TRANSFORMING TEACHER EDUCATORS FOR RE-ORIENTING TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Year 2017, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 28 - 53, 30.12.2017

Munawar Sultana Mirza

Abstract

All nations of the world have together realized that
the existence of the present and future generations is bound with development
that is essentially  sustainable. That is why they have ratified the Post 2015
Agenda labelled as Sustainable Development Goals. They have also ratified the
Global Action Program on ESD and the Incheon Declaration 2015: Vision 2030 that
has committed to SDG 4 on education. Both, the GAP and Incheon have prioritized
on ‘building capacities of educators
and trainers to enable them to more effectively deliver ESD’. The
present study was conducted to explore the perceptions of teacher educators
(TEs) about sustainable development, issues threatening sustainable
development  (SD) at the global and
national level, perceived role of teacher education in SD, the possible
curricular spaces for SD and the perceived barriers for doing so. Questionnaire
developed for the study was distributed to 108 teacher educators of nine TEIS.
The TEs were found much below the satisfactory level on knowledge and
understanding of the concepts and issues hindering the sustainable development.
All except five TEs were teaching the traditional education and pedagogical
subjects where they do not perceive much relevance of SD concepts. They also feel
that they neither have time and authority to modify the curricula nor they have
administrative and institutional support to do so. The study warrants special
efforts at the level of Higher Education Commission to disseminate the relevant
UN declarations and order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for implementation
analyze curricula of TE programs for including ESD and undertake capacity
building activities for the teacher educators. 

Keywords

Sustainable development, sustainable development goals, education for sustainable development, teacher educators

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