The hope wheel: a model to enable hope-based pedagogy in Climate Change Education.

In response to concerns about climate anxiety and distress, researchers and practitioners in both education and psychology have been investigating the importance of engaging climate hope in Climate Change Education (CCE). Synthesizing recent multidisciplinary research, alongside insights from the development of educational programs, this article proposes a new theoretical model for pedagogies of hope in CCE. The Hope Wheel presents three foundational elements: handrails for educators to hold on to while constructively engaging with climate change (honesty, awareness, spaceholding, action), guardrails for educators to be sensitive to when implementing the handrails (climate anxiety, mis-/disinformation, false hope), and lenses to encourage educators to explore connections between complex societal and planetary challenges (complexity, justice, perspectives, creativity, and empathy). This working model aims to support educators by distilling current learnings from the literature into a visual guide. It depicts essential elements to include, as well as avoid, in order to engage honest, hope-oriented CCE for transformative learning in the face of the climate crisis.

Conductas prosostenibilidad y percepciones del estudiantado adolescente sobre prácticas parentales y valores familiares / Pro-sustainability behaviors and perceptions of adolescent students about parenting practices and family values

Resumen La familia juega un papel fundamental tanto en la socialización como en la configuración de valores en menores y adolescentes. Esta investigación estudia las percepciones del estudiantado adolescente sobre prácticas parentales y valores familiares e identifica las conductas prosostenibilidad de dicho estudiantado en una triple perspectiva: reducir, reutilizar y reciclar (3R). La población diana es el estudiantado de bachillerato de la ciudad de Cuenca (Ecuador). El análisis de datos incluye: comparación de medias, coeficiente de correlación r de Pearson y regresión lineal simple. Los resultados señalan que las mujeres y los varones adolescentes del estudio perciben un elevado apoyo parental a su autonomía y que las madres conceden mayor importancia al valor de ayuda a los demás. Adicionalmente, un alto porcentaje de los sujetos realizan al menos una acción de las 3R. Se concluye que la muestra percibe a la familia como un agente impulsor de su desarrollo como sujetos autónomos, un factor prometedor para la integración de valores y el desarrollo de competencias para la sostenibilidad; sin embargo, reconoce que la escuela es donde se fragua su compromiso con un futuro sostenible con más intensidad.

Abstract The family plays a fundamental role both in socialization and in the configuration of values in minors and adolescents; including those related to environmental care. In keeping with this premise, Unicef (2018) announced that the sustainable development of the planet requires counting on families; it pointed them out as essential collaborators of governments for the quality of life of future generations. Considered a natural and elemental unit of all modern societies and an educational agent of the first order for the development and psychosocial adjustment of its members, the family is also a primary socialization agent (Fontana-Abad, Gil y Reyero, 2013). It plays a key role in the internalization of prosocial values, such as self-transcendence (care and universalism) and conservation (conformity, safety, and tradition); values ​​closely related to pro-environmental behaviors (Barrera-Hernández, Sotelo, Echeverría y Tapia, 2020). Following this line, this research studies the perceptions that adolescents have about family values, parental support for autonomy, and environmental care practices, according to the 3R rule, in a triple perspective: reduce, reuse, and recycle. It uses a quantitative, descriptive, and relational methodology. The target population was high school adolescents from the city of Cuenca (Ecuador). The sample was made up of 122 adolescents which attended three schools: one private educational unit (36.1 %) and two public (27.9 % and 36.1 %). Of the respondents, 38.8 % were female and 61.2 % were male, and they all were between 15 and 19 years old (M = 16.4; SD = 1.2); 27 % were in their first year of high school (15-17 years), 44.3 % were in their second year of high school (16-18 years) and the 28.7 % were in their third year (17-19 years). Data analysis includes comparison of means, Pearson's r correlation coefficient and simple linear regression. The results indicate that a high percentage of the adolescents in the study carry out at least one of the following environmental care actions (these are organized from highest to lowest frequency): saving water and electricity consumption, using garbage cans, reusing bottles, separating garbage, and participating in actions in favor of environment. Likewise, it is detected that they perceive family as a driving agent for their development as autonomous subjects, and a promising factor for the process of integration of values ​​and the development of competencies for caring for the environment; however, they still recognize the school as the place where their commitment to a sustainable future is most intensely forged. Additionally, the adolescents in the study perceive a high parental support for their autonomy and, likewise, that mothers attach greater importance to the value of helping others, a central axis in the ethics of care that characterizes the paradigm of sustainability. This research corroborated, once again, the ONU's (2015) position when it indicates that the family is a main agent of change for sustainability, with a decisive influence on the preservation of life and ecosystems. It endorses the relevance of promoting educational strategies that promote family-school relations in order to enhance the role of the former in the acquisition of pro-environmental values ​​and, ultimately, its collaboration in the quality of formal education aimed at sustainability. With these results, a path is opened to improve the knowledge on the parental role in relation to the promotion of behaviors of environmental care (pro-sustainability), within the framework of adolescents' and young people's formal education.

