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The main argument defended in this article is that the involvement of teachers in decision-making about environmental aspects related to the management of educational institutions constitutes a powerful tool for training, teacher professional development, and environmental literacies. A group of early childhood education teachers across various institutions work under a collaborative action-research model for an entire year that is focussed on the following: (1) the institution&rsquo, s water, solid waste, and energy management, (2) the planning of innovative activities related to water, solid waste, and energy, and, (3) participation in transformative actions that involve families and impact their neighbourhoods. The experience enables the building of a theoretical model of teacher training aimed at acquiring action skills from a comprehensive perspective of triple helix environmental literacy (management, research/innovation, and teaching) that affects their commitments to the management of environmental resources, the eco-auditing of their eco-school, the curricular greening of activities, the renewal of educational programs, and the implementation of an action-research focussed on aspects related to sustainability.

This chapter revolves around the commitment to sustainability of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It deals with the construction of a system of indicators of the greening of these organizations, taking as a reference the possible evidence of their commitment to sustainability. These indicators have constituted the basis for the design and validation of an observational record (an estimation scale) to assess said commitment. This observational scale, made up of 51 indicators divided into 10 large dimensions, enables the estimation of the degree of presence of these aspects in the work carried out by NGOs, using the information available on the corporate web portals of these organizations as a source of analysis. From an exploratory perspective, and after applying the designed instrument, this work aims to characterize the greening tasks developed by eight NGOs (in both Spain and internationally): Cruz Roja (Red Cross), Manos Unidas, Agua de Coco, APDHA Calor y Café, Médicos Sin Fronteras (Doctors Without Borders), Amnesty International, and Setem-Andalucía.

The shortage of water in the Iberian Peninsula has become one of the most pressing environmental problems and of greater transcendence in recent decades. This issue is also underlined at the international level because of climate change. The proliferation of interpretation centers that focus their attention on water in Spain is a relevant response to the need for public awareness of the problem of water as a scarce resource, as well as at the international level. Among the issues that we raise in this work we highlight: to what extent has been the strategy of the construction of Water Interpretation Centers (WIC) and if its contents, methodologies, resources and facilities have e ectively contributed to a greater awareness of the population on the problem of water? Finally, how are these centers fragile in time in relation to their stability and the working conditions of their sta ? The methodology is based on descriptive–evaluative research, with the following phases: preparation of a census of interpretation centers at the state level, and the design and submission of a form around six topics and data analysis. In conclusion, we can highlight that 150 centers have been registered. Finally, the main conclusion is that the crisis has a ected the sector, causing a drop in financing and in the supply of activities, where it has not recovered at present., Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain, European Union (EU) RTI2018-094074-B-100, Sustainability in Higher Education: Evaluation of the scope of the 2030 Agenda in curriculum innovation and teacher professional development in Andalusian Universities B-SEJ-424-UGR18

This article compares the level of climate literacy observed among university students enrolled on different academic courses, sampled at the start and end of their degrees (N = 1,149). The study i...

Climate change (CC) is one of the challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. The complex nature of the phenomenon requires further empiric research from the field of social sciences in...

Este artículo pretende implementar un proceso de concienciación, empoderamiento y compromiso ciudadano. Se identifica el caso objeto de atención, un barrio costero de la ciudad de Comodoro-Rivadavia (Argentina) afectado por un problema de contaminación en el que se interviene con un programa de voluntariado universitario. Se realiza un estudio de caso a través de una estrategia de investigación-acción; la muestra la constituyen voluntarios universitarios, vecinos y responsables institucionales; los instrumentos de obtención de datos son de corte esencialmente cualitativo. Los resultados muestran que la acción educativa llevada a cabo consigue movilizar a la comunidad vecinal, haciéndole tomar conciencia del problema y generando en ella un empoderamiento que conduce a diferentes acciones que van desde la denuncia y la confrontación hasta la recreación de lazos comunitarios. En el programa la justicia social y la justicia ambiental tienden puentes que permiten pensar el futuro desde la toma de conciencia ciudadana de las condiciones de contaminación de su territorio, las causas y consecuencias ligadas a aspectos en los que lo político se entrecruza con los intereses económicos y la supervivencia en condiciones extremas de explotación de recursos naturales, This article aims to implement a process of citizen awareness, empowerment and commitment. The case is identified: a coastal area of the city of Comodoro-Rivadavia (Argentina) affected by a problem of pollution in which a university volunteer program is involved. A case study through an action-research strategy is used; the sample is constituted by university volunteers, neighbours and institutional leaders; the instruments of obtaining data are essentially qualitative. The results show that the educational action carried out can mobilize the neighbourhood community, making them aware of the problems and generating in it an empowerment that leads to different actions ranging from denunciation and confrontation to the recreation of community ties. In the program, social justice and environmental justice have bridges that allow us to think about the future from the citizen's awareness of the pollution conditions of its territory, the causes and consequences linked to aspects in which the political intersects with economic interests and survival in extreme conditions of exploitation of natural resources

In search of innovative approaches capable of connecting climate change issues with teenagers, scholars and practitioners have become interested in harnessing the potential of gaming for advancing climate change communication. This article aims to propose a set of criteria, validated by experts through the Delphi method, by which to analyze communicative features of online climate change games. The use of the criteria is illustrated with an evaluation of a sample of Spanish games to which we apply qualitative content analysis, narratology, and ludology techniques. Our findings reveal some positive communicative trends in terms of narratives, contents, and gameplay.

