Integrating Green Citizenship in Higher Education Curricula:The Case of a Transversal and Interdisciplinary Course onEnvironmental Communication and Sustainability
Jul 2026· Journal of education and science· Vol 53, pp. 61-78· 0 citations· 35 references
Abstract
The increasing urgency of addressing environmental challenges and the vital role of higher education in cultivating active green citizenship represent two key arguments supporting the necessity of innovative curriculum approaches with broad student accessibility. Across the globe, leading international organizations have emphasized the critical importance of environmental education as a fundamental driver for achieving sustainable development, going beyond specialized courses to become a transversal component of university curricula. However, many higher education institutions still lack accessible and interdisciplinary course offerings that address green citizenship in a competence-based and practice-oriented approach, especially for students from varied educational backgrounds. Our paper presents a case study of the design, implementation, and evaluation of a transversal university course that responds directly to this gap, aimed at cultivating green citizenship among students across all faculties from the West University of Timișoara, Romania. The course is aligned with international commitments such as the UN’s 2030 Agenda, aiming to develop environmentally conscious graduates prepared to engage critically in ecological and civic challenges. Drawing on an interdisciplinary pedagogical framework that combines communication science — particularly media literacy and media content production — with environmental science, the course integrates theoretical knowledge with practical applications. Social media platforms are employed as a key pedagogical tool, enabling experiential learning through content creation, public engagement, and critical reflection on digital environmental communication. The course aims to empower students to better understand the urgent challenges currently facing the environment, as well as to equip them with the necessary skills to become proactive in addressing them.
The growing acceleration of socio-ecological crises has increased demands for higher education to move beyond disciplinary teaching toward competence-based sustainability education. In science teacher education, this shift requires not only aligning curricula with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but also developing transformative sustainability competencies. This review analyzes the relationship between UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) learning objectives and the European GreenComp framework, exploring their integration into science education programs. Based on a qualitative thematic review of 65 publications published between 2015 and 2025, the study identifies a strong emphasis on normative and methodological aspects of sustainability education, while critical-political perspectives and futures literacy remain less represented. The paper proposes an integrative model built around three interconnected dimensions: SDG-oriented learning objectives, sustainability competences, and a critical socio-ecological perspective. The findings indicate that effective curriculum design in science teacher education must combine content-oriented and competence-oriented approaches. UNESCO’s ESD objectives provide socio-environmental relevance and normative guidance, whereas GreenComp contributes systems thinking, anticipatory competences, and action-oriented learning. However, the review warns that sustainability education risks remaining functional rather than transformative unless issues of power, inequality, and socio-ecological justice are explicitly addressed.
I. M. Muñoz-García, Alicia Jurado-López, Jorge Pozuelo-Muñoz et al.· Sustainability· 0 citations
New social contracts for education, such as those promoted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Dublin Declaration on Global Education to 2050, outline the need to prepare student teachers to be change agents who can help address growing global challenges, using innovative Global Citizenship Education (GCE) approaches. To create and offer their students experimental learning opportunities on how to deal with these challenges, student teachers need to develop global sensitivity and position themselves to think globally, act locally and reflect “glocally”. While various models have been developed to describe these competencies in teacher education, research about their effectiveness is still emerging. The study presented in this article outlines the formal evaluation of an Erasmus+ project on developing global sensitivity in 301 student teachers (187 female, 114 male) from five partner universities. The project developed an interculturally sensitive teacher training concept designed to facilitate an international virtual exchange between the student teachers. It included four key elements: content introduction, lesson planning, international virtual dialogues and reflection. The findings illustrate how the student teachers transferred GCE perspectives into their own teaching practice and outline associated qualification affordances. They also show how didactical arrangements such as international dialogues about “hot topics” influenced the student teachers’ global knowledge, values and dispositions to (at least potentially) better address the pedagogic challenges of teaching global citizenship. Conceptual ideas and empirical results on didactic challenges in the university context are thus reported to stimulate further debate on future GCE implementation in higher education.
Claudia Bergmüller-Hauptmann, Gregor Lang-Wojtasik, M. Hitzelberger· International Review of Educ...· 0 citations
Sustainable development is a defining challenge of the 21st century, requiring the holistic integration of environmental, social, and economic dimensions. While Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have made strides in operational green campus initiatives, a significant disparity remains regarding curricular depth and the systematic integration of Climate Change Education (CCE). This study investigates the current state of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Malaysia and proposes a framework for a Holistic Green Curriculum. The research utilized a two-part methodology; an analysis of ESD subjects and learning outcomes across 10 different Malaysian universities, followed by participatory research with experts to develop innovative strategies for holistic green curriculum for ESD. Findings indicate that most investigated HEIs relegate sustainability to general core subjects, often lacking explicit CCE components. This frequently results in a superficial understanding of sustainability, particularly regarding social and economic pillars. To bridge this gap, the study proposes a tripartite model for a Holistic Green Curriculum. The first component, Learning Outcomes, aligns with international policies and encompass cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains across all sustainability dimensions. The second component, Learning Approaches, advocates for student-centered, experiential, and indigenous-knowledge-based pedagogy. The third component, Learning Environment, emphasizes expanding education beyond the classroom through site visits, sustainability campaigns, and the strategic use of AI. This shift is essential for cultivating climate-ready graduates capable of navigating the global climate crisis.
