Barriers and Facilitators of Educational Sustainability: Metaphorical Perceptions and Views of Teachers

Abstract

According to UNESCO, educational sustainability is an integral part of education. It requires participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviours and act for sustainable development for lifelong learning to provide a quality system. This study aimed to reveal metaphors, barriers, and facilitators on educational sustainability based on the teachers’ views. To this end, the study adopted a phenomenological research design. The participants, selected through purposeful criterion sampling, were teachers and data came from semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that (a) educational sustainability was perceived metaphorically as continuity, order, executive action, resilience, and goal orientation; (b) the education policies, stakeholders, management style, environment, and change were barriers to educational sustainability; (c) education system, improvement of administrative processes, building a future-oriented structure, increasing quality, breaking the influence of politics in education, following the developments and considering common values should be carried out to eliminate these barriers; and (d) educational policies, creating opportunities, and administrative actions were both facilitators and practices to increase these facilitators for educational sustainability.