Teacher Education for Sustainable Development: A Review of an Emerging Research Field

authored by: Daniel Fischer, Jordan King, Marco Rieckmann, Matthias Barth, Alexander Büssing, Ingrid Hemmer, Detlev Lindau-Bank
Abstract: Teacher Education for Sustainable Development (TESD) is a niche innovation in teacher education that empowers teachers to prepare learners to address global socio-environmental challenges. To advance the diffusion of this niche innovation into general teacher education, this article offers a systematic literature review based on a qualitative analysis of 158 peer-reviewed publications on TESD research. Our results show that TESD research is a growing field characterized by five types of inquiry: designing learning environments, understanding learner attributes, measuring learning outcomes, promoting systems change, and advancing visions for the field. Major innovation potentials of TESD for more general teacher education are its emphasis on the grand socio-environmental challenges of our times, methodologies to engage with knowledge diversity (e.g., inter/transdisciplinarity), and sustainability science learning approaches (e.g., backcasting). We suggest that future work builds from this review to strengthen links between teacher education and TESD in enhancing quality education.
Organisation(s): Biology Education Section
External Organisation(s): Wageningen University and Research
Arizona State University
University of Vechta
Leuphana University Lüneburg
Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Type: Article
Journal: Journal of teacher education
Volume: 73
Pages: 509-524
No. of pages: 16
ISSN: 0022-4871
Publication date: 11.2022
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Education
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 4 - Quality Education
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871221105784 (Access: Open)