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Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2023) | Viewed by 27362

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Dr. Xuesong Zhai

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School of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Interests: smart learning environments; teacher burnout; emerging technology-enhanced educational environments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Dear Colleagues,

The rate of diversity, uncertainty, and interdependence in our surroundings are responsible for micro and macro-level trends and patterns that are not casually observable. Educating responsible citizens for sustainable development in the 21st century is a far more complex and multifaceted challenge for educators, researchers, and policy-makers. It includes fundamental to teach individuals how to learn, adjust, and adapt for better tomorrow.

Conceptually, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can be bifurcated into two domains. Firstly, by addressing 'responsible local and global citizenship behavior,' which emphasizes the role of eco-centric citizenship and sustainable leadership practices to drive change on socio, economic or ecological fronts. Secondly, by underlining the significance of 'inventing and affecting the future, by provoking the sense of passion and compassion, willingness to participate and to take risks, and envisioning creative thinking among eco-responsible stakeholders to drive a sustainable tomorrow.

Among the seventeen recognized goals as the shared blueprint of a sustainable future, set by the United Nations in 2015, ESD gives the lead to learning sustainable action and preserving mother earth for the next generations. Specifically, ESD directly impacts decent work and economic growth, industrialization, responsible consumption, and production. To foster innovation that can offer better life on land and below water and eco-sustainable action. It can also potentially lead to zero hunger and poverty, climate action, and social-eco wellbeing.

The content in the form of original research and reviews from research fields of psychology, STEM education, business, and multi-disciplinary fronts in social sciences are welcome. The topics may include (but not limited to) the following:

Role of literacies in communicating and educating society.
Smart learning environments and teaching styles.
Role of educational entrepreneur in sustainable future.
Designing and innovating pedagogy for sustainable tomorrow.
Higher education / tertiary level education for sustainable development.
Education to enable civic engagement.
How to solve eco-centric issues (i.e. climate change) through educating people.
Formal and informal educational settings for communicating and leaning sustainable development.
The power of sustainability-oriented creativity and thinking skills
Role of ICT and smart technology in enabling sustainable development and green future (it includes Block chain, Artificial Intelligence, and BigData)

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Xuesong Zhai
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

education for sustainable development
innovative pedagogy
smart learning environments

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 1456 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Structure and Characteristics of Chinese University English Teachers’ Identities: Toward a Sustainable Language Pedagogy

by Shan Chen, Lawrence Jun Zhang and Stuart McNaughton

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 12040; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151512040 - 6 Aug 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2834

Abstract

This study investigates the enacted identities of Chinese university English teachers in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching. The aim is to explore the underlying structure and characteristics of these teachers’ identities and examine their alignment with the principles of sustainable learning in education (SLE), which goes beyond knowledge acquisition in a chosen discipline and aims to nurture life-long and resilient learners that are able to reflect upon, renew, relearn, and assess what has been taught and orient themselves for future learning processes. A questionnaire was used to gather perceptions of enacted identities in teaching practice from 326 Chinese university English teachers. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed four distinct dimensions of identity: Advocate and Motivator for English Learning, Facilitator of English Learning, Reflective Practitioner and Researcher, and Book Teacher. Interviews were conducted with a subsample of 12 teachers to further explore the contextualized meanings of these identity factors. The findings indicate that these identity dimensions align with the four tenets of sustainable learning in education, reflecting the teachers’ orientations toward sustainable language teaching practices. This study contributes to our knowledge of language teachers’ shared identities and offers important implications for language teacher professional development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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16 pages, 1702 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimizing Higher Education for Sustainable Development through the Design and Implementation of the Global Engagement Program

by Yuan Li, Tianhong Liao and Jia Li

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10098; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310098 - 26 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3349

