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Are we training in sustainability in higher education? Case study: education degrees at the University of Salamanca

Muñoz-Rodríguez, José Manuel, Sánchez-Carracedo, Fermín, Barrón-Ruiz, Ángela, Serrate-González, Sara·2020·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su12114421
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Abstract

In this work, we analyzed the progress made in learning sustainability competencies by students belonging to the four Bachelor Education degrees at the University of Salamanca: Early Childhood Education Teacher, Primary Education Teacher, Pedagogy, and Social Education. To assess this progress, the instrument we used was the student questionnaire designed by the EDINSOST project. The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions related to the four sustainability competencies defined in 2011 by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities: (1) critical contextualization of knowledge, (2) sustainable use of resources, (3) participation in community processes, and (4) application of ethical principles. The students answered the questions using a four-point Likert scale. The analysis of the answers determined the students’ perception of their own learning related to sustainability competencies. A total of 230 first-year and 96 fourth-year students responded to the questionnaire. The comparison between the first- and fourth-year students’ answers to each question enabled an evaluation of the improvement perceived by the students in their sustainability competencies. We analyzed the results by using the Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis U tests. The results show that the students of the Bachelor Degree in Pedagogy are the only ones who achieve a significant improvement in their sustainability competencies. Bachelor Degree in Social Education and Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Education Teacher students achieve an improvement, but it is not significant. Finally, Bachelor Degree in Primary Education Teacher students do not seem to achieve any improvement. From these data, it appears that the model used to introduce sustainability competencies in the Bachelor Degree in Pedagogy is the only one that achieves good results.

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  • Several formal education degrees related to the domain of AI and green roles have been established only very recently in leading higher education institutions around the world.

    “Several formal education degrees related to the domain of AI and green roles have been established only very recently in leading higher education institutions around the world (Chen et al., 2020;Muñoz-Rodríguez et al., 2020).”

    From Skills or degree? The rise of skill-based hiring for AI and green jobs (2025) · cites this paper as Muñoz-Rodríguez et al., 2020

    The Introduction discusses incorporating sustainability into existing degree curricula, and the Conclusions examine sustainability competencies in four education degrees at the University of Salamanca. Neither section addresses recently established degrees in AI or green roles at institutions around the world (searched for new degrees and their establishment). (LLM, conf=0.75)

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Research works printed but not linked: 24

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Authors
Muñoz-Rodríguez, J. M., Sánchez-Carracedo, F., Barrón-Ruiz, Á., & Serrate-González, S.
Affiliations
  • Faculty of Education, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
  • Research Institute for Sustainability Science and Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2020-05-29
Volume
12
Issue
11
Pages
4421
ISSN
2071-1050
DOI
10.3390/su12114421
Cited by
33
References
0
Language
en
Licence
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor)
Funders
Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (50.000)

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