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

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.