SustainLANG @NERA konferenssi 2025, Helsinki
SustainLANG-projektin englanninkielinen esitelmä keskiviikkona 5. maaliskuuta klo 13.35-15.15 (Network 19. Teaching and Teacher Education), https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/nera-conference-2025
”Implementation of Sustainable Development in Language Teaching: Language Teachers’ Perspective” (Minna Maijala, Salla-Riikka Kuusalu, Eva Malessa)
Sustainability is now a significant topic across various fields, including language education and research, but its importance in language teaching has not yet been thoroughly explored. Language education offers tremendous potential for implementing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), as the pedagogical processes of language teaching and ESD are complementary to each other, but while researchers have recognised this potential (e.g. de la Fuente, 2021; Kwee, 2021; Maijala et al., 2024), it has yet to be exploited. Studies show that in-service and pre-service language teachers hold positive attitudes towards promoting ESD in language teaching but lack knowledge and skills related to its practical implementation (e.g. Laine et al., 2022 Maijala et al., 2023).
Our study will quantitatively and qualitatively analyse questionnaire data to determine the extent to which Finnish language teachers (N=30) apply ESD in language classes. The goal is to develop a large-scale survey on this basis of this pilot study. We expect that language instructors teach aspects of sustainability without recognising their role in sustainable development. Following prior studies, we also assume that language teachers who incorporate ESD are personally dedicated to the objectives of sustainable development (e.g. Fischer & Hänze, 2020).
The extent to which various aspects of sustainable development are highlighted appears to be influenced by teachers’ knowledge of teaching methods and their perception of their preparedness to teach sustainability topics (Maijala et al., 2023). The results will be relevant to Nordic educational research by increasing knowledge of ESD implementation in Finnish language education and enabling international comparisons.
References
De la Fuente, M. J. (Ed.). (2021). Education for sustainable development in foreign language learning. Routledge.
Fischer, E., & Hänze, M. (2020). How do university teachers’ values and beliefs affect their teaching? Educational Psychology, 40(3), 296–317.
Kwee, C. T. T. (2021). I want to teach sustainable development in my English classroom: A case study of incorporating sustainable development goals in English teaching. Sustainability, 13(8), 4195.
Laine, P., Kuusalu, S.-R., Maijala, M., & Mutta, M. (2022). Kestävä kehitys kieltenopetuksessa: Kieliaineiden opettajaopiskelijoiden käsityksiä kestävyysaiheista kielten oppitunneilla. In T. Seppälä, S. Lesonen, P. Iikkanen, & S. D’hondt (Eds.), Kieli, muutos ja yhteiskunta—Language, Change and Society. AFinLA Yearbook 2022 (pp. 109–132). Jyväskylä.
Maijala, Minna, Gericke, Niklas, Kuusalu, Salla-Riikka, Heikkola, Leena Maria, Mutta, Maarit, Mäntylä, Katja & Rose, Judi (2024). Conