was carried out with a socio-critical focus, using a qualitative approach. To this effect, semi-open interviews were conducted, and their results were codified and studied using content analysis. The outcomes show that this type of educational experience can contribute to improving commitment to climate change and new, more sustainable ways of understanding the world—starting with improving the training of free-thinking, discerning people who are able to use information and collaborate in solving socio-environmental problems. Proposals based on participatory and experiential learning, fostering ethical considerations and the training of people who are more critical and discerning, should be the basis of new models of Environmental Education for Sustainability that seek to educate a society capable of addressing present and future socio-environmental challenges.

Highlights

At the beginning of the 21st century, we find ourselves in the midst of a great environmental and humanitarian crisis
Already in 2012, the World Bank [3], a body not prone to radical policies, exposed the risks of this change: “As global warming approaches and surpasses 2 ◦C, there is a risk of provoking non-linear inflection points, with consequences such as the melting of Western Antarctica, an increase in the rate of rising sea levels, the gradual demise of the Amazonian rainforests, [etc.]”
The proposal evaluated approaches their training based on the importance of living, innovating educational experiences that enable future teaching staff to reflect on Climate change (CC) and the lack of sustainability

Summary

Introduction

At the beginning of the 21st century, we find ourselves in the midst of a great environmental and humanitarian crisis. Climate change (CC) is a paradigmatic example of the problems we face nowadays. CC is one of the main socio-environmental problems, as noted by many international agencies [1,2] that warn of the consequences our greenhouse gas emissions will have on the viability of the planet. The latest report by the IPCC (2014) [4] on risks and potential impacts warns of different scenarios based on how we evolve and adapt to CC, where the most optimistic situation—with the implementation of global mitigation measures—already has significant consequences in people’s lives and that of the planet, such as a decrease in freshwater resources, risks for coastal systems, and impacts on food production and our health

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