Sustainability Learning in Education for Sustainable Development for 2030: An Observational Study Regarding Environmental Psychology and Responsible Behavior through Rural Community Travel

Fang-Hua Chen, Chang-Ching Tsai, Pei-Yin Chung and Wei-Shuo Lo
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Fang-Hua Chen: Program in Tourism and Hospitality Section, Business Intelligence School, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City 807, Taiwan
Chang-Ching Tsai: Department of Tourism Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City 807, Taiwan
Pei-Yin Chung: Department of Nursing, Meiho University, Pingtung City 912, Taiwan
Wei-Shuo Lo: Department of Tourism, Meiho University, Pingtung City 912, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: This study explores how rural community travel can be an eco-innovation approach to enhance education for sustainable development (ESD) for 2030. The goal of ESD is to enable all-age learners to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4); therefore, effective education related to sustainability with respect to the local cultural context has become an urgent issue. Sustainability is not a specific problem, but concerns all living stakeholders, what they think, and how they work for sustainable community development. However, the intrinsic mechanism regarding the psychological process of outside responsible behavior change is still ignored. Therefore, we conducted a case study, wherein we selected a local cocoa cultural industry festival in southern Taiwan to understand the role of sustainability learning to explain this mechanism. The findings revealed that, in general, sustainability learning is a complex and reflexive process interlinked with different learners (stakeholders); it combines individual psychology and behavior, e.g., in positive psychology, learners care about the low-carbon services provided to tourists, and in negative psychology, they care more about finances. Notably, positive psychology affects responsible behavior, thus, promoting the preservation of the living environment. Additionally, we deduced that ESD can be enhanced by involving human senses and positive psychology.

Keywords: case study; education for sustainable development; environment protection; environmental psychology; sustainability learning; reflexive process; responsible behavior; rural tourism; sustainable tourism; Taiwan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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