Asian and European Perspectives on Teacher Education

SuCo2’s Daniel Fischer delivered a keynote speech at the opening of the Joint Seminar “Bridging Ideas between Asia and Europe for Promoting Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education”, co-organized by University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Okayama University, Japan. The seminar took place in Ljubljana between September 14-17, 2022, and engaged scholars, students, and practitioners in sharing recent insights and innovations in Higher Education for Sustainable Development as well as Teacher Education for Sustainable Development. The conference was opened by Jun Morohashi, Acting Chief of Section of Education for Sustainable Development at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, on the implementation of the ESDfor2030 roadmap.

Daniel’s keynote address offered a stocktaking of the field based on a comprehensive and systematic review of the published academic research on Teacher Education for Sustainable Development (TESD). The review sheds light on the development of TESD as a research field, identifies current trends and priorities, and offers insights into how TESD research can contribute to innovating general teacher education and contribute more effectively to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda.

Thank you, Dr. Gregor Torkar (University of Ljubljana) and Dr. Hiroki Fujii (Okayama University), for the kind invitation to contribute to this timely and inspiring seminar.

Keynote presentation on “Teacher Education for Sustainable Development: Where Do We Stand and Where Should We Go Next?” by Daniel Fischer at the Joint Seminar “Bridging Ideas between Asia and Europe for Promoting Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education”, co-organized by University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Okayama University, Japan

Keynote Abstract:

Strengthening the capacity of educators to implement sustainable development in teaching-learning settings is one of the priority action areas of the #ESDfor2030 program. The field of teacher education for sustainable development (TESD) has become a vibrant area of research and practice in the wake of the Decade for ESD as well as the Global Action Program in recent years, which has also begun to spill over into general teacher education. Because the field is so dynamically evolving and contributions come from very different disciplines, determining what characterizes TESD as a research area and what it has produced in terms of results is challenging.   This presentation draws on a recent project to take stock of the field and identify main achievements. Based on a systematic review of 158 research papers, five different types of inquiry could be distinguished as characteristic of TESD as an evolving research field: designing learning environments, understanding learner attributes, measuring learning outcomes, promoting systems change, and advancing visions for the field. The presentation will introduce the five types of TESD research and illustrate their distinct approaches with innovative examples from recently completed and ongoing research projects.   The presentation concludes with an outlook on where major innovation potentials for future work in the field of TESD lie to contribute more effectively to building the capacity of educators and reorient education systems.  

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