Exploring Changes in Perceptions and Practices of Sustainability in ESD Communities in Australia during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kim Beasy and Laura Ripoll Gonzalez
Additional contact information
Kim Beasy: Kim Beasy, Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy, School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania 7250, Australia.
Laura Ripoll Gonzalez: Laura Ripoll Gonzalez, Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University; College of the Arts, Law and Education, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania; Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Australia. E-mail: ripollgonzalez@essb.eur.nl

Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 15, issue 1, 5-24

Abstract: Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to empower future generations to address current global environmental threats, though it faces challenges to implementation, often linked to narrow perceptions of sustainability. To observe such changes in practice and draw their implications for ESD, we explore the effects of COVID-19 in perspectives and practices of sustainability across an education community. We reflect on how disruptions or threats can trigger a (re)imagination of individual and collective action. Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on individuals and societies have altered perceptions and practices of sustainability through envisaging previously unimaginable global environmental restoration, and experiencing personal, professional and collective changes. Our study shows that the perceived restorative effects on the environment of the pandemic lifted the education community spirits and enhanced a willingness to change by leveraging the social network around the education community to promote collective action.

Keywords: Education for sustainable development (ESD); COVID-19; change theory; community; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09734082211012081 (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:sae:jousus:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:5-24

DOI: 10.1177/09734082211012081

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Education for Sustainable Development
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().