Heritage sustainability in the training of future primary school teachers: commitment and future practice

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are increasingly present in the training of future teachers as one of the most urgent goals of the 2030 Agenda, however, this broad concept does not allow us to work on the specific nature of its goals. From the point of view of social sciences teaching and, specifically, heritage education, we wonder whether future teachers receive adequate training in this regard, whether they know what these goals are and what each of them entails. At a more specific level, we also asked what they know about the sustainability of heritage, what their social commitment is and what strategies they plan to use in their future teaching practice. Under these approaches, the research was a quantitative investigation about the sustainability of heritage in the Degree in Teaching in Primary Education of the Faculty of Education of Zaragoza, with a total of n=234 students. In order to know to what degree this content is present in their training, to what degree they consider that it is related to social sciences and what teaching and learning strategies they find most appropriate to apply in the classroom. The main results show that the SDGs are present in all educational stages, but that they are still far from the desirable levels. After the application of the questionnaire, the students show an increase in the degree of awareness of the repercussions of their actions on the deterioration of heritage. And finally, from an educational point of view, a lively commitment as agents of change is perceived; among their priorities for working on the sustainability of heritage, emotional education and the importance of the relational approach stand out.