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) plays a significant role in the environmental, economic, social and cultural spheres and is a key element in achieving sustainable development goals. Higher education institutions, as the main producers of future leaders, are essential to the practice of ESD. However, Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) is still in its infancy in many higher education institutions. This study adopts corpus-based text analysis and case study methods. Starting from the features of ESD and examining the case of the “Global Engagement Program”, this paper aims to explore how higher education can better promote sustainable development within the framework of ESD and proposes the model of HESD. Specifically, this study focuses on the following questions: (1) what are the features of ESD based on UNESCO’s official documents; (2) how does the Global Engagement Program seek to achieve HESD and (3) what is the proposed model of HESD? Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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13 pages, 447 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Construction of Input-Comparison-Output (ICO) Intercultural Mode for Sustainable Development in EFL Education

by Wenyuan Liu and Min Yang

Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9209; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129209 - 7 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1132

Abstract

The cultivation of college students’ intercultural communication competence (ICC) for sustainable development is a hot research topic in English foreign language (EFL) education. What competencies are they required to have, and how to cultivate them in EFL education? The study is based on Byram’s model of ICC for cultivating students’ ICC for their sustainable development. To this end, an empirical study was conducted by constructing an intercultural comparative teaching mode called Input-Comparison-Output (ICO) in the research by integrating Chinese culture into EFL education for cultivating students’ ICC among Chinese college students. The study emphasizes the importance of the Chinese culture as the native culture by comparing similarities and differences with the targeted culture in EFL education. There are some existing research works on English and its culture, but few of them focus on the role and integration of Chinese culture in China’s EFL teaching. In order to seek some evidence of the function of the Chinese culture as the first culture in EFL education, the authors constructed the ICO intercultural mode, and 58 participants were recruited and divided into two groups randomly as the controlled group and experimental group in the empirical study. Some research methods were used in the study, such as questionnaires, term papers, statistical analyses and interviews. The data were collected through the Star of Questionnaire, the automatic assessing system of the I-write Platform, Excel and WeChat videos. Quantitative and qualitative statistics were adopted to assess the students’ changes of attitudes towards the integration of the Chinese culture into the course and academic development in the research. The ICO intercultural mode creates a novel teaching mode of cultural comparison between first culture and targeted culture, breaking down the traditional monocultural teaching one in the EFL teaching. The results of the research show that the integration of the Chinese culture into the EFL course is important, which can promote the students’ ICC thanks to the application of the ICO intercultural mode in the course. The initiative findings can be used as references for further intercultural teaching in EFL education. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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12 pages, 528 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring Students’ Learning Habitus from Chinese Higher Vocational Colleges

by Junjun Huang, Shumin Wei and Zhen He

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7145; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097145 - 25 Apr 2023

Viewed by 1604

Abstract

Habitus is a concept from Bourdieu’s theories that plays a key role in explaining individuals’ behaviours. The social reputation and recognition of vocational education in modern China are declining, and vocational college students are bearing a negative stigma, although they have a positive learning behaviour toward academic education. The aim of this study was to examine those students’ previous life experiences, especially in the education field. The main research questions are as follows: (1) How does the individual’s experience construct his or her learning habitus? (2) How does their learning habitus change their learning behaviours? The findings show that the interaction between participants and their parents and teachers mainly leads to the construction of learning habitus, that is, to pursue the success of academic education. Even though they originate from the working class, with less cultural capital and poor academic performance, this does not mean that they have negative learning behaviours. Therefore, it is necessary to give objective and fair evaluations to higher vocational students and address educational inequity problems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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15 pages, 1079 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Foreign Language Education for Sustainable Development in China: A Case Study of German Language Education

by Nannan Ge, Enuo Wang and Yuan Li

Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6340; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086340 - 7 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2459

Abstract

Sustainable development is a widely discussed topic. English language education plays the dominant role in China, but the education of languages other than English (LOTEs) is more important for sustainable development. Based on a case study of German language education, this paper draws SWOT analysis to discuss the current foreign language education in China associated with sustainable development. We find that there are four current trends in the sustainable development of foreign language education in China: promotion of sustainable multilingual education, cultivation of sustainable citizens, integration of cultural values for sustainable development and digitalization for sustainable foreign language education. There are also challenges and new perspectives. A rational and systematic policy of multilingualism should be planned. In order to cultivate sustainable citizens who are able to respond to various global problems, the curricula, teaching materials and examinations for LOTE teaching at secondary schools and universities should be co-designed to work with each other. In order to integrate cultural values effectively, more suitable teaching materials should be developed and published, and teachers need to be trained for practicing these contents in class. Digitization in teaching, research and learning should be promoted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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14 pages, 933 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hurdles on the Way to Sustainable Development in the Education Sector of China

by Liangze Ma, Rana Umair Ashraf, Muhammad Ahtisham ul Haq and Xianhua Fan

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010217 - 23 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1591

Abstract

Globally, sustainable procurement is seen as a crucial component of public sector sustainability initiatives. This research investigates the internal and external barriers to the implementation of sustainable procurement in China’s public sector. Primary data for this research were gathered using survey techniques from 287 respondents who were procurement officials at higher education institutions that are part of the public sector. Twelve hypotheses were developed based on the conceptual model and literature review and evaluated using SEM-AMOS in order to look at the correlations between the variables. The study’s findings demonstrate that employee competency, employee motivation, training programs, financial aspects, management commitment, government rules and regulations, unavailability of green products, supplier capacity, and third-party pressure statistically influence the sustainability of public procurement. At the same time, green practices, the ineffectiveness of green products, and prices of green items had statistically no significant influence on sustainability in public procurement. This is a crucial effort to identify the factors that influence sustainable purchasing in China’s public colleges. This study draws interest from stakeholders and adds to the scant body of knowledge on sustainability in developing nations. In addition, this research is crucial for creating a roadmap for China’s long-term sustainable development in the area of procurement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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20 pages, 838 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Teacher Entrepreneurship, Co-Creation Strategy, and Medical Student Entrepreneurship for Sustainability: Evidence from China

by Guojing Zhao, Guobiao Li, Yujia Jiang, Liying Guo, Yangjie Huang and Zhaoxin Huang

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12711; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912711 - 6 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1794

Abstract

The volatile and changing healthcare landscape, heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and other contemporary crises, poses challenges to the sustainable development of medical education, and integrating innovation and entrepreneurship into medical education is the avenue by which to address the current and future medical challenges. Medical student entrepreneurship education (MSEE) contributes to the individual and social sustainable development of students in terms of their future careers. To investigate the effect of teacher entrepreneurship on MSEE, a hypothesis model of MSEE that includes teachers’ entrepreneurial competence (TEC), teachers’ entrepreneurial behaviors (TEB), and co-creation strategy (CCS) was constructed on the basis of symbolic interactionism. A total of 714 samples were collected from entrepreneurial teachers in Chinese medical universities for quantitative analysis. This study confirmed our hypothesis that TEC and TEB have a positive and statistically significant direct impact on MSEE. As demonstrated in the mediation effect test, when CCS was added as the mediating variable, TEC and TEB had a statistically significant indirect effect on MSEE. With empirical evidence from China, the study provided a new perspective for deepening the research on MSEE and laid the foundation for interdisciplinary research on medical education and entrepreneurship education. The findings contribute to entrepreneurial learning and pedagogical practices in medical education for the sustainable development of medical students. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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14 pages, 354 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Machine-Learning-Based Suitability Prediction for Mobile Applications for Kids

by Xianjun Meng, Shaomei Li, Muhammad Mohsin Malik and Qasim Umer

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12400; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912400 - 29 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1718

Abstract

Digital media has a massive presence in the modern world, and it significantly impacts kids’ intellectual, cognitive, ethical, and social development. It is nearly impossible to isolate kids from digital media. Therefore, adult content on mobile applications should be avoided by children. Although mobile operating systems provide parental controls, handling such rules is impossible for illiterate people. Consequently, kids may download and use adults’ mobile applications. Mobile applications for adults often publish age group information to distinguish user segments that can be used to automate the downloading process. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #4 emphasizes inclusivity and equitability in terms of quality of education and the facilitation of conditions for the promotion of lifelong learning for everyone. The current study can be counted as being in line with SDG#4, as it proposes a machine-learning-based approach to the prediction of the suitability of mobile applications for kids. The approach first leverages natural language processing (NLP) techniques to preprocess user reviews of mobile applications. Second, it performs feature engineering based on the given bag of words (BOW), e.g., abusive words, and constructs a feature vector for each mobile app. Finally, it trains and tests a machine learning algorithm on the given feature vectors. To evaluate the proposed approach, we leverage the 10-fold cross-validation technique. The results of the 10-fold cross-validation indicate that the proposed solution is significant. The average results of the exploited metrics (precision, recall, and F1-score) are 92.76%, 99.33%, and 95.93%, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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10 pages, 961 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Privacy Concerns and Online Learning of Postgraduate Students through the Lens of Stimulus–Organism–Response Model

by Misbah Majeed, Usman Ghani and Wenting Meng

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11604; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811604 - 15 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1872