B. Balakrishnan, Muhammad Fadhil Wong Abdullah, C. Ugap· International journal of res...· 0 citations
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has become a strategic priority for higher education institutions seeking to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and values required to address increasingly complex environmental, social, and economic challenges. In Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as Vanuatu, where communities are highly vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards, higher education plays a critical role in developing national resilience and supporting sustainable development. Despite growing policy commitments to sustainability, little empirical evidence exists regarding the readiness of higher education lecturers to integrate ESD into their teaching. This study was conducted to investigate lecturers' readiness to integrate Education for Sustainable Development into higher education in Vanuatu. The study adopted an exploratory mixed-methods design using a structured questionnaire comprising Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Invitations were sent to lecturers across three higher education institutions; responses were received from the National University of Vanuatu (NUV), the Vanuatu Agriculture College (VAC), and the University of the South Pacific (USP) - Vanuatu Campus. The final sample comprised seventeen lecturers. The data were analysed quantitative data using descriptive statistics and Cronbach's alpha for reliability, while the study examined qualitative responses through thematic analysis. The findings indicate that lecturers generally recognise the importance of ESD and demonstrate positive attitudes towards embedding sustainability within higher education curricula. Participants acknowledged the relevance of sustainability across disciplines and expressed willingness to incorporate ESD principles into their teaching. However, the study found that readiness was constrained by several interrelated challenges, including limited professional development opportunities, insufficient teaching resources, curriculum rigidity, competing academic priorities, and inconsistent institutional support. Respondents also highlighted the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge (kastom), community engagement, and locally relevant sustainability issues into curriculum design, reflecting the unique environmental and cultural context of Vanuatu. The study concludes that strengthening lecturer readiness requires coordinated institutional leadership, continuous professional learning, curriculum reform, and enhanced investment in sustainability education. By providing one of the first empirical investigations of lecturer readiness for ESD in Vanuatu's higher education sector, this research contributes context-specific evidence to the growing body of literature on sustainability education in Small Island Developing States and offers practical recommendations for higher education institutions seeking to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education.
Kushima Authelsingh· International Journal of Rec...· 0 citations
The case study investigates how diversity management can be strategically embedded within international higher education initiatives advancing students’ capacity to develop innovative that promote solutions social responsibility. Adopting the Higher Education Awareness of Diversity (HEAD Wheel) framework, it analyses a transnational Erasmus+ summer school programme carried out within the Erasmus+ KA2 project Critical Incidents in Intercultural Communication and Promoting Diversity (CIICPD), and explores how language and intercultural communication programmes can leverage cross-border cooperation to build students’ intercultural competence and social responsibility. Five European institutions collaborated on sustainability-focused student team projects that addressed campus greening student initiatives proposed and developed through international teamwork. Using a mixed-methods design including document analysis, critical incident narratives, and student reflections, the study examines how multiple dimensions of diversity – demographic, disciplinary, cognitive, functional, and institutional – shape learning in interdisciplinary, cross-border contexts. The Green University project, thus, showcases a scalable pedagogical model integrating diversity awareness with sustainability-oriented curriculum design. Students developed locally adaptable environmental solutions while strengthening intercultural communication, collaborative problem solving, and global social responsibility. Although context-specific, this study suggests a transferable pedagogical approach advancing internationalisation through inclusive, experiential, and impact-driven learning aligned with the Erasmus+ priorities and HEIs’ third mission goals. As such, it offers a novel and impact-driven framework for integrating diversity management with sustainability education in HE. The context-dependent nature of this single case study, however, should be acknowledged, as the programme's hybrid implementation, necessitated by the COVID-19 restrictions, may have partially influenced the interaction dynamics on which the findings are based.
Dagmar Sieglová, Martina Gaisch, Lenka Stejskalová· Journal of Intercultural Com...· 0 citations
This article critically examines Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within teacher education, considering its alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. Adopting a theoretical-critical approach, this study is based on a critical narrative review of national and international publications from 2015 to 2024, combined with thematic analysis. Forty-two works were selected from databases including Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal interrelated gaps across multiple dimensions that hinder the effective implementation of ESD. Conceptually, an anthropocentric and economistic bias predominates, accompanied by a lack of epistemological reflection on alternative frameworks such as planetary health. In the pedagogical dimension, behaviorist approaches emphasize individual actions without critically addressing socioeconomic structures, thereby weakening interdisciplinarity. Institutionally, resistance persists toward breaking with rigid disciplinary curricula, alongside insufficient support for transdisciplinary practices. Politically, the study identifies a disconnect between Brazil’s National Common Curricular Base (Base Nacional Comum Curricular — BNCC) and the effective integration of environmental themes, as well as the hegemony of a competency-based neoliberal logic that depoliticizes education. These gaps are particularly evident in teacher education, which lacks robust curricular components and adequate professional development opportunities. Critical environmental education emerges as a transformative perspective by fostering ecological awareness and socio-environmental justice. The study concludes that overcoming these challenges requires strengthening critical, interdisciplinary, and territorially contextualized training practices that integrate scientific, social, and ethical-political knowledge, thereby preparing educators to transform the structures that perpetuate the socio-environmental crisis.
J. Gomes-Figueiredo, Janete do Rosário Amaro Crisanto· Revista Brasileira de Ciênci...· 0 citations
We use cookies to run the site and, with your consent, for analytics and to show ads.
See our Cookie Policy.
