TITLE:
Building a Collective School Culture to Achieve Education for Sustainability: The Contribution of Teachers’ Perceptions
AUTHORS:
Amalia Filippaki
KEYWORDS:
Education for Sustainability, Sustainability in Education, Sustainable School, School Culture, Professional Development, Participatory Planning, Inclusivity, Teacher Education, Policy
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.4,
April
12,
2023
ABSTRACT: Our current educational reality is often devoid of an encompassing vision
of Education for Sustainability (EfS) that involves all stakeholders and
invites them to take coordinated action towards an equalizing goal. Many
educators in their schools take a lonely trajectory; they are limited in their
classes or within perceived disciplinarian confinements of their cognitive
expertise. In their attempt to explain how an all-encompassing vision of
“sustainable education” can be promoted, nine in-service teachers involved in
European environmental protection programmes were asked to reflect on their
experience, explain possible reasons behind
each challenge and make recommendations for improvement. Based on empirical
studies and participants’ responses, we argued that sustainable education
policies and innovative scholarships should not be standing alone, isolated
from other programmes, policies, institutions or even education
theories. EfS researchers and practitioners should establish clear links
between EfS teacher education theory, approaches, curricula and implementation before
policies are formulated or pursued.