A Holistic Approach to Education for Sustainability: Ecofeminism as a Tool to Enhance Sustainability Attitudes in Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

To achieve an effective Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), teachers should possess appropriate sustainability attitudes to transmit those values to their future students. In this article, a holistic educational intervention around the ecofeminist movement is described and its impact on the sustainability attitudes of 188 pre-service teachers is assessed. The quantitative results with a validated questionnaire reveal an initial high level of sustainability awareness and a statistically significant increase in the environmental dimension after the educational intervention. In addition, the qualitative analysis of the stories and activities for children prepared by the students in a process of didactic transposition confirms their ability to effectively integrate different competencies around a topic. Due to their status as future educators in the early stages of the system, pre-service teachers are relevant to disseminate a holistic view of ESD and we can conclude that ecofeminism is a thematic node that integrates key concept and attitudinal content to achieve that goal.