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Teaching and Learning Approaches: Curriculum Framework for Sustainability Literacy for Technical and Vocational Teacher Training Programmes in Malaysia
Abstract and Figures
Given the impact of unsustainable practices, work, and living patterns, it has become increasingly important to raise global citizens as stewards of the earth’s life support system. Thus, developing sustainability literacy has become very crucial. A sustainability-literate professional can make sound decisions and act in environmentally friendly, socially acceptable, and economically viable ways. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) arguably has the potential to educate workers, graduates, and citizens alike in developing sustainability literacy since it is regarded in many nations as the supplier of skilled labour. TVET teacher training programmes in Malaysia have been vastly proficient in developing vocationally competent teachers and workers. Still, there remains uncertainty regarding the extent to which these vocational teaching professionals have been trained to develop sustainability competencies and literacies. The implication is that, when technical and vocational teachers responsible for training workers do not possess the requisite competencies to engage in sustainability education, the potential for TVET to become a viable tool for ESD diminishes. Given this backdrop, this study was undertaken to propose a curriculum framework for sustainability literacy for technical and vocational teacher training programmes. Using a modified Delphi method (MDM) consisting of 15 expert participants from Asian-Pacific countries, four important curricular elements for sustainability literacy were identified and defined. These include the learning outcomes for sustainability literacy, teaching competencies for sustainability literacy, pedagogical approaches to foster effective teaching and learning for sustainability, as well as ESD integration strategies. The specific indicators within this curriculum framework were also defined. The paper concludes with vivid implications for practice within TVET teacher training programmes in realising Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Purpose
This study aims to understand the practices and perceptions of education for sustainable development (ESD) in the university classrooms of Malaysia, exploring how holistic, pluralistic and action-oriented approaches to ESD were linked to their knowingness, attitudes and behavior regarding sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The perceptions of 2,678 students and 1,013 teachers from a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at four Malaysian universities were surveyed. Their views of ESD and sustainability consciousness (SC) were recorded on five-point Likert-type scales, and the resulting data was investigated using descriptive and analytical statistics.
Findings
Holistic, pluralistic and action-oriented approaches to ESD teaching and learning were widespread in Malaysian universities, with significant associations found between ESD approaches and SC. While all three approaches enhanced each aspect of SC, the results indicated the need to develop action-oriented approaches more fully.
Originality/value
This research underlines the importance of sustainability education in the context of higher education. It provides empirical evidence for developing action-oriented approaches to ESD and confirms the utility of holistic content and pluralistic pedagogy to the teaching and learning of sustainability.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Entrepreneurial Education (EE) are quite abstract and demanding concepts for teacher students. Yet, Key Sustainability Competences and Entrepreneurial Competences entail important qualities of future citizens and workers, and teacher students should become prepared to accommodate education for these competencies in their teaching practice. This paper explores teacher students’ process of sense-making of sustainable development and how becoming a teacher who practices ESD connects with entrepreneurship. EE serves as a good mirroring surface to ESD as they both have their roots in Transformative Learning (TL) but pursue transformation towards different goals. The case study follows the vocational teacher education (VTE) students’ sensemaking of Sustainable Development as a part of teacher’s work during one semester which included integrated Thematic Studies of Sustainable Development. The qualitative content analysis of students’ texts focused on signs of transformative learning and was guided by the dimensions of sustainable development and learning goals set for teacher’s sustainability competences in the VTE curriculum. The results indicate that transformative learning is possible. Furthermore, they address the importance of certain entrepreneurial capabilities in the actualization of change agency.
Context: In Finland, vocational education has been competence-based and learner-orientated since the beginning of 2018. Teachers’ work has changed because there is a need to pay more attention to students and their specific personal needs. Learning processes are planned individually and more learning options are offered in the workplace.
Approach: In this article we ask the following: What kind of teachers’ competencies can be identified in Finland? The metadata comprises twelve recent pieces of research on teachers’ competencies in the field of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Finland. We apply data-driven content analysis.
Findings: According to our results, the work of vocational teachers included 53 separate
skills comprising seven categories of competencies and three main categories of scholarships as follows: Scholarship in teaching and learning relating to pedagogy, guidance and counselling, and interaction, Scholarship in authentic learning and development referring to pedagogical leadership, partnership and innovator competency, and Scholarship in evaluation and monitoring associated with assessment.
Conclusion: The work of vocational teachers in Finland has become fragmented. The fragmented work of a vocational teacher may influence the teacher’s identity. The fragmented nature of the work of vocational teachers also raises the need to share expertise in educational institutions. Scholarship in teaching and learning, as well as evaluation and monitoring, are related to the more traditional way to be a teacher. The main challenge for teachers in vocational education in Finland is to adopt ways of authentic learning and development.
The paper presents the Delphi method and tests its usefulness when searching for a consensus on definitions, especially in a particular social science field. Based on an overview of the characteristics and uses of the Delphi method, a special Delphi design for searching for minimal common definitions of globalisation, Europeanisation and internationalisation in higher education and their mutual relationships is presented in detail. While the method proved valuable, its strengths and weaknesses are also discussed. Finally, ideas for adjusting the Delphi method are proposed.
