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While there has been an international call for action from the United Nations secretary general, individuals' abilities to engage with climate change and actions to mitigate it can vary. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 and related school closures caused significant upheaval across the world; schools made immediate shifts to remote delivery, increasing workloads and decreasing access to outdoor spaces and opportunities to connect with nature. In this paper we will explore a rural, mid-Wales school's approach to climate change education (CCE), and their experiences running the CCE programme 'You and CO2' through interviews with teachers and analyses of creative interactive digital narratives (IDNs) the students created on the programme. The paper will discuss what the school was doing before the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect of the pandemic on CCE in the school, and how the You and CO2 programme raised the aspirations and confidence levels of the school's humanities department for teaching CCE. The findings in this study highlight the importance of localised knowledge, and engagement with local groups in successful delivery of CCE programmes, which was reflected in students' IDNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a sustainable future, equipping sustainability change agents with relevant sustainability competencies is crucial. Among these competencies is system thinking competence – the understanding of complex interrelationships among the dimensions of sustainable development and the impacts of the interrelationships. Learning approaches relevant to fostering sustainability competencies have been studied. However, research is rare on fostering systems thinking competence by simultaneously using multiple, real-world, and innovative learning approaches. To address this gap, we conducted a pre-test–post-test exploratory experimental study involving higher education students (n = 36). The study explored the contributions of field trips and collaborative learning in combination with mobile learning and paper-and-pencil note taking. The study simultaneously implemented a combined set of learning approaches in a real-world environment. The results suggest that the learning approaches and the real-world environment contribute to fostering the systems thinking competence of participants by exposing them to complex real-world systems and enabling the exchanging of diverse ideas among collaborating participants. As such, our study contributes to social constructivist learning discourses in education for sustainable development by indicating specific combinations of learning approaches and environments that facilitate the meaningful engagement and motivation of learners through self-regulated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the ongoing socio-ecological crises, higher education institutions need curricular interventions to support students in developing the knowledge, skills, and perspectives needed to create a sustainable future. Campus farms are increasingly becoming sites for sustainability and environmental education toward this end. This paper describes the design and outcomes of a farm-situated place-based experiential learning (PBEL) intervention in two undergraduate biology courses and one environmental studies course over two academic years. We conducted a mixed-method study using pre/post-surveys and focus groups to examine the relationship between the PBEL intervention and students' sense of place and expressions of pro-environmentalism. The quantitative analysis indicated measurable shifts in students' place attachment and place-meaning scores. The qualitative findings illustrate a complex relationship between students' academic/career interests, backgrounds, and pro-environmentalism. We integrated these findings to generate a model of sustainability learning through PBEL and argue for deepening learning to encourage active participation in socio-ecological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equipping future change agents with the competencies to lead the societal transformation towards sustainability requires competent and committed teachers who effectively implement Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across the education system. In a comparative case study, this paper investigates how individual ESD courses in teacher education programs at Leuphana University (Germany) and Arizona State University (USA) support the development of ESD-specific professional action competence for teachers. Applying a mixed-method approach, the specific focus is on the links between supporting or hindering factors that affect pre-service teachers' actual achievement of intended learning outcomes. The findings indicate that both courses increased students' competence—yet, to varying degrees. The 4Cs (personal, professional, social, and structural connections) were revealed as the most significant factors affecting students' learning and should be considered when designing course offerings in Teacher Education for Sustainable Development (TESD) with the goal to develop students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Education plays an influential role in societal transformation towards sustainability. An understanding of the application of sustainability learning from degree programs in a graduate's professional practice can serve as an important feedback loop for developing and advancing sustainability in higher education. A knowledge gap exists between graduate learning outcomes and employability skills, with little exploration of the methods to collect evidence of such relationships. This paper presents the results of a study to measure the uptake and application of sustainability attributes by graduates, post degree-completion. The study developed and trialled a graduate attribute assessment tool informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The results demonstrate that the graduates sampled understood what was required for them to act sustainably and showed preparedness to act appropriately. However, these actions were moderated by the influence of key stakeholders and work-place contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic development is one means of reorientating education within higher education (HE) to include sustainability principles. This paper identifies the requirements of academic development programmes that will provide educators with the skills to engage students in the ideas of sustainability and sustainable development. In order to determine what an ideal academic development programme for sustainability education might look like, a theoretical framework for sustainable education and academic development (SEAD framework) was constructed. This was based on an analysis of the literature in the areas of sustainability education, academic development and organisational change in HE. The aim of this paper was to present and analyse the theoretical SEAD framework against three international academic development programmes in sustainability education for HE, which utilised different approaches and delivery modes. From this analysis, it is possible to determine the elements of academic development that would most likely result in a change in educational development and delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we analyse the status and significance of adopting a Marxist ontological perspective in the field of Brazilian environmental education. We draw on the concept of labour developed by Marx, where labour is used as a category to articulate the relationships humans establish with nature and which, historically, have an impact on their living conditions. Given the ongoing process of destroying the material basis of life under a Capitalist means of production, we argue that environmental educators and researchers require refinements to the theoretical and methodological frameworks they use to understand contradictions between development and sustainability in Brazil. This includes meeting their responsibilities to help others and themselves overcome the current capitalist model governing the social and material production of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ideological and the practical relationship between neoliberalism and New Public Management (NPM) and the sustainable development agenda of western higher education. Using the United Kingdom and specifically English universities as an example, it investigates the contradictions and the synergies between neoliberal and NPM ideologies and the pursuit and practice of the sustainability agenda, focusing in particular on education for sustainable development (ESD) and ESD research. This paper reveals a range of challenges and opportunities in respect of advancing sustainability in higher education, within the prevailing neoliberal context. It illustrates using examples how neoliberal and managerialist control mechanisms, which govern institutional, departmental and individual academic, as well as student behaviour, are working conversely to both drive and limit the sustainability education agenda. The case is made for further exploration of how ‘nudging’ and ‘steering’ mechanisms within English HE might provide further leverage for ESD developments in the near future, and the implications of this for sustainability educators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is concerned with the twinning of sustainability with priorities of economic neoliberalization in education, and in particular via the mobility or diffusion of education policy. We discuss the literature on policy mobility as well as overview concerns regarding neoliberalism and education. The paper brings these analyses to bear in considering the uptake of sustainability in education policy. We ask to what extent sustainability as a vehicular idea may be twinning with processes of neoliberalization in education policy in ways that may undermine aspirations of, and action on, environmental sustainability. Toward the end of the paper, we draw on data from an empirical study to help elucidate how the analytic frames of policy mobility can inform our analyses of the potential concerns and possibilities of sustainability as a vehicular idea. In particular, we investigate how sustainability and related language have been adopted in the policies of Canadian post-secondary education institutions over time. The paper closes by suggesting the potential implications of the proceeding analyses for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers concerned with sustainability in education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving student competencies to address sustainability challenges has been a subject of significant debate in higher education. Problem- and project-based learning have been widely celebrated as course models that support the development of sustainability competencies. This paper describes a course developed for a professional Master’s program in environment and sustainability that employs such a model. Additionally, the course was designed to offer value-added opportunities by introducing attributes of interdisciplinary training, service learning, academic research, and professional practice. Results from the course assessments by students, faculty, community clients and organizational partners show this model provided a range of learning, professional and practical outcomes for course partners. The value-added benefits include strengthening sustainability competencies and professional skills for students; longitudinal research opportunities for teaching faculty; real-time assessments of farming practices for community clients; and a heightened regional profile for the non-profit biosphere reserve organization supporting course delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of university wide graduate attributes has become an important mechanism for setting generic learning outcomes across higher education institutions. Many universities around the world have developed sets of graduate attributes that they aim to develop through degree programs. Sustainability related attributes have been included in numerous university attribute statements, however, little research exists on methods that can be used to capture data on the application and use of these attributes by graduates. This paper evaluates an assessment tool, based on a scenario/vignette question design, which can be used to capture data on graduate attributes in context and has the potential to be used across a large graduate population which would enable comparative research of