Advancing sustainability through teacher educators

Kimberly Hannah Siacor; Dominik E. Froehlich

doi:10.21240/zfhe/21-1/14

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) plays a vital role in addressing global challenges. This paper adapts Vukelić’s Teacher Action Competence in ESD model to teacher educators, focusing on key dimensions: transdisciplinary thinking and leadership in institutional transformation, value ESD, ascription of responsibility, self-efficacy, and intention to implement ESD. It emphasizes self-efficacy as a key factor in translating sustainability competencies into instructional practice. By modelling action competence, teacher educators influence teachers’ engagement with sustainability and instructional practice. Implications for higher education institutions and theory are discussed.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

At a time when challenges such as social inequality, environmental degradation and climate change are becoming increasingly acute, higher education institutions have a responsibility to contribute to addressing these issues. Especially in times of crisis, when many new courses must be set, it is crucial that universities enable students to anticipate the future independently and reflectively. Teacher training must also equip teachers with the appropriate skills and willingness to initiate change towards a sustainable and just future. Challenges of the kind described above can be conceptually summarised under the term "epoch-typical key problems". When it comes to critically and reflectively examining these challenges within the framework of higher education institutions and thereby making them transformable, the concept of transformative learning (TL) plays a key role. TL can – according to its claim – make an educational contribution to a socio-ecological transformation of society that strives for a good life for all.

Authors

Kimberly Hannah Siacor
Universität Wien
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8235-8481
Dominik E. Froehlich
Universität Wien
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9991-2784

How to Cite

Siacor, K. H., & Froehlich, D. E. (2026). Advancing sustainability through teacher educators. Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung (Journal for Higher Education Development), 21(1), 279–295. https://doi.org/10.21240/zfhe/21-1/14

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