The challenge of education for sustainability in higher education: key themes and competences within the University of the Basque Country.

Introduction: One of the major challenges for higher education institutions in the last decade has been (and will continue to be) the integration of sustainability into their curricula and the development of sustainability competences in students. Education for Sustainability (ES) can help prepare students to meet the challenges of making societies more sustainable. However, as a first step toward this goal, teachers need to incorporate ES into their teaching. In this regard, this research aimed to analyze if members of the teaching staff have started this integration and, if so, which sustainability-related topics have been introduced and which skills do they consider contribute to the development of future graduates. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to teaching staff at the University of the Basque Country in 2022. A total of 403 teachers completed the questionnaire, expressing their perceptions through open-ended questions. Results: In general terms teachers incorporate ES into their teaching (71.22%). However, they do this mainly within the framework of two general themes: "Environmental awareness and energy" - most used by teachers of experimental sciences and engineering - and "Social commitment," most used by teachers of social sciences and those who are familiar with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Regarding the key competences that ES provides for future graduates, those most frequently mentioned were "training of professionals committed to society" and "critical thinking and ethics." These competences were particularly notable in the discourse of teachers who were aware of the 2030 Agenda and who use active methodologies in their classrooms. Finally, the opinion that sustainability has little to do with their teaching (28.78%) was notably expressed by teachers less familiar with the 2030 Agenda. Discussion: Thus, it can be concluded that, aside from knowledge of the 2030 Agenda, factors such as the sustainability policy of the institution, area of teaching expertise, and the use of active methodologies all play a significant role in determining whether competences for sustainable development are integrated into higher education teaching.

Using the DREAM Methodology for Course Assessment in the Field of ICT-Enabled Education for Sustainability.

This study explores the application of the DREAM methodology for course assessment in three South East Asian universities aiming to embed sustainability and sustainable development goals (SDGs) in multiple academic disciplines enabled by information and communication technologies (ICTs). A mixing of content and thematic analysis was used, which aligns with the underpinning philosophy of the Diagnosing, Reviewing/Reflecting, Explaining, Assessing, Managing (DREAM) methodology. The DREAM methodology integrates five processes, starting from diagnosing, to reviewing/reflecting, explaining, assessing, and, finally, managing. Results show that merging semantic and latent themes has contributed to uncovering what messages students' narratives convey and provided a space for focusing both on the surface and explicit meanings of the data as well as on theory building and policy making. They also show the effectiveness of the DREAM methodology in constructing new knowledge and generating meaningful interpretations and suggestions to teacher educators and other academic teaching staff, as well as higher education institutions' policymakers and planners.

Systematic Child Talks in Early Childhood Education-A Method for Sustainability.

One of a preschool teacher's most important competencies is to be able to talk with children and to invite them to share their ideas, knowledge, and experiences. This skill is of utmost importance within Early Childhood Education for sustainability. The aim of this article is to show various ways in which preschool teachers carry out systematic talks with children. Data come from a large Swedish development and research project, Sustainable Preschool, involving around 200 teachers in Early Childhood Education. During the spring of 2022, the preschools carried out theme-oriented projects linked to sustainable development. The participating preschool teachers were then asked to carry out systematic child talks with children about learning for sustainability and their understanding of the sustainability-related content. Using content analysis, three different approaches were identified as to how teachers communicate with children systematically about various content related to sustainability: (1) joint creation of meaning, (2) question and answer, focusing on remembering facts, and (3) following the children. There is a large variation in the teachers' communicative competences. A key factor seems to be to create a shared inter-subjective atmosphere, while at the same time being open for alterity, that is, introducing new or slightly changed perspectives for the dialogue to deepen and continue.

Education for Sustainable Development: Challenges for Postgraduate Programmes.

As the world faces progressive and interconnected global crises and conflicts, the educational expectations set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are in jeopardy. With the COVID-19 pandemic in its third year, the war in Ukraine has exacerbated the food, energy, humanitarian, and refugee crises, all against the backdrop of an unfolding climate emergency. The aim of this research is to analyse the challenges faced by postgraduate programmes in training human talent for sustainable development on the basis of Grounded Theory. To do so, we have used a dialogical intervention through the complementary experiences of authorities of higher-education institutions that live day by day for a fair, quality, and sustainable education. With a naturalistic qualitative method, where the hermeneutic analysis procedure is structured in five phases, and with data from key informants from 9 countries, 20 interviews are obtained with key informants in Latin American and Spanish universities during 2021, according to inclusion criteria such as: belonging to a higher-education institution, with a doctorate degree, with more than 10 years of experience in management, and training in postgraduate programmes. The data are processed through ATLAS.ti9, which allows for the analysis of the key informants' discourses. The findings show that the university institutions that currently offer postgraduate programmes are considering improving the quality of education; the first challenge is to redesign the curricula according to the demands of the current and future world, incorporating technological resources and knowledge of the environment; inter- and transdisciplinary curricula that form enterprising postgraduates with a solid ethical life project; critical, complex, and systemic thinking.

