Early Gains, Uneven Growth: Four‐Wave Longitudinal Evidence on Sustainability Identity in Teacher Education
Abstract
Preparing future teachers to support progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires more than simply strengthening their sustainability knowledge. It is also crucial to understand how sustainability‐related values and perceived responsibilities are integrated into their developing identities. Since teachers can influence how future generations engage with social, environmental, economic, institutional, and global sustainability challenges, examining the development of SDG‐focused identities among prospective teachers during their initial training is essential for understanding the educational foundations of sustainable transitions. This study investigated how sustainability identity develops among prospective teachers throughout their undergraduate teacher education. The Global Goals Identity Scale (G 2 IS) was developed and validated using data from 701 prospective teachers to assess five interrelated dimensions: social inclusion (SI), environmental protection (EP), economic growth (EG), justice and institutions (JI), and global solidarity (GS). Subsequently, a four‐wave panel of 650 prospective teachers was followed for four consecutive years. Longitudinal findings revealed that SI, EG, JI, and GS increased between the first and second measurement periods and then remained stable, while EP showed little change over time. SI occupied a central position in the proposed structural model; furthermore, the negative conditional relationship between JI and EP highlighted the need to consider potential tensions between different dimensions of sustainability identity and revealed that this relationship did not evolve uniformly. The findings from the research suggest that significant changes in SDG‐focused identity may occur early in teacher education, but ongoing development in sustainability dimensions may require continuous and explicit curriculum, pedagogical, and institutional support.