The goal of attaining a sustainable future has become a global crusade of leading world organizations/institutions due to the persistent threats to the sustenance of our planet Earth. The concept of a sustainable future is often depicted as maintaining a balance in intergenerational equity, using resources prudently, maintaining the health of living systems, applying economic activities that ensure a balance between productivity and consumption, implementing environmental protection and preserving and accepting cultural diversity. Education for a sustainable future becomes the backbone by which to transform and develop the knowledge, skills and values of all working people for sustainable living and work practices. Hence, three aspects of educational change are needed for this transformation towards a sustainable future: curriculum reorientation, pedagogy and teacher education. The focus of this paper is on curriculum reorientation in a teacher education program setting by reporting the prospects of technical and vocational education (TVE) programs in preparing pre-service teachers for sustainability. In this study we utilized a triangulation design by integrating findings from a qualitative documentary analysis with those of a survey, which allowed us to draw conclusions regarding the prospects of the TVE programs studied to prepare pre-service teachers for sustainability. Our findings reveal that the TVE programs in our case study do not substantially reflect sustainability and as such limit the programs’ prospects to prepare teachers for efficiently undertaking teaching tasks for sustainability. The educators and students of the TVE programs also perceive that the TVE programs do not sufficiently prepare pre-service teachers for sustainability. The lack of sustainability integration across technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs is worrisome, primarily because of the potential of such programs to provide education and training to skilled and semi-skilled professionals. Hence, we recommend that adequate and conscious efforts be taken to review existing TVE programs in order to increase the presence of sustainability education in these programs. We also recommend a number of useful strategies for implementing the needed changes within TVET programs for sustainability.
There has been a global call for institutions of learning to engage in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by leading world organisations. Although scholars advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, the research literature shows that majority of sustainability issues are addressed through fields such as environmental and developmental education. There has also been a call for the integration of Sustainable Development (SD) in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes by various scholars and bodies such as the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The issue, however, is that Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) programmes are not yet embracing this call to integrate ESD into their programmes. Hence, it is imperative to reiterate the intersection between TVE and SD and how the former can contribute significantly to the SD agenda. Therefore, by completing a qualitative documentary analysis of a TVE programme, using a Malaysian Higher Education Institution (HEI) as a case study, this paper discusses the visibility of sustainability in TVE programmes as well as explores the overarching goal of ESD and why it is especially crucial for TVE. Findings reveal that the concept of sustainability is only barely reflected in the TVE teacher training curriculum. Recommendations for practice change and further research are presented and discussed.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how transformative learning has been conceptualised and operationalised in education for sustainable development (ESD) and sustainability learning and to collect evidence on how to support transformative learning in formal and non-formal environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a systematic literature review to provide a structured and replicable search and analysis of the relevant literature to produce a bibliometric overview that combines a quantitative description of the body of literature and qualitative analysis of the learning processes, outcomes and conditions.
Findings
The convergence between transformative learning and sustainability has become an emerging field of inquiry, despite the superficial use of transformative learning theory in many studies. By examining the learning process, outcomes and conditions in the core sample of studies, this study demonstrates that transformative learning theory – if carefully studied – can contribute to the design and implementation of educational interventions and assessments of learning towards sustainability. Furthermore, the sustainability context provides an empirical grounding that highlights the fact that social learning, the role of experience and the development of sustainability competencies are inherently part of transformative learning.
Originality/value
To date, few attempts have been made to better understand how transformative learning theory has been used in sustainability learning and ESD research. This systematic review allows for a better comprehension of how concepts and mechanisms elucidated in transformative learning theory are operationalised in sustainability learning and ESD research and serves as a source of inspiration for those researchers and practitioners who aims to make sustainability education, teaching and learning more transformative.
Unchecked climate change poses a self-inflicted existential risk to humanity as it exacerbates the multiple-crisis syndrome facing global society. In international policy, education for sustainable development is widely flagged as transformative. To realize that transformative potential, sustainability educators are exploring the nexus between their field and that of transformative learning. They particularly call for a stretching of epistemology so that unsustainable practices are challenged, taken-for-granted thinking and assumptions disrupted, root causes of global dysfunction interrogated, values subjected to critical scrutiny, change potential of socio-affective learning unleashed, and paradigm shift thus catalyzed. The problem is the overall lack of consensus about what needs sustaining and what needs transforming. Seeking to address that problem, we call for subversive learning interrogating four key climate change drivers: economic growth, consumerism, denial, and climate injustice. We also call for restorative learning in three important areas: restoring nature intimacy, confronting despair, and reclaiming the good life.
Including considerations of sustainability in universities’ activities has long since become mainstream. However, there is still much to be done with regard to the full integration of sustainability thinking into science and engineering curricula. Among the problems that hinder progress in this field, the lack of sound information on how to actually implement it is prominent. Created in order to address this need, this book presents a wealth of information on innovative approaches, methods and tools that may be helpful in translating sustainability principles into practice.