Development of an ESD Indicator for Teacher Training and the National Monitoring for ESD Implementation in Germany

Eva-Maria Waltner, Werner Rieß and Antje Brock
Additional contact information
Eva-Maria Waltner: Department of Biology and Pedagogy of Biology at the University of Education, Kunzenweg 21, 79117 Freiburg, Germany
Werner Rieß: Department of Biology and Pedagogy of Biology at the University of Education, Kunzenweg 21, 79117 Freiburg, Germany
Antje Brock: Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstraße 37, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a core element of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) Target 4.7, which seeks to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development through education for sustainable development. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) followed suit in 2015 and launched a high scale national monitoring of the current state of ESD implementation. In this context, suitable ESD indicators should be analyzed to inform policy and research agendas. The present project is part of the national monitoring within Germany’s Global Action Program (GAP) actions. The research team at the University of Education in Freiburg conducted a study to evaluate the accessibility of data and the measurability of ESD-relevant teacher training (TT). During the two-step procedure for data collection on ESD-relevant TTs in Germany, an extensive list of ESD related search terms first captured 66,935 TTs with possible ESD relevance in the evaluation period. Second, the collected data was analyzed using Mayring’s qualitative content analysis. The 66,935 TTs were thereby reduced to 3818 TTs with different degrees of ESD relevance. The results of the evaluation study show that suitable ESD indicators, the FESD (formula for the ESD-indicator for TTs) (basic), FESD (basic, rated) and FESD (pro), could be developed and calculated for 15 of 16 federal states in Germany. The gathered insights show a path towards ESD monitoring in TT to clarify the needs and achievements of ESD implementation in the field of continuing education of teachers. However, the presented indicators only show a possible path for ESD indicator development. A comprehensive set of ESD indicators should also focus on the micro or output (e.g., ESD competencies) level. These insights for the future seem worth striving for not only in Germany or on the national level but also internationally to foster ESD, Target 4.7 of the SDGs and the SDGs in general.

Keywords: education for sustainable development; ESD; in-service teacher training; indicator; implementation; national monitoring; education for sustainability; future education; global action program (GAP) on ESD; sustainable development goals; SDGs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/7/2508/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/7/2508/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:7:p:2508-:d:158522

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().