Subtopic Deep Dive

← Environmental and sustainability education

Sustainability in Higher Education
Research Guide

What is Sustainability in Higher Education?

Sustainability in Higher Education examines the integration of sustainability principles into university curricula, campus operations, and research agendas, with evaluations of institutional carbon footprints and student engagement in green initiatives.

This subtopic focuses on teacher training programs embedding sustainable competencies, as in Spain and Bolivia. Studies assess environmental competencies in primary teacher education (Álvarez-García et al., 2017, 49 citations) and generic sustainability skills in higher education (Albareda-Tiana and Gonzalvo-Cirac, 2013, 19 citations). Over 10 papers from 2009-2022 analyze ESD in initial teacher formation, with Vega-Marcote et al. (2015, 60 citations) leading in citations.

Curated Papers

Key Challenges

Why It Matters

Universities model sustainable practices, influencing policy and sector-wide innovation as change agents. Vega-Marcote et al. (2015) evaluate educational models boosting sustainable competencies in teacher training, enabling graduates to foster environmental awareness in schools. Pegalajar Palomino et al. (2022, 51 citations) link ESD to social responsibility in teacher curricula, supporting UN Sustainable Development Goals. Litzner Ordóñez and Rieß (2019, 28 citations) reveal Bolivian faculty perceptions, guiding institutional reforms for global sustainability agendas.

Key Research Challenges

Faculty Attitude Barriers

Professors show preconceptions hindering sustainability integration into teaching (Ull et al., 2014, 18 citations). Surveys at University of Valencia identify resistance despite awareness. Overcoming this requires targeted training interventions.

Competency Assessment Gaps

Evaluating environmental competencies in initial training lacks validated tools (Álvarez-García et al., 2017, 49 citations). Pre-post studies in Spanish universities highlight inconsistent measurement. Standardization remains unresolved.

Curriculum Integration Limits

Secondary science teacher training inadequately covers sustainability in subject guides (Calero et al., 2019, 37 citations). Analysis of master's programs shows fragmented ESD embedding. Scaling across disciplines challenges implementation.

Essential Papers

Evaluation of an Educational Model Based on the Development of Sustainable Competencies in Basic Teacher Training in Spain

Pedro Vega-Marcote, Mercedes Varela-Losada, Pedro Álvarez-Suárez · 2015 · Sustainability · 60 citations

The environmental deterioration of the planet, caused by unsustainable development and an unfair model, requires global change on a political, social and environmental level. To boost this change, ...

Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible y Responsabilidad Social: claves en la formación inicial del docente desde una revisión sistemática

María Carmen Pegalajar Palomino, Antonio Burgos García, Estefanía Martínez Valdivida · 2022 · Revista de Investigación Educativa · 51 citations

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in initial teacher training means integrating elements of Social Responsibility into their training curriculum, towards a demanding adaptation and contin...

Evaluación de las competencias ambientales del profesorado de primaria en formación inicial: estudio de caso

Olaya Álvarez-García, Jaume Sureda Negre, Rubén Comas Forgas · 2017 · Enseñanza de las Ciencias Revista de investigación y experiencias didácticas · 49 citations

En este artículo se evalúan las competencias ambientales (CA) del profesorado en formación inicial al comienzo y en la finalización del Grado de Maestro/a en Educación Primaria (GMEP) en una univer...

La educación para la sostenibilidad en la formación del profesorado de ciencias experimentales en Secundaria

María Calero, Olga Mayoral García-Berlanga, Àngels Ull Solís et al. · 2019 · Enseñanza de las Ciencias Revista de investigación y experiencias didácticas · 37 citations

Esta investigación se enmarca en la formación del profesorado en el Máster Universitario en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria. Se muestran resultados de un análisis de las guías docentes de asign...

La Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible en la universidad boliviana. Percepciones del profesorado

Lorena Ivonne Litzner Ordóñez, Werner Rieß · 2019 · Teoría de la Educación Revista Interuniversitaria · 28 citations

El desarrollo sostenible es, hoy por hoy, uno de los principios rectores fundamentales dentro de la educación en general, y se constituye en tarea y desafío para la educación superior en particular...

Environmental education program in Ecuador: theory, practice, and public policies to face global change in the Anthropocene

Fander Falconí Benítez, Mónica Elizabeth Reinoso Paredes, Javier Collado Ruano et al. · 2019 · Ensaio Avaliação e Políticas Públicas em Educação · 26 citations

Abstract In 2008, the new Constitution of Ecuador recognized the Rights of Nature, in order to restore the ecological footprint. For this reason, the main goal of this article is to reflect about t...

