Education for sustainable development amidst COVID-19 pandemic: role of sustainability pedagogies in developing students’ sustainability consciousness
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 8 February 2022
Issue publication date: 26 July 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the impact of sustainability pedagogies on students’ sustainability consciousness (SC) in the online instructional settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method, embedded research design was applied to conduct the research. The participants of the study were the pre-service teachers studying a course, namely, “Education for Sustainable Development” (ESD) in a public sector university of Pakistan. A total of 49 participants were divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group experienced ESD-pedagogies in online teaching-learning (educational) settings, whereas the control group was taught through a lecture-based approach in an online educational setting. The outcome of the research was measured in terms of a change in the pre-service teachers’ SC. The qualitative data were collected from the experimental group only. The quantitative data were analyzed using paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test, whereas the qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis.
Findings
The quantitative and qualitative data indicate that sustainability pedagogies (i.e. case studies, critical incidents, discussions, debates and problem-based teaching) enhanced pre-service teachers’ SC in online educational settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
The current research expands the discussion on the effectiveness of sustainability pedagogies in online educational settings in teacher education programs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Author note: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ayesha Nousheen. E-mail: ayeshanousheenktk@outlook.com
Availability of data and material: As per the ethics approval agreement, the data used in this paper cannot be made publicly available for participants’ privacy reasons.
Authors’ contributions: All the authors contributed equally to the current research.
Citation
Nousheen, A. and Kalsoom, Q. (2022), "Education for sustainable development amidst COVID-19 pandemic: role of sustainability pedagogies in developing students’ sustainability consciousness", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 1386-1403. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-04-2021-0154
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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