Integrating gamification and instructional design to enhance usability of online learning.

The current study investigates the interaction of Gamification, and Instructional Design to enhance the Usability of e-Learning in higher education programs. The study also examines the mediating role of Instructional design. Data were collected from a self-structured questionnaire from the academicians and was analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results of the study confirmed that gamification is a multi-dimensional construct significantly predicted by elements, game dynamics, motivation, and game mechanics. Further, Instructional design partially mediates the relationship between gamification and usability of e-learning. This research demonstrates that Gamification can enhance the learning environment for e-learning students. This study will also inspire educators and course developers to give due consideration to the instructional design and gamification of an online course. The research findings will motivate educators/instructors/course developers to give equal importance to instructional design and gamification as well as to the content.

Toward a knowledge economy: Factors affecting the sustainable consumption behavior in the Chinese online education industry.

Introduction: Buoyed by recent calls to research and advance the knowledge economy and sustainable development. This study explains how the role of the knowledge economy in influencing the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged with numerous opportunities for the global E-learning or online education industry. And, knowledge sharing behavior has been hugely driven by various sharing platforms concerning a new paradigm for diversifying education and learning. However, our study is to further extend the understanding and examine the related empirically correlations to deepen online education for sustainable development (OESD). Both advancing theoretical underpinnings and enhancing the online education industry are highly integrated and introduced toward a sustainable pathway. This study brings the perspectives from consumer value, social identity social exchange, and value-attitude-behavior to explain sustainable consumption behavior in the Chinese online education industry (SCBOEI). Thus, the relationship among factors in this study is statistically examined and the SCBOEI model as the new theoretical insight is introduced in a way of sustainable consumption behaviors in the Chinese online education industry. Finally, this study addresses managerial implications to practitioners, the government, universities, and markets. Materials and methods: Employing a quantitative approach, about 559 valid questionnaire surveys are collected from Chinese higher education institutions. This study includes participants from four controlling variables (age, education level, family income, and gender) and six latent variables. The bootstrapping method was applied to validate mediating factors and their interacting relationships. Results: The finding reveals that a set of classic psychological theories related fits the SCBOEI in higher education from the consumer value, contextual factors, social identity, sustainable consumption attitudes, and consumer engagement to explain SCBOEI. The mediating role of identity, sustainable consumption attitudes, and consumer engagement is highly concerned. The value and contextual factors directly make impact on SCBOEI through identity, sustainable consumption attitudes, and consumer engagement. Implications: The study significantly contributes to enriching the theoretical bases for advancing the literature on sustainable consumption behavior and online education. Our research provides managerial insights into government policy about the online education industry and marketers to set more advertisements to wake awareness of SCBOEI. Furthermore, higher education institutions should encourage their employees and students to participate in SCBOEI actively. All the stakeholders are essential to lead the consumer to SCBOEI by shaping their internal psychology while paying more attention to social equality (education, gender), responsible consumption, and decent economic development. Overall, addressing these issues will help to provide scholars with novel theoretical insights and practitioners with managerial advice.

Young children contribute to nature stewardship.

Research on young children in environmental education (EE) has focused on unstructured play in, or experiencing, nature. Little attention has been paid to young children's stewardship efforts, or to the relation of such efforts to young children's learning and capacity to contribute to their communities and local nature. This perspectives paper draws on the first author's experience guiding pre-k and kindergarten children (4-6 years old) in outdoor educational projects in Santo Domingo (SD), Dominican Republic, in which the children produced a park guide and a short film. In addition to becoming resources for the local community, these products are an example of children's civic contributions. In "return on investment" language, guiding young children in outdoor experiences and reflecting on the experience represent the investment and the park guide and other products, and importantly, children's recognition of their ability to make contributions to their community, represent the return on investment. Based on our observations that young children can make significant contributions to their communities when given the opportunity, this perspectives paper argues for a research agenda and investment in opportunities for young children to contribute to their socio-ecological communities. To support our perspective, we first review and critique the prevailing and emerging paradigms of early childhood EE, following which we briefly describe the Santo Domingo (SD) project, and close by integrating past work with the first author's experience to argue for the importance of including young children in stewardship efforts.

