Education for Sustainability: Teaching for a Balanced, Healthy, and Hopeful Future

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability emerged as a field to solve complex, interconnected, real-world problems (Wiek, Arnim; Withycombe, Lauren; Redman, Charles; Mills, 2011). To solve these wicked problems, we need a populous that has the knowledge, skills, and values to mobilize for positive change across all sectors (Brundiers et al., 2010; Wiek et al., 2011). Education is critical to achieving this goal. Yet, traditional education is often siloed by disciplines, making interdisciplinary learning and problem-solving difficult  (Redman, 2013). In looking toward the future, we need hope for what could be, hope for an environment that supports healthy people and systems, and hope for an education system that uplifts people (Boone, 2015). 

This Special Issue will explore strategies for educating for sustainability and fostering positive change. The days of gloom and doom, catastrophe-focused education led to feelings of guilt and trauma (Swim, Aviste, Lengieza, Fasano, 2022). We need a different dialogue, one that focuses on building a happy and healthy future for all (Pihkala, 2022). Our aim is to bring together interdisciplinary research studies that focus on strategies for educating for sustainability in a way that is empowering and uplifting. The scope can span topics such as reparative futures, consent education, sense of belonging and connectedness, transformative learning, sustainability professional development and much more. We want to inspire readers to think about sustainability as a positive change that seeks to balance human well-being, environmental health, and education for all.

Aim:

This Special Issue will provide an interdisciplinary view of educating for sustainability in formal and non-formal settings to all ages, focusing on positive solutions that empower and uplift.

Scope and Topics of Interest:

We invite original research articles and reviews that use qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods focusing on educating for sustainability, including, but not limited to the following:

1. Strategies, barriers, and opportunities to education for sustainability:
• The integration and assessment of key sustainability competencies.
• In-service and pre-service teacher education for sustainability.
• Sustainability pedagogical content knowledge.
• Sustainable pedagogies and instructional methods.
• Sustainability as a means to foster inclusive and equitable learning environments
2. Effective methods for educating adults to take action on sustainability issues.Hope-based approaches to sustainability:
• Finding synergies between sustainability and happiness.
• Using sustainability education as a platform to empower and uplift all voices.
• Finding the balance between moral courageous, resilience, and rest in an overcrowded and underfunded education system.
3. Transdisciplinary approaches to education for sustainability
• Building collaborations and partnerships with the community
• Recognizing and amplifying the role of non-formal educators’ in education for sustainability

Dr. Erin Redman
Dr. Elizabeth Potter-Nelson
Dr. Jessica Cordaro
Dr. Nikki Logan
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 double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1800 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.

• educating for sustainability
• futures thinking
• reparative futures
• sustainability pedagogical content knowledge