Abstract

Based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model, the purpose of the current study is to investigate two types of privacy concerns, i.e., privacy concern abuse (PCA) and privacy concern finding (PCF), in relation to online collaborative learning (OCL). Further, another aim is to investigate knowledge-sharing perceptions (KSP) as a mechanism between PCA and PCF with OCL. A survey was used to collect the data from postgraduate university students in Pakistan. The hypothesized model was tested on 285 valid responses through SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. The findings show that PCA and PCF negatively and significantly influence OCL. Moreover, KSP mediates the relationship between PCA and PCF with OCL. Based on the results, the implications for teachers, students, and educational institutions are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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Review

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17 pages, 2797 KiB

Open AccessReview

MOOC 5.0: A Roadmap to the Future of Learning

by Ishteyaaq Ahmad, Sonal Sharma, Rajesh Singh, Anita Gehlot, Neeraj Priyadarshi and Bhekisipho Twala

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11199; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811199 - 7 Sep 2022

Cited by 37 | Viewed by 5676

Abstract

Industry 4.0 has created a whole new world for us to explore, and its effects can be seen in every facet of our lives, especially in the workplace where it calls for technology-driven employment. There is a growing need to teach individuals and assist them in transitioning to longer-term employment prospects to execute Industry 4.0 effectively. Although MOOCs revolutionized the way learners study, it is critical to investigate teaching techniques using Education 4.0 at this time. This article explores how the technologies of Industry 4.0 can be incorporated into MOOCs. This paper proposes MOOCs 5.0, whose features include better universal access, better learner engagement, adaptive learning, greater collaboration, security, and curiosity, which is being developed using Industry 4.0 technologies of the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Blockchain, Gamification Technologies, and the Metaverse and would incorporate the zones of ethics and humanism, while at the same time providing learners with a richer and more individualized experience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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Other

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14 pages, 662 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

Embracing DDMT Teaching Model and Design Thinking for Organization Development

by Yin-Fah Elliot Lee, Tzu-Hua Wang, Ming-Tay Foo and Kee-Fui Turner Lam

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 9031; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15119031 - 2 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1777

Abstract

The multi-generational workforce presents challenges for organizations, as the needs and expectations of employees vary greatly between different age groups. To address this, organizations need to adapt their development and learning principles to better suit the changing workforce. The DDMT Teaching Model of Tsing Hua STEAM School, which integrates design thinking methodology, aims to address this challenge. DDMT stands for Discover, Define, Model & Modeling, and Transfer. The main aim of this study is to identify the organization development practices (OD) and gaps through interdisciplinary models such as DDMT and design thinking. In collaboration with a healthcare nursing home service provider, a proof of concept using the DDMT-DT model was conducted to understand the challenges in employment and retention of support employees between nursing homes under the healthcare organization. The paper highlights the rapid change in human experiences and mindsets in the work culture and the need for a design curriculum that is more relevant to the current and future workforce. The DDMT-DT approach can help organizations address these challenges by providing a framework for HR personnel to design training curricula that are more effective in addressing the issues of hiring and employee retention. By applying the DDMT-DT model, HR personnel can better understand the needs and motivations of the workforce and design training programs that are more relevant to their needs. The proof-of-concept research pilot project conducted with the healthcare nursing home service provider demonstrated the effectiveness of the DDMT-DT model in addressing the issues of hiring and employee retention. The project provides a valuable case study for other organizations looking to implement the DDMT-DT model in their HR practices. Overall, the paper highlights the importance of adapting HR practices to better suit the changing workforce. The DDMT-DT model provides a useful framework for organizations looking to improve their HR practices and better address the needs of their workforce. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Education for Sustainable Development: Current Issues and Future Implications)

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