Search Results (498)

This paper proposes a sociological reinterpretation of the concept of sustainability, understood as a cultural dispositive capable of shaping habitus, social representations, and models of action. From a culturalist perspective, sustainability is analysed as a process of social construction grounded in the internalisation of values, knowledge, and practices that contribute to the formation of responsible citizenship. Within this theoretical framework, the school assumes a strategic role in processes of sustainability education by fostering the ethical, collaborative, and inclusive competences required to address contemporary socio-environmental transformations. The paper presents the Edumat+ design protocol, developed within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme, aimed at experimenting with innovative methodologies for digital education in primary schools through the integration of STEAM approaches, with reference to coding, educational robotics, and information design. The protocol involved the development of infographic mats and digital learning activities focused on themes of environmental sustainability. The findings highlight how the integration of digital education, visual storytelling, and collaborative learning can contribute to the construction of inclusive and participatory educational environments capable of supporting processes of sustainable citizenship from primary education onwards. Although the activation of such pathways is consistent with recent European policies promoting the integration of digital technologies and STEAM approaches within schools, particularly through initiatives focused on teacher education and the acquisition of technologies and software, the widespread dissemination of the project still requires further governmental support, especially for the development and dissemination of the project outputs. Full article

Additive manufacturing offers transformative opportunities but faces barriers due to costly, imported filaments. This study at Caraga State University, Cabadbaran Campus, developed a prototype automated filament extrusion system using recycled thermoplastics, specifically polypropylene (PP) and PET, to address material scarcity and plastic waste. Employing a developmental–descriptive design, the system integrated heating, extrusion, spooling, and microcontroller-based controls. Results confirmed functional capability, producing filaments with acceptable dimensional consistency, though challenges in accuracy and flexibility remain. The project advances sustainable, affordable 3D printing, supports circular economy principles, enhances technical education, and empowers local innovators toward inclusive, environmentally responsible manufacturing. Full article

This study investigates the psychological and pedagogical architecture predicting environmental communicative agency among 304 primary school students (grades 5–6) participating in a climate change education programme. Aiming to bridge the persistent “knowledge–action gap” in sustainability education, the research identifies the cognitive, emotional, and instrumental pathways that transform children into active agents of low-carbon, pro-sustainability change in their everyday lives. Employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with a latent climatic knowledge literacy construct, the analysis reveals that the latent construct of General Environmental Knowledge, comprising Conceptual Climate Knowledge and Relational-Systems Climate Knowledge, is the strongest direct predictor of Environmental Communicative Agency. Intrinsic curiosity emerged as a dominant driver of practical competence, while future-oriented tools function as the critical mediator between understanding and social action. Together, these mechanisms outline a school-based pathway through which climate literacy and motivation can be converted into household-level behavioural change and intergenerational climate resilience. The findings advocate for a paradigmatic shift from knowledge transfer to building operative sustainability agency, offering a pedagogical roadmap that fosters “constructive hope” and positions children as “trusted messengers” who catalyse intergenerational learning and reverse socialization toward more sustainable lifestyles. Full article

Digital transformation in education enables the integration of interactive tools that foster engagement, creativity, and sustainability awareness among young learners. GameOn! is a serious game using Minecraft Education Edition (MEE) to promote sustainability, inclusivity, and peace among primary school students aged 6–11. Grounded in Constructionism, Experiential Learning Theory, and Citizen Science (CS), it is designed to support connections between classroom experiences and real-world environmental actions. The project followed a co-design methodology involving international partners and educators to develop the GameOn! MEE world and a complementary teacher toolkit. The game was later tested in three Italian primary schools, involving 100 students through both guided and free play sessions. Findings show that 95% of students enjoyed the game, 89% learned new concepts, and teachers observed great focus and engagement during structured play. These results align with our observations: most children quickly engaged with the game, adapted to its mechanics, and demonstrated understanding of key tasks. Some usability challenges emerged, emphasizing the importance of facilitation. Overall, the findings suggest that GameOn!, consistent with the pedagogical potential of other serious games, could enhance sustainability literacy, active citizenship, and environmental awareness in early education. Future work will expand its implementation and further strengthen the integration of CS-based activities. Future work will expand implementation and strengthen the integration of CS-based activities. Full article

