Examining Qatar’s private and public-school teachers’ readiness for teaching about sustainability

Abstract

ABSTRACTUnderstanding teacher readiness for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) instruction is crucial. This study investigated Qatar’s preparatory and secondary public and private school teachers’ perceived readiness to teach Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED) across three dimensions: alignment, capabilities and engagement. Although all teachers surveyed (N = 965) self-reported high readiness rates (∼80%), important differences emerged between private and public school teachers. Private school teachers reported more alignment, enhanced capabilities and increased engagement with ESD/GCED than public school teachers. GCED themes were taught more frequently than ESD themes for both school systems. Detailed discussion regarding these results is provided.KEYWORDS: Education for sustainable developmentglobal citizenship educationteachersreadinessQatarpublic and private schools Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis research was funded in whole or in part by a National Priorities Research Program Grant [NPRP12C-0804-190009] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation).