Transformative Sustainability Education in Higher Education: Activating Environmental Understanding and Active Citizenship Among Professional Studies Learners
Adiv Gal, Dafna Gan
Abstract
Transformative sustainability education (TSE) is an uncommon pedagogical practice in higher education, even though it has a positive impact on student learning and behavioral change. This qualitative case study explored 20 Israeli graduate students' understanding of the social-ecological systems through the analysis of reflections, interviews, and observations. The findings reported that these graduate students displayed a deep understanding of the social-ecological systems when TSE was applied in a higher education course. As such, TSE contributed to these graduate students' knowledge construction along with encouraging their pro-environmental action. We concluded that teacher professional training, especially in higher education, should emphasize knowledge construction as a key for action, as part of TSE, in creating relational change at ontological and epistemological levels