Home economics teachers’ endeavours to engage students in sustainability thinking through clothing and fashion: a transformational teaching approach

Abstract

In home economics education, sustainable food education has gained scholarly attention, but other topics and methods for promoting sustainable lifestyles are less explored. We conducted interviews with Finnish home economics teachers, focusing on how they prioritise sustainability and the methods they use in their teaching. We analysed interviews by employing a transformational teaching strategy lens to understand how teachers attempt to foster meaningful changes in students’ engagement with and actions regarding sustainability. Our study shows that the teachers used clothing and fashion as a tool to enhance 13–16-year-old students’ engagement with learning sustainability. Teachers are widely integrating sustainability education into their lessons by covering topics like fast fashion, ethical issues within the clothing industry, and textile care. We argue that, when teachers include topics of interest to young people, such as clothing, and employ teaching strategies that engage students, teachers promote students’ understanding of sustainable lifestyles.