Sustainability Competencies in Higher Education Research: An Analysis of Doctoral Theses in Portugal.

Educational research has been highlighting the importance of defining key competencies and learning outcomes related to education for sustainability as a reference for the transparent evaluation of students' learning in this domain. Drawing on a reference framework that identifies five key competencies in sustainability (i.e., systems-thinking competency, anticipatory competency, normative competency, strategic competency, and interpersonal competency), the study reported in this paper aims to understand whether, how, and to what extent these competencies are present in doctoral theses in Higher Education published in Portugal in the past ten years. To address this objective, a qualitative study framed in an interpretative paradigm was conducted, and a literature review was used as a preferential research method to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge. The retrieved documents were treated using deductive content analysis, which was performed using WebQDA software. Results of the analysis show that the competencies considered in the reference framework are present in research on education for sustainability carried out in recent years in Portugal, with a greater emphasis on strategic and anticipatory competencies. Findings suggest that it is important to continue to conduct research on these competencies to successfully integrate them into educational curricula and teacher education programs.

[Education for Sustainability and the Development of Smart Healthcare Systems: An Exploratory Study].

The development of smart healthcare systems that are accurate and efficient may be used to improve the health and well-being of different age groups. These systems should incorporate a human-centered design approach to ensure that products and services meet user needs and that systems are user-friendly. In this study, an "education for sustainability" perspective is used in tandem with human-factors engineering and human-computer interaction techniques to achieve a creative dimensional design within a workshop setting. Workshop settings help learners transcend the limitations of traditional classroom education by encouraging them to integrate their daily needs and develop feasible healthcare solutions. Using an iterative process, proposed designs are repeatedly validated and prototypes are continuously improved. We hope that this article provides educators with a better sustainable educational perspective that they may use to construct accurate and efficient smart healthcare systems that meet the needs of users.

Assessment of the Potential Implementation of Solar Energy Generation in State Schools in Curitiba/PR

ABSTRACT Solar energy as a form of electric power generation is gaining ground in Brazil, being the subject of worldwide discussions on sustainability. The electric energy, a right of all citizens, represents a consumption of natural resources on a large scale. State schools in Paraná invested more than R$ 46 million to guarantee electricity and thus provide essential running conditions to the system in 2016. Through open data, 15 schools from "Regional Administrativa do Cajuru", in Curitiba/PR, were evaluated in consumption and expenses of electric energy from January to May of 2017 and a solar photovoltaic system was dimensioned to supply the demand of each school. From that, it was estimated the total saving from the electricity that would no longer be spent on electricity which could be directed to other educational programs and projects of interest to the community towards sustainability within the school. The savings estimated totalized more than R$ 435 thousand annually.

Las cuestiones socio científicas: una alternativa de educación para la sostenibilidad / The social-cienttific matters: an education alternative for sustainability

El artículo presenta una reflexión acerca de la utilización y abordaje de las cuestiones sociocientíficas (CS) en futuros docentes. Esta estrategia didáctica genera inquietudes relacionadas con la influencia de la ciencia y la tecnología en la sociedad y en el ambiente (CTSA), promueve compromisos en la formación de actitudes y comportamientos favorables hacia el logro de un desarrollo sostenible, y reflexiona acerca de los diversos problemas ambientales, producto de intereses individuales alejados de la conservación biológica y cultural. Las CS permiten vincular de manera más llamativa diversos temas disciplinares, no solamente con el fin de obtener un aprendizaje cognitivo en los estudiantes, sino también el desarrollo de capacidades sociales, éticas, culturales que promueven una educación para la sostenibilidad con acciones encaminadas a actuar con responsabilidad social en la toma de decisiones fundamentadas; por ello, se abordaran en el escrito, las nociones acerca del enfoque CTSA, las ventajas de la utilización de las CS, ilustrando finalmente las reflexiones que requieren hacer los docentes.

The article presents a reflection on the use and dealing with the social-scientific matters (SC) in future teachers. This teaching strategy generates concerns related with the influence of science and technology in society and in the environment (CTSE), promotes compromises in the education of attitudes and behaviors which are favorable for the achievement of a sustainable development, and reflects about the diverse environmental problems product of individual interests away from biological and cultural conservation. The SC allow the connection in a more striking way with a diversity of disciplinary topics, not only in order to obtain a cognitive learning in the students, but also the development of social, ethics and cultural capacities which promote an education for the sustainability with actions channeled to responsible social behavior when making decisions with a foundation. For this reason, the notions about the CTSE approach and the advantages of using the CS are dealt with, thus illustrating the reflections that teachers are requested to make.