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

• Main Authors: Mercedes Varela-Losada, Azucena Arias-Correa, Uxío Pérez-Rodríguez, Pedro Vega-Marcote
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: environmental education; sustainability; teacher training; climate change; role play
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4309

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.