How to Improve Sustainability Competences of Teacher Training? Inquiring the Prior Knowledge on Climate Change in Primary School Students

Carmen Solís-Espallargas, Hortensia Morón-Monge · 2020 · Sustainability · 26 citations

The work is carried out in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal 13 Climate Action with prospective primary school teachers. The study presented is part of the science education subject ...

Reading Guide

Foundational Papers

Start with Albareda-Tiana and Gonzalvo-Cirac (2013, 19 citations) for sustainability competency compilation in higher ed; Ull et al. (2014, 18 citations) for faculty attitudes baseline.

Recent Advances

Study Pegalajar Palomino et al. (2022, 51 citations) on ESD social responsibility; Solís-Espallargas and Morón-Monge (2020) on climate knowledge in trainees.

Core Methods

Questionnaire validation for competencies (Álvarez-García et al., 2017); systematic reviews of teacher curricula (Pegalajar Palomino et al., 2022); empirical preconception surveys (Ull et al., 2014).

How PapersFlow Helps You Research Sustainability in Higher Education

Discover & Search

Research Agent uses searchPapers and exaSearch to query 'sustainability competencies teacher training Spain', retrieving Vega-Marcote et al. (2015) as top result with 60 citations. citationGraph maps connections to Pegalajar Palomino et al. (2022), while findSimilarPapers uncovers related Bolivian studies like Litzner Ordóñez and Rieß (2019).

Analyze & Verify

Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to extract competency evaluation methods from Álvarez-García et al. (2017), then verifyResponse with CoVe checks claims against full texts. runPythonAnalysis processes citation data via pandas for trends in 10+ papers; GRADE grading scores evidence strength in faculty attitude studies (Ull et al., 2014).

Synthesize & Write

Synthesis Agent detects gaps in competency assessment across Spanish universities, flagging contradictions between pre-2015 (Albareda-Tiana and Gonzalvo-Cirac, 2013) and recent works. Writing Agent uses latexEditText and latexSyncCitations to draft reviews, latexCompile for PDF output, and exportMermaid for curriculum integration flowcharts.

Use Cases

"Analyze prior knowledge on climate change in primary teacher trainees Spain"

Research Agent → searchPapers → Analysis Agent → runPythonAnalysis (pandas on survey data from Solís-Espallargas and Morón-Monge, 2020) → statistical summary of competency gaps with matplotlib plots.

"Draft LaTeX review on ESD in Bolivian universities"

Research Agent → citationGraph on Litzner Ordóñez and Rieß (2019) → Synthesis Agent → gap detection → Writing Agent → latexEditText + latexSyncCitations + latexCompile → camera-ready review PDF.

"Find code for sustainability competency evaluation tools"

Research Agent → paperExtractUrls → Code Discovery → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect → executable R or Python scripts for carbon footprint calculators linked to higher ed studies.

Automated Workflows

Deep Research workflow conducts systematic review of 20+ papers on teacher ESD competencies: searchPapers → citationGraph → DeepScan 7-step analysis → GRADE-scored report. DeepScan verifies faculty perception claims (Ull et al., 2014) with CoVe checkpoints across abstracts and full texts. Theorizer generates hypotheses on scaling sustainability curricula from transdisciplinary reviews (Hernández-Aguilar et al., 2020).

Try Doxa for Sustainability in Higher Education Research

Frequently Asked Questions

What defines Sustainability in Higher Education?

It covers embedding sustainability into curricula, operations, and research, assessing carbon footprints and student green initiatives (Albareda-Tiana and Gonzalvo-Cirac, 2013).

What methods assess sustainability competencies?

Validated questionnaires measure pre-post environmental competencies in teacher training (Álvarez-García et al., 2017); systematic reviews compile generic skills (Pegalajar Palomino et al., 2022).

What are key papers?

Vega-Marcote et al. (2015, 60 citations) on sustainable competencies; Litzner Ordóñez and Rieß (2019, 28 citations) on Bolivian university ESD perceptions.

What open problems exist?

Standardizing competency tools across institutions; overcoming faculty resistance (Ull et al., 2014); integrating ESD in secondary science masters (Calero et al., 2019).