Adapting Education for a Changing Environment and Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

Human well-being relies on the delicate balance between environmental integrity and societal conditions. Recognizing the critical importance of sustainability and sustainable development for humanity, it is essential to adapt to changing environmental conditions and implement development strategies aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Wahyuni et al., 2025; Omri et al., 2025; Li & Wu, 2025).

This Special Issue invites experts and scholars to submit contributions that address a wide range of sustainability challenges. Potential topics include, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Air pollution and climate change;
• Water pollution and sanitation;
• Land degradation, desertification, and drought;
• Industrial development and the energy crisis;
• Management of toxic chemicals, hazardous, and radioactive wastes;
• Population growth and urbanization;
• Cultural loss and identity erosion due to globalization and migration;
• The impacts of globalization on local, national, and regional sustainability;
• Biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, and risks to human well-being.

Moreover, this Issue seeks to explore the development and implementation of national and international policies, monitoring mechanisms, and ethical or philosophical approaches to sustainability within the context of an evolving global environment (Loloei, 2025; Hotar et al., 2025).

Special emphasis is placed on education as a transformative tool for sustainability. In light of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, our aim is to prioritize the following educational goals:

• Expanding access to quality primary and secondary education;
• Advancing early childhood education;
• Promoting inclusive and high-quality higher education;
• Enhancing vocational and technical education;
• Developing responsive and future-oriented teacher training programs that address environmental challenges (Singer-Brodowski et al., 2025; Redondo & Ladage, 2025; Reed Johnson, 2025).

Furthermore, this Special Issue welcomes research focused on digital transformation, specifically the development of sustainability tools, best practices, laws, and policy frameworks that support sustainable education in a changing world.

We invite submissions employing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research designs. The contribution of systematic reviews that provide insights and frame future research directions is also highly encouraged. Papers should reflect diverse experiences and methodologies, offering perspectives from different geographical, cultural, and educational contexts to advance our understanding of environmental adaptation and sustainable education.

References

1. Hotar, N., Apdik, S., TOKUÇ, A., & BARAN, B. (2025). A Systematic Review on the Design of Sustainable Education Spaces. International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, 19(1).
2. Li, Y., & Wu, D. (2025). Creativity and Well-Being Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Meaning in Life. The Journal of Psychology, 159(1), 1–16.
3. Loloei, K. (2025). The role of environment in sustainable development and its relation with development management. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 84.
4. Omri, H., Omri, A., & Abbassi, A. (2025). Entrepreneurship and Human Well-Being: A Study of Standard of Living and Quality of Life in Developing Countries. Social Indicators Research, 1–32.
5. Redondo, C., & Ladage, C. (2025). The role of ‘experience’in teaching innovation in education for sustainable development in France. In Environmental and Sustainability Education in Francophone Europe (pp. 107–117). Routledge.
6. Reed Johnson, J. A., Marston, S., Happle, A., & Majid, N. (2025). Climate change and sustainability education framework: an opportunity for pre-service teaching. Cogent Education, 12(1), 2460412.
7. Singer-Brodowski, M., Henkel, G. M., Reith, A., Frank, P., & Rieckmann, M. (2025). What is needed to act as a professional change agent for sustainability? A scoping review. International Review of Education, 1–25.
8. Wahyuni, E. N., Maksum, A., Aziz, R., & Mangestuti, R. (2025). Strategies for students’ well-being development: the task-oriented classroom approach. Strategies, 14(1).

Prof. Dr. Gökmen Dağlı
Prof. Dr. Zehra Altınay
Dr. Phillip Benachour
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• quality education
• adaptation to changing environmental conditions
• digital transformation
• managerial changes and roles
• cultural and social change
• sustainable development