The quantum shift: achieving education for sustainability development through a transformative teaching and learning approach

Abstract

The environmental and socioeconomic challenges arising from climate change and ongoing regional conflicts pose a significant threat to the future of our world. This emphasises the need for a new form of education that fosters future generations’ vision of a sustainable world, one that relies on environmental integrity, social justice, and economic prosperity. To achieve this, sustainability competencies are prioritised as essential learning objectives for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). However, most publications on sustainability competencies remain theoretical or are based solely on literature reviews. This study aims to address this gap by conducting an empirical investigation of teaching interventions and pedagogies aimed at fostering sustainability competencies. This paper proposes a teaching and learning approach grounded in transformative learning theory to advance ESD. As a universal framework, this approach encourages critical thinking and reflection, enabling learners to confront their assumptions and beliefs and to develop new perspectives that drive transformative change. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the practical implementation. Another main objective is to examine whether and how sustainability competencies can be developed through a transformative approach. Focus group interviews and surveys were used to collect and analyse data to evaluate this approach. In summary, this study advocates a holistic approach to education that integrates sustainability competencies into the curriculum, highlighting the importance of teaching and learning approaches that cultivate transformative change and actively promote a sustainable world.