The following research is aimed to analyze teaching practice related to the sustainable management in Pre-School Education (PE) centers. We understand sustainable management as those behavior patterns related to the treatment of resources in the center which employ them in an environmentally respectful way. As a qualitative method, we consulted 30 teachers using a semi-structured interview composed of 27 questions organized in 7 different analysis categories. The quantitative counterpart was carried out by means of a Likert scale which scored from 1 to 5 the aforementioned categories. In most cases, found weaknesses revolve around the energy, the management of water and waste, as well as the mobility solutions. Those aspects in which teachers have a larger scope for action, such as green areas and responsible consumption, obtained a better score and were considered as strengths. Teachers show a high implication in the greening of the curriculum of regular daily work in the classes and, on the other hand, a low capacity of direct incidence in the management of the resources of the center. This causes difficulties to intervene in environmental problems which require different levels of participation in the decision making process, and which involve multiple agents in the solution of the problems and the adoption of strategic measures. It is utterly important for the centers to carry out a complete and exhaustive eco-audit to elaborate a set of patterns to follow in order to correct and foster the detected weaknesses and strengths.

The paper presents a descriptive study that analyzes the relationship between science and common culture in the social representations of problems arising from climate change, stressing the importance of promoting adequate communication and education on climate risks and their implications for health. The global climate change on Earth due to natural and anthropogenic causes that occurs at different time scales is a matter of controversy among scientists, policy makers and especially among ordinary citizens who are informed, generally, for the most common means of communication, creating a common culture in relation to this aspect that reveals very interesting facts about what is meant and is known for Climate Change and the consequences that such knowledge can lead to mitigate or otherwise increase. The construction of the common culture on climate change and the problems that entails is comprised of different construction way scientific element; so that knowledge of the common culture on Climate Change can improve education and communication about the threat of it to health. The study was conducted from the selection of a significant sample of 512 university students taking as independent variables the branch of knowledge and the course. Has been used as a tool for data collection a questionnaire with 45 questions of closed type, of which the first 32 questions are made with the intention of assessing students' knowledge regarding Climate Change and the remaining 13 questions are related personal and subjective aspects This paper is part of the research RESCLIMA project supported by the Ministry of Economy & Competitiveness, Government of Spain (EDU2015-63572-P) SI

7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain., In search of innovative approaches to raise climate change awareness among digital natives, online and serious games are gaining currency as new platforms for communication, education and social change. Thanks to their interactivity and immersive narrative, games have capacity to convey to young people the problems that they will be facing in the future and enable them to experience these problems directly through the game. In addition, online games can offer the possibility to be implemented in educational contexts as a didactic tool for teachers. This study aims a) to present a checklist with validated evaluation criteria identified through the Delphi method; and b) to conduct a qualitative evaluation of communicative and educative elements of a sample of 24 online climate change games targeting youth and produced in Spanish. Our findings suggest that the games evaluated seem to be on the right path, making the topic of climate change local, visual and connected, although there is still room for improvement in terms of contents, gameplay and didactics.

Video games have the potential to educate and engage people—especially young people—in climate change and energy issues by facilitating the development of helpful thoughts, feelings, and actions. The objective of the present article is to propose a set of game attributes that could maximise the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement of players, and lay the foundations for future work. We have used semistructured interviews with experts to identify a set of game attributes and a group discussion with teenagers to validate them. By applying grounded theory in our analysis of the experts’ responses, we have developed a framework for climate change engagement through serious games. It consists of 15 key attributes that we have classified in three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural. Literature review drawn on sources in social psychology, communication and education has contributed to further explain and justify the inclusion of each of the attributes.

The university volunteer programs in Argentina encourage entrepreneurship culture through the development of innovative socio-environmental projects that promote a joint effort between the different administrations of the State, the universities and regional social organizations. One, called “environment and social inclusion” has been undertaken since 2011 in Stella Maris, a coastal suburb of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia – Chubut. The program includes a training phase for the university volunteers, an action plan addressed to the social agents and an evaluation of the results. This project has contributed to the reduction of vulnerabilities from the proposed action research planned by volunteer university students, teachers and social agents. Neighborhood institutional leaders who actively participated also contributed. Through a participatory diagnosis, the different actors in the community became aware of the environmental problems of their area and established strategic priorities for action ...

Videogames have become educational, communicative and social tools among the young, favouring the acquisition of skills, abilities and values, encompassing an endless number of themes, and helping them to experience and to face, in the first person, a great diversity of environmental situations and ecology problems. Thus, the present article aims: (a) to evaluate a sample of 20 educational videogames about water, making use of some empirical criteria of quality; and (b) to design, validate and apply an integrated quality indicator of educational videogames on water, based on the aspects of narrative, gameplay and education, which allows us to obtain a ranking. The findings reflect a ranking of games allowing us to suggest that the nature of the game (simulation, adventures, platforms or questions) does not determine the quality of the game, although generally simulations and adventure games are placed in a range of medium- or high-quality, as well as those games that pursue objectives related to the design and management of a territory in a sustainable way. The paper provides teachers with quality criteria based on narrative and gameplay that complement and enrich the pedagogical dimension., This research received funding of the Excelence Unit of Research, Faculty of Education & Vicerectorate of Research and Transference, University of Granada.

There is an urgent need to curb emissions and mitigate climate change, and this fight requires a change in teenagers’ attitudes. In search of new approaches targeting youth, online games are seen as a promising tool for communication and education. Using the serious game 2020 Energy as a case study, the main objective of this paper is to examine the influence of the game on Spanish and American teenagers’ attitudes (N = 108), employing a pretest-posttest design with an experimental condition (playing the game) and a control condition (not playing the game). Results show that there have not been statistically significant differences after playing the game, although when looking closer at each factor, some positive consequences can be found.

Introducción. En la presente investigación pretendemos determinar la influencia que una colección de variables de tipo pronóstico y proceso (opinión del alumnado hacia la estadística, su dedicación a los contenidos de estadística, la valoración de los materiales didácticos y la labor del docente en la enseñanza de la estadística) han jugado en la resolución de actividades y adquisición de competencias relacionadas con el análisis de datos cuantitativos (variable producto).Método. Se ha desarrollado un estudio correlacional-predictivo con una muestra que corresponde a una cohorte de estudiantes de la Licenciatura de Pedagogía de la Universidad de Granada (N= 70) que se sometieron a un protocolo de cinco situaciones problemáticas y que, además, valoraron con anterioridad la influencia de cinco variables predictivas en la resolución de dichas situaciones.Resultados. Los resultados alcanzados tras la implementación de un análisis de regresión lineal múltiple indican que, tanto la labor del profesorado, como la actitud hacia la estadística (por este orden) juegan un papel primordial en el rendimiento logrado en la resolución de problemas de estadística y el dominio de competencias de análisis de datos cuantitativos.Conclusión. El modelo inferido, en este caso particular, ha restado relevancia a la influencia que puedan jugar en el rendimiento estadístico la preparación del alumnado, así como los materiales curriculares puestos a su disposición para su preparación de la asignatura.

The main idea this article develops is the conceptual chaos, methodological tensions and epistemological conflicts that are being experienced in the field of environmental education as a result of the uncertainty generated by some institutions and international organisms. The authors’ perspective starts from the idea that too many expectations have been invested in the celebration of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The celebration will contribute to making the tensions and fractures grow between the different collectives and professional cultures that inhabit this educational field. While some will find their channels of expression waning and their work models delegitimated, others will increase their popularity and extend their hegemonic power over the dominant models of intervention and the securing of financial resources through the programs and grant competitions they enter. The reason for these tensions lies in the underlying focus promoted by the model of celebration that has been advocated by the institutions leading the process.

This article analyses climate literacy among university students, using their knowledge about the causes of climate change. Based on the theory of social representation, this comparative study examined a sample of 503 students. Using drawings and text, students were asked to respond to the question 'What is climate change?' They then completed an ad hoc survey. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data revealed that most students recognised human responsibility in climate change but demonstrated gaps in their understanding of the phenomenon. The results show that more specialised university education in the natural and technological sciences did not translate into more accurate representation, which was affected by common culture and scientific representation. In light of these findings, we offer recommendations for incorporating climate change into higher education curricula.

An environmental audit study is presented, based on the opinions of students and teachers about the possibilities of improvements to the environmental resource management of twelve primary education centres in the region of Andalucía (Spain), and the guidelines for implementing programs for curriculum greening that are committed to the environment and that makes it possible to undertake actions of sustainable development both inside and outside the classroom. The research follows a diagnostic methodology, focused on describing the models of environmental resources management at primary education centres in Andalucía, as well as their sustainability actions, commitments and programs from the perspective of both teachers and students. Finally, the results have been confirmed that there is a need to redefine the strategies for environmental management, intervention and participation of the entire educational community, approaching this from the design of educationally innovative actions focused on the socio-environmental problems of the local area.

During the last decade Environmental Education (EE) programs have drawn attraction from both experts and educators as a way to answer the increasing preoccupation about the different challenges and problems faced by the Environment. For this reason, many schools have started programmes and strategies related to EE with different success. In this work, we have carried out a case study over 30 teachers of Early Years Education (EYE), working at preschools in Granada, Spain, in order to assess the implementation of Environmental Education in their daily practice. By means of an interview protocol we have gathered information about 15 different categories encompassed in topics which are central to EE such as curricular innovation, participation of the educational community and sustainable management of the school. Results show how teachers are positive regarding the inclusion of EE in their daily practice and the participation of the community. On the other hand we observed the difficulties faced by the educators to effectively implement EE programs due to lack of economic support by the Administration and the need to carry out an objective consultancy to overcome possible biases which may exist when teachers evaluate their own performance.