Abstract
National education policies are increasingly regulated by international agendas, for example the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (SD). However, in order to put such policies into practice, social actors like teachers and teacher educators must include them in their practices. In this context, this study stems from the following research question: how does initial teacher education (ITE) promote the SD Agendas (2030 and 2063 for Africa)? The approach to this question is carried out through a case study focused on an Angolan teacher education higher education institution, in its graduate course for future secondary school biology teachers. The main aims of this study are (i) to characterize how ITE includes SD and (ii) to suggest ways to improve SD, particularly focusing on students’ future professional needs. Data were gathered from document analysis (the pedagogical curriculum plan of the course; titles and abstracts of final-year future biology teachers’ essays) and an interview with the course director of the biology teaching program of the Angolan institution. Content analysis of the gathered evidence was based on a three-dimensional framework: (a) SD goals (SDG) and the curriculum; (b) teacher education principles; and (c) current Angolan curricular perspectives. Results show that although the Pedagogical curriculum plan and the formative path, from the interviewee’s point of view, do not explicitly integrate SDG and its challenges for biology ITE, the majority of essays analyzed are locally contextualized and in a number of cases articulated with some of the 17 SDG. Suggestions for inclusion of SDG in ITE and for teacher education research are put forward.
Highlights
Nowadays it is difficult to question the need to “save the planet” we live in, and for this to occur one must think and act towards a more sustainable world
Subjects and strategies are contemplated in the pedagogical curricular plan (PCP), and as far as the essay students should do at the end of the course are concerned? To what extent does the PCP include orientations concerning the Interview with the coordinator of the “Biology Teaching” program
Results pertaining to the analysis of the pedagogical curricular plan (Section 4.1), the interview with the biology coordinator (Section 4.2) and content analysis of students’ essays (Section 4.3) are presented
Summary
Nowadays it is difficult to question the need to “save the planet” we live in, and for this to occur one must think and act towards a more sustainable world. Teacher education (TE), and initial teacher education (ITE) must include in their formative paths the preparation of (future) teachers to deal with such challenges This means that TE and ITE must take explicit strategies on board to promote the development of professionals with competences that educate responsible citizens, namely as far as SD is concerned. Notice that the need and adaptation of SD in African countries made their leaders sign the Agenda 2063, “Africa for all” [4]. In this sense, and considering teachers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes about and towards SD—an important dimension for their job—this paper addresses the effort of empowering Angolan teachers’ employability [5,6]. While access to employment has not been a problem in Angola due to the current expansion of the educational system, the supply of qualified teachers remains a national challenge [7]
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