Browsing by Author "Cockerell, Emelie"

All learners should obtain knowledge about and be able to foster sustainable development, according to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Consequently, teacher education should involve sustainable development so as to meet SDG 4.7. This study aims to identify the incorporation of sustainable development in Finland’s teacher education programmes in order to support the development needed to attain SDG 4.7. Agenda 2030 and the SDGs were created in 2015 to continue to work towards the goals which the Brundtland report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) established; to guarantee that present and future generations can fulfil their needs without jeopardising planet Earth. Therefore, meeting the SDGs and Agenda 2030 are considered of the utmost importance. As such, the incorporation of sustainable development in teacher education worldwide, is considered significant (Stevenson et al., 2015). However, previous research concerning Finland has indicated that sustainable development in teacher education is advised but seldom practiced (Hofman, 2012). As such it is conceivable that large improvements have not yet been made. This study qualitatively examined the eight universities in Finland, which offer teacher education, using content analysis and document analysis. To determine whether each university’s strategy, teacher education programme and courses during 2019-2020, concerning sustainable development, were aligned with one another, Biggs’ theory of constructive alignment was used. The research material consisted of eight universities’ strategies, ten teacher education programme descriptions and 860 course descriptions. The results revealed the majority of teacher education institutions offer merely a handful of courses, which target sustainable development. The findings varied between universities but typically there were only a limited number of compulsory courses and marginally more electives. However, students could pick electives in other subjects which focused on sustainable development. Therefore, the conclusion is that sustainable development is insufficiently integrated into primary teacher education to be able to enable Finland to adequately respond to Agenda 2030 and SDG 4.7.