Student Teachers' Change Agency in Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

<p> <span></span>Previous research shows that teachers are key players in supporting agency in the faceof the biggest global challenges of our time, such as climate change and pollution, asteachers educate societiesí future decision-makers. The aim of this study was to analyzestudent teachersí perceptions of change agency and sustainable development. In thisqualitative case study, the writings of student teachers (n = 116) were studied in thecontext of sustainable development education. The data were analyzed using contentanalysis. The findings of the research confirmed previous studies showing that studentteachersí perceptions of sustainable development were quite narrow. The results indicatedthat the student teachers wrote mainly about social dimensions of sustainable develop-ment; few of them considered economic or environmental dimensions of sustainabledevelopment. The results provided new information about the current state of studentteachersí perceptions of change agency in the teacher education context. Teacher educationshould focus more on a holistic view of sustainable development aspects. These findingsmight be useful in implementing teacher education curricula.<br></p>