learning outcomes to be undertaken. An evaluation of the usefulness of the scenario/vignette design will be presented based on a pilot of the question design with a sample of RMIT University graduates. The results of the pilot show that scenario/vignettes address some of the limitations of existing self-assessment methods and represent a novel way to collect data on graduate sustainability attributes post-degree completion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an evidence-based model (the I3E model) for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) within a higher education institution. This model emerged from a doctoral research that examined organisational learning and change processes at the University of Southampton to build EfS into the university curriculum. The researcher aimed to learn from real practice through acting as a facilitator for curriculum development in EfS within an interdisciplinary group of academic staff members. A critical friend position was also acquired within a community of practice to implement a programme which attempted to embed sustainability within the student experience. The I3E model identifies four overarching components that can support universities in their aim to embed EfS within the undergraduate curriculum. These integrated components are: Inform the university community about sustainability; Engage the different university stakeholders in the change process towards sustainability; Empower individuals and groups to make change happen within their sphere of influence and action; and Embed sustainability within existing university structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and sustainability programmes in higher education have gained traction over the last several decades. More-than-disciplinary epistemologies and innovative pedagogies promise transformational learning to grapple with contemporary environmental challenges. Environmental programmes thus have implicit messages of social change. Evaluation, thus far, have tended to be methodologically partial, and neglects the student voice. In this paper, we present our co/autoethnography as two graduates of the Bachelor of Environmental Studies programme from the National University of Singapore. We critically reflect on our experiences in a capstone Environmental Studies module. Highlighting orthordoxies around discourses of ‘behaviour’, the valorising of quantitative knowledges, and the ‘tyranny of relevance’, we argue these neoliberal scripts limits the programme’s potential as an agent of social change. In concluding, we make the case for a more critical environmental education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions have attracted increasing levels of attention from both the public and policy-makers in recent decades. Many studies have called for a more integration of sustainability into mainstream university operations and curricula. Nevertheless, the interest in sustainability issues has been more recent in the specific case of Spain. On this basis, the aim of this paper is to examine the main factors (size of universities, chairs related to sustainability, political orientation and sustainability disclosure) that might explain the presence of sustainability initiatives in Spanish universities. To accomplish this task, data were collected using a systematic content analysis of the published strategic plans of Spanish universities during the last decade. Two main findings were identified: first, the four variables chosen were not related to the presence or absence of sustainability initiatives in the strategic plans of Spanish universities, excepting the partial influence exerted by the size and political orientation. Second, there was a scarce presence of sustainability initiatives in the strategic plans of Spanish universities analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The slow uptake of Education for Sustainability (EfS) curricula in universities has, partly, been attributed to academics’ perceptions that EfS has little relevance within some disciplines. Understanding teaching academics’ attitudes, values and experiences of EfS across disciplines can inform future EfS efforts in higher education. This paper presents one part of a larger study that sought the views of ≈6% of the entire university teaching workforce of Australia. One quarter of the teaching academics in every discipline of every Australian university (except one) (n = 38) was sent an online questionnaire asking for their opinions of EfS. Precisely, 1819 academics participated (26% response rate) and data was analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings suggest that academics are supportive of EfS for all university students. Support, perceived relevance and reported difficulties with EfS are discipline specific; academics would respond positively to EfS framed within their disciplinary worldviews. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education for sustainable development aims to help learners engage with the concept of sustainability. This paper considers whether specific values-centred sustainability training techniques can promote personal engagement with sustainability when undertaken by higher education students on an extra-curricular voluntary basis. Conducted over an eight-month period, the study evaluates the impact of the training on 67 second year undergraduate design and engineering students at Plymouth University using pre- and post-training values and worldview scales measured against a control group. Four months after the training, one-to-one interviews were conducted with a subset of the sample. A quantitative analysis of the values and worldview surveys indicates that a degree of values clarification and mind-set shift resulted from the training, with design students appearing more receptive than those studying engineering. This finding was reinforced in the interview data, which illustrates where and how learners engaged with the training and provides examples of learners deep thought, reflection and mind-set changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented which discusses four papers within the issue including Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE), reonceptualising education in relation to the environment and objectivism-subjectivism that degrades ESE.