Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on educational research on Environmental Education

Abstract

The publication of the Sustainable Development Goals has meant a change of direction in Environmental Education, mainly because they raise environmental problems from different spheres (social, economic, cultural or religious), that is, from a holistic and multidimensional perspective. Therefore, a transformation in educational research and classroom practice on Environmental Education is to be expected. This study aims to know what and how Environmental Education has been addressed in high-impact national and international educational research since the publication of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2021). To this end, a review of 715 articles in journals in the field of Didactics of Experimental Sciences and Social Justice was carried out. These articles were categorized according to the terms used to identify the sample and the type of study. The results show, firstly, a predominance of the term Environmental Education in the publications, as opposed to others that make explicit, to a greater extent, the multidisciplinary vision of this, such as Environmental Justice. Secondly, the high presence of intervention studies compared to other types of work (perceptions, reflection, or bibliographic review) among the publications analysed stands out. With the results obtained, it could be considered, on the one hand, that educational research in Environmental Education and its social dimension continue to be distanced; and on the other, that such research is migrating from a theoretical approach to one of application.