From Workshops to Webinars

Teachers’ Take on Sustainability Training

Abstract

Education for Sustainability (EfS) has been promoted by the United Nations for more than a decade and is something that Lund University values highly. Operationalization of EfS requires time, resources, and training for educators. However, educators are increasingly under pressure and have little time and resources to engage in EfS. Therefore, this study sets out to investigate which types and formats of competence development that educators prefer, given their current work situation.

A survey was primarily sent out to the Teaching for Sustainability at Lund University online network. The survey received 37 responses. The most popular types of competence development were inspiration such as examples of activities with students, pedagogical courses, and workshops. There was no clear linkage between how much time and effort an activity takes and how high the activity was ranked. When asked what formats educators would prefer if time and resources were unlimited, most respondents suggested formats with high degree of interaction such as workshops.

As oftentimes, it seems that there is no one-size-fits-all. Instead, all planning of new competence development for teachers needs to start with a look at available resources to ensure variety.