Empowering the Next Generation: Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future

Dear Colleagues,

The last decade has seen the emergence of various programmes in Environmental Education, in both formal and informal contexts, dedicated to integrating systemic thinking, social interactions and ecological principles, and their success has generated initiatives to develop modified curricula (Jensen et al., 2019). The literature reveals that educators who implement new resources and strategies can promote good practices in the area of sustainability, stimulating hope and action among their students (e.g. Novo et al., 2015). Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires social innovation, that is, changes in society's attitudes and behaviours to ensure the sustainability of life on Earth (Vasconcelos and Orion, 2021). In this sense, attitudinal changes are vital, and this is where Environmental Education can play a crucial role, raising not only literacy and awareness, but also promoting critical thinking and the active participation of students (Borges and Benayas, 2019). Therefore, this monograph is open to the participation of teachers, professors and researchers in early childhood education, primary education, secondary education or at universities who carry out their research work in Environmental Education.

Manuscripts with the following foci are welcome:

• Educational innovations, in formal and informal contexts, focused on Environmental Education and/or a rigorous evaluation of their impact.
• Articles of a theoretical or empirical nature that advance the theoretical and practical development of Environmental Education.
• Systematic reviews that collect knowledge obtained on a specific topic related to Environmental Education.

References

Borges, F.; Benayas, J. Research in EE and ESD in Portuguese public universities. Int. J. Sustain. High. Educ. 2019, 20, 57–74.

Jensen, C.D.; Kotaish, M.; Chopra, A.; Jacob, K.A.;Widekar, T.I.; Alam, R. Piloting a Methodology for Sustainability Education: Project Examples and Exploratory Action Research Highlights. Emerg. Sci. J. 2019, 3, 312–326.

Novo, M.; Menoyo, M.; Ángeles, M. The Processes of Integrating Sustainability in Higher Education Curricula: A Theoretical-Practical Experience Regarding Key Competences and Their Cross-Curricular Incorporation into Degree Courses; World Sustainability Series; Springer Science and Business Media LLC: Cham, Switzerland, 2015; pp. 119–135.

Vasconcelos, C.; Orion, N. Earth Science Education as a Key Component of Education for Sustainability. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1316.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. María Mercedes Vázquez Vílchez
Dr. Abigail López-Alcarria
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• education for sustainable development
• environmental citizenship
• environmental education
• SDGs