Education for Sustainable Development in Spanish University Education Degrees

Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo, Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino, Daniel Romero-Portillo and Bárbara Sureda
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Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo: University Research Institute for Sustainability Science and Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino: Didactics Department, Universidad de Cádiz, 11519 Cádiz, Spain
Daniel Romero-Portillo: Sociology Department, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, 41013 Sevilla, Spain
Bárbara Sureda: University Research Institute for Sustainability Science and Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech, 08034 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: This work presents an analysis of student perception of Spanish university education degrees regarding their training in sustainable development. A sample of 942 students was used. The methodology consists of analyzing the results of a survey answered by the first- and fourth-year students from nine education degree courses in four Spanish universities. Comparison of the perception of learning by fourth-year students against those of the first year enables improvements in learning regarding sustainability to be ascertained. The questionnaire consists of 18 questions concerning four sustainability competencies: C1-Critical contextualization of knowledge, C2-Sustainable use of resources, C3-Participation in community processes, and C4-Ethics. Two composite indicators are defined to analyze the absolute learning (achieved on completion of their studies) and the relative learning (achieved with respect to what should have been achieved) declared by the students in each competency, degree and university. The results show that students declare an improvement in all their sustainability competencies, although the results of the final learning are far from those expected: they have learned only 27% of what they should have learned. Moreover, the learning achieved in the four competencies depends on the degree and the university.

Keywords: sustainability; sustainable development; education for sustainable development; Spanish higher education; students’ learning; students’ perception; sustainability competencies; EDINSOST project (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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