Abstract
Digital technologies play a key role in the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda. However, their contribution to this goal depends on the digital culture of society. In this context, future teachers’ knowledge of e-sustainability is of paramount importance, as the responsible and sustainable behaviour of future generations largely depends on their skills in this area. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the existence of possible differences in digital competences in sustainability among trainee teachers. The study involved the participation of 348 students in the 2nd year of their Bachelor’s Degrees in Early Childhood and Primary Education at the University of Alicante (Alicante, Spain), who filled out a questionnaire on this topic. The SPSS v. 25 statistical programme, with which a comparative analysis was carried out, was used to process the data. On the basis of the results, the students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education generally presented a higher level of e-sustainable competences, especially with regard to general competences and the economic dimension of digital sustainability. Despite this, and given the small size of the differences, we conclude that there is a need to design didactic proposals to favour the acquisition of these competences among future teachers at both stages.
Highlights
The inequalities and imbalances that have affected the planet over the last few decades have created an urgent need for effective measures to combat their devastating effects [1].As a result, and in an attempt to achieve well-being and prosperity for the whole of humanity, in 2015 the United Nations (UN) proposed the 2030 Agenda, a roadmap for progress towards a fairer and equal world [2]
Given the threat that COVID-19 has posed to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda [4,5], the UN has recently urged the international community as a whole to accelerate its efforts to put an end to the major problems affecting humanity [6]
The Bachelor’s Degrees in Early Childhood Education (BDECE) students obtained higher mean ranks than the BDPE students, which means that BDECE students have a higher degree of mastery of the skills and abilities related to this area
Summary
The inequalities and imbalances that have affected the planet over the last few decades have created an urgent need for effective measures to combat their devastating effects [1].As a result, and in an attempt to achieve well-being and prosperity for the whole of humanity, in 2015 the United Nations (UN) proposed the 2030 Agenda, a roadmap for progress towards a fairer and equal world [2]. More than five years after this declaration, it must be acknowledged that progress in this direction has been rather timid and scarce and that, this ambitious horizon seems increasingly distant and diffuse [3] Faced with this situation, and given the threat that COVID-19 has posed to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda [4,5], the UN has recently urged the international community as a whole to accelerate its efforts to put an end to the major problems affecting humanity [6]. 2020 marked the start of the ‘Decade of Action’, an opportunity in extremis to address the major challenges facing our society and to promote equity, justice and prosperity In this race, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) becomes one of the most effective means to promote the acquisition of attitudes, behaviours, and values that are respectful and environmentally friendly [7,8,9,10]. This learning is greatly enriched when active methodologies are used in the process [12,13,14,15]
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