Global Citizenship Education and Its Role in Sustainability at the University Level

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an interesting article and covers an important theme but in a number of respects there are a number of weaknesses:

1- There has been a wealth of literature on SDGs and higher education and the article needs to make use of a greater wealth of literature. This includes T.McCowan's book on Higher Education and the SDGs, the bloomsbury Handbook of Sustainability in Higher Education edited by Purcell and Haddock-Fraser and Teaching and Learning for Sustainable Development edited by film, Salvia and Frankenberger.  The article needs to be much clearer as to where the evidence fits in relation to this literature.

2. The article is very descriptive in tone and its unclear as to its theoretical basis. Related to this there is an implicit assumption of framing the evidence within the SDGs without discussing their strengths and weaknesses.

3. Many universities around the world make reference to the SDGs as part of their curriculum but what this means in practice is not discussed.

4. The quantitative evidence is clearly valuable but it is not easy to understand. It needs more explanation and discussion and also give a more reflective response to what the material states.

5. Above all the article is far too ambitious in trying to make reference to the SDGs more widely and even Target 4.7. As a result it is difficult to make conclusions as to the relevance of sustainable development in relation to the courses. 

I therefore recommend that the author is more focused in terms of the themes and evidence and perhaps concentrate more directly on sustainable development and global citizenship.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript presents the outcome of an original intervention to stimulate increased knowledge of the SDGs and ESD among Education-based bachelor and master students. The manuscript is well-written and adds to the existing scholarship. The outcomes are clearly described and the discussion is convincing.

There are a few elements that could be improved:

The number of tables is quite high and can be a bit distracting from the findings. Maybe the authors can consider making a selection in what they present? For example, the differences in gender seem less relevant in this study, maybe those outcomes can be emitted?

The study can be strengthened by re-organising the introduction and moving parts of the discussion (first two paragraphs) to the introduction. At the moment, the two parts of the introduction are a bit confusing, and the concept ESD is not yet explained before it is already mentioned. A suggestion would be to first describe the challenges and reasons for the SDGs (now chapter 2), then how education is important to achieve those, then how ESD should thus be implemented (chapter 1), and then to come to your study to see how this can be done among Education students.

The abstract can be further specified, as a reader you e.g. already want to know right away what the target group is (education students) and what the intervention and research questions were. This is not clear enough at the moment.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I am happy now to support this revised version