Abstract:

With increasing ecological, economic, social, and cultural challenges, the concept of sustainable development plays an increasingly important role. However, university courses concerned with the concept of education for sustainable development still play a subordinate role in teacher training – even in times of Agenda 2030.

With this in mind the University of Siegen/Germany has set up a specific offer for primary school teacher students to promote their skills in ESD: Students with the school subject “general studies” (science, social studies & technology at primary school level) can choose an elective course which focuses on aspects of sustainable development and education for sustainable development.

To find out how the future teachers deal with the new concept of ESD and what kind of concerns are evoked by dealing with ESD the elective course was accompanied by a scientific study. The leading research questions were: What are the job-related attitudes regarding ESD of students at the beginning of the study? How do these attitudes change during the course of the study? Do characteristic profiles emerge within the study groups?

The study is based on the Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) with the diagnostic dimension Stages of Concern (SoC) by Hall and Hord (2011). This is an established instrument for the research of implementation processes. It allows the (among others graphic) examination of innovation-related attitudes and concerns of affected persons as well as individual development processes.

The study was proceeded in an intervention and control group design with pre and post tests. The students of the intervention group took part in the course with focus on ESD. The control group consisted of all other students of general studies of the same semester. On the basis of all participating students (109), the reliability analysis of the single SoC-scales showed values (Cronbach's Alpha) that are comparable with international studies.

Initially the analysis of the participants of intervention and control group revealed no differences concerning the Stages-of-Concern-profiles. After the course, the results show that the intervention group members gained a more positive work-related attitude towards ESD whereas the control group showed no significant changes. A further analysis of the SoC-profiles revealed that the graphic presentation of the results of the intervention group resembled the desired “M-profile”. In other studies, this profile has already been described as “cooperatives”. Additionally, the profiles of the control group were characterized as “non-operators”. Summarizing the results, it can be noted that the elective course had a positive influence on the work-related attitudes regarding ESD of future teachers.

References:
[1] Dorn, A. & Gröger, M. (2020): ESD in general studies – prospective general studies teachers deal with the educational concept of ESD in a student-oriented and cooperative manner. In: Gröger, M., Prust, C. & Flügel, A. (Ed.): Cultural Appropriation of Spaces and Things, Siegen: Universi-Verlag, S. 135-147.
[2] Hall, Gene E.; Hord, Shirley M. (2011): Implementing change. Patterns, principles, and potholes. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson.

Keywords:

Teacher Education, Agenda 2030, ESD.