Within a global landscape characterised by increasing fragmentation, community empowerment requires interdisciplinary, evidence-based and validated methodology for assuring collaborative and transformative action. This research addresses the need for equity and inclusion in underserved rural areas by investigating the CleanAir@Schools initiative in Romania. The study employed a human-centred, multi-stakeholder methodology, utilising exploratory workshops with educators and pilot implementations to develop a learning framework on Sustainability Education, in which students used passive sensors to measure local air quality. Results indicate that the project successfully mobilised entire school communities, catalysing a pedagogical shift from passive reception to active, inquiry-based environmental education. Furthermore, the strategic use of both digital and analogue technologies ensured accessibility for communities facing digital divides. The research concludes that participatory design acts as a catalyst for long-term community empowerment and social transformation by addressing localised challenges through inclusive, restorative practices. By intentionally centring society’s margins, design research fosters regeneration and care, serving as an essential resource for social innovators and policymakers. Full article

The European Union’s Farm-to-Fork (F2F) Strategy sets an ambitious agenda for a socio-ecological transition, positioning agriculture as a critical sector for achieving sustainable food systems. However, its implementation faces significant systemic barriers that hinder its transformative potential. This paper applies a diagnostic framework, derived from the H2020-funded PHOENIX project, that identifies six key challenges to democratic innovations in environmental governance: prolonged timeframes for tangible results, the complexity of environmental issues, the need for transcalar cooperation, the imperative to foster behavioural change, limited deliberative dialogue, and the need to build mutual trust. Through a review of public policies and scholarly literature, this analysis evaluates how these challenges manifest within the F2F Strategy, impacting farmers and the broader agri-food system. The findings demonstrate that barriers to F2F implementation are not solely technical or economic but are deeply linked to governance fragmentation, uneven knowledge flows, and deficits in trust relations. Crucially, the study reveals that Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) and associated Education and Training (ET) consistently emerge as pivotal enabling mechanisms to mitigate these constraints. The research generates actionable recommendations to reinforce F2F by redefining the roles of innovation, education, and multi-level collaboration in building resilient and sustainable EU agri-food systems. Full article

This paper investigates the relationship between green vocational education and training (VET), structural economic features, and green employment in Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies. For the purpose of the research, an initial database covering the post-2010 period was assembled from Eurostat and related statistical sources. Due to data availability and cross-country comparability constraints, the final empirical analysis employs a balanced panel of six EU Member States covering the period 2018–2022. The empirical analysis employs pooled OLS and fixed-effects estimators over the period 2018–2022, following a stepwise modeling strategy to assess baseline relationships and robustness. The results show that VET enrollment alone is not a reliable predictor of green employment growth, while VET graduation rates exhibit a more consistent—yet not robust—association once country-specific heterogeneity is controlled for. By contrast, structural reliance on industrial sectors is consistently linked to lower green employment shares, while environmental tax revenues demonstrate modest positive effects. Overall, the findings suggest that green employment dynamics are driven primarily by structural and macroeconomic conditions rather than by skill formation alone. The study contributes to the literature on the green transition by providing an integrated perspective on the interaction between skills, structural transformation, and policy incentives in shaping sustainable labor market outcomes. Full article

Preparing learners for participation in global communication requires alignment with broader curricular frameworks, yet meaningful learning also depends on engagement with students’ sociocultural and ecological contexts. Balancing these dimensions constitutes a central challenge for secondary EFL curriculum design. Drawing on Experiential Learning theory and Local Critical Pedagogy, this study explores how a place-based and experiential approach can contribute to reframing the secondary EFL curriculum through the integration of outdoor and community-based learning practices. The study pursued three objectives: (a) to explore the pedagogical potential of an interdisciplinary and non-formal approach to EFL instruction; (b) to design and implement a locally grounded curricular module aligned with national requirements; and (c) to analyse the contribution of experiential and outdoor practices to the enrichment of the formal English curriculum. Adopting a qualitative, exploratory and interpretative design, the study involved 20 tenth-grade students and consisted of the curricular reconfiguration of a 10th-grade module developed in collaboration with a local environmental education project (Bioescola). Following Orion’s outdoor learning model, the intervention unfolded in three stages: preparatory classroom work, an interdisciplinary outdoor learning experience, and a structured reflective session. Data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and field notes. Findings suggest increased student engagement in oral interaction and greater communicative confidence, alongside stronger engagement with local ecological contexts. The study concludes that the integration of place-based and ecologically oriented practices into EFL teaching can meaningfully enrich the formal curriculum. While limited in scope and sample size, the research highlights the transformative potential of locally embedded experiential language education in upper secondary schooling. Full article

Educational systems are increasingly required not only to innovate but to sustain innovation over time. While research on Change Laboratory (CL) interventions has extensively examined the development of new models and the emergence of transformative agency, less is known about how such agency is enacted through concrete actions in everyday practice. This study addresses this gap by examining consequential actions as expressions of entrepreneurial agency in the implementation of open work in a kindergarten following a CL intervention. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 17 staff members, the study adopts a theoretically informed inductive approach to identify types of agentive actions and interpret them in relation to EntreComp competences and activity system components. The findings show that entrepreneurial agency is a distributed and situated process enacted through coordinated material, relational, and organizational actions toward the tools and community, highlighting the importance of environmental reconfiguration and collaboration in sustaining change. The study also shows that agency is unevenly distributed across roles and that newcomers participate differently in the implementation process. Overall, sustaining educational innovation appears to depend less on the design of models than on the collective capacity to continuously enact and transform them in practice. Full article

Sustainability education increasingly centers on systems and design thinking to address complex socio-environmental challenges. While these approaches enhance reflexivity, interdisciplinarity, and problem-solving capacity, this paper argues that they also translate complex problems into forms that institutions can recognize, act on, and bring to closure. Drawing on institutional theory and visual semiotics, this paper uses grammar in a structural sense to examine how sustainability education organizes perception, responsibility, and action. The analysis focuses on recurring pedagogical images—including the iceberg model, feedback loops, empathy maps, and the double diamond—and is informed by prior analyses of visual representations. Rather than treating these images as representations, this paper analyzes them as pedagogical infrastructures that stabilize recurring grammars of actionability in the sustainability field. These grammars translate disagreement, complexity, uncertainty, causality, and moral distance into forms that are legible, actionable, and provisionally closable within institutional contexts. While this alignment enables coordination and responsiveness, it also narrows the scope of responsibility by privileging synthesis, adaptation, and iteration over redistribution, obligation, and structural transformation. For educators, this framework offers a way to teach students not only to use systems and design tools but also to reflect on what it means to be an agent of change while institutionally embedded. Full article

This article advances a transdisciplinary framework for planetary health education grounded in multispecies responsibility and Indigenous relational ontologies. Addressing the limitations of anthropocentric environmental paradigms, the paper proposes an expanded Stratified Relational Responsibility Model integrating ethical, ecological, and neurobiological dimensions of human–more-than-human relations. The framework bridges insights from environmental ethics, anthropology, and affective neuroscience to examine how relational awareness, emotional regulation, and embodied cognition shape pro-environmental behavior. Four pedagogical pillars are introduced to support behavioral transformation, emphasizing relational perception, affective attunement, ethical reflexivity, and collective responsibility. The article further discusses implementation challenges within Western educational contexts and highlights the need for culturally responsive adaptation. By situating human agency within multispecies networks, the model contributes to ongoing debates in planetary health and sustainability education, offering a theoretically robust and practically oriented approach to fostering ecological responsibility. Full article

As organizations become increasingly digital, the environmental impact of digital infrastructures is gaining growing attention within ESG agendas. However, many organizations still struggle to translate digital infrastructure data into clear, measurable, and reliable ESG reporting outcomes. This study develops and empirically tests a socio-technical model explaining how organizations achieve ESG measurement and reporting readiness through sustainable computing practices. Drawing on a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 312 respondents from government, private, and educational organizations in Saudi Arabia and the GCC region, the study employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA). The findings reveal that organizational drivers are the strongest predictors of sustainable computing practices, while organizational barriers exert significant negative effects on adoption. Sustainable computing practices play a critical mediating role by enabling organizations to transform fragmented digital data into structured and credible ESG reporting systems. Sectoral differences further highlight the influence of institutional contexts on adoption pathways. The study contributes by positioning sustainable computing as a foundational organizational capability that bridges digital transformation and ESG reporting, offering both theoretical insights and practical implications for enhancing ESG measurement and reporting readiness. Full article

This work presents the design and validation of a low-cost electronic architecture for nuclear pulse conditioning and radiation exposure measurement using a Geiger–Müller tube. The main contribution is a structured three-stage conditioning system capable of transforming high-voltage analog nuclear pulses into standardized TTL-compatible digital signals for real-time acquisition and pulse counting. The proposed architecture integrates a regulated 500 V high-voltage supply, voltage coupling and limitation, CMOS-based inversion, and monostable pulse shaping using a 555 timer to generate stable 5 V output pulses with approximately 1600 μs duration. Experimental evaluation included oscilloscope-based pulse characterization, plateau-region verification, and calibration tests performed with a certified gamma radiation source under controlled laboratory conditions. The measured exposure response followed the expected inverse-distance radiation behavior, with relative deviations within $\pm 13\%$ compared with certified reference values. The results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing reliable radiation instrumentation using commercially available electronic components, providing an accessible solution for environmental, laboratory, and educational monitoring applications. Full article

Universities are increasingly positioning sustainability as a core institutional commitment, often publishing annual reports that showcase their contributions to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet these documents frequently go unnoticed by the academic community, limiting their educational impact and their potential to inspire informed, responsible, and sustainable behaviors. To address this gap, this study explores how participatory and technology-enhanced educational approaches can transform sustainability reporting into an accessible, engaging, and pedagogically meaningful learning experience. Engaging 121 university students during a participatory process, we developed an interactive digital system that integrates innovative strategies, including interactive data visualizations, gamification, and a chatbot capable of dialoguing with the university’s sustainability report, to foster environmental awareness and promote sustainable practices. The system aims to empower learners on two intertwined levels: (i) understanding the institution’s sustainability actions and commitments, and (ii) recognizing concrete, everyday opportunities to contribute to environmental wellbeing, thereby counteracting feelings of eco-powerlessness and supporting agency-driven behavioral change. Findings highlight the effectiveness of participatory design in shaping impactful digital tools for sustainability education and demonstrate how interdisciplinary design principles can enhance student engagement with complex environmental issues. The study contributes to ongoing scholarly discourse by proposing six key guidelines (technology, content, data producer, learning strategy, gamification, and data visualization) for designing interactive systems that support education for a more resilient and sustainable future. Full article

Frequent accidents in the construction sector arise from the dynamic coupling of multiple risk factors, while conventional single-factor approaches fail to capture the underlying complexity. Drawing on 702 accident investigation reports, this study develops an intelligent, data-driven framework that integrates large language model–based risk identification with association rule mining to systematically uncover risk factors and their coupling patterns. A DeepSeek-based model is employed to extract risk factors from unstructured text, followed by cosine similarity–based optimization to refine factor representations. The FP-Growth algorithm is then applied to identify strong association rules among risk factors. The results reveal that deficiencies in the management dimension account for 68.30% of all identified risks, with inadequate safety education and training emerging as the central hub in the risk coupling network, which is further corroborated by complex network analysis. Moreover, a cascading transmission pathway is identified, whereby environmental deficiencies induce weakened safety awareness, which in turn leads to unsafe behaviors. These findings further demonstrate the nonlinear amplification effects arising from concurrent management failures. By establishing a transformation pathway from unstructured textual data to structured risk knowledge, this study provides a robust, data-driven foundation for precise risk identification and systematic prevention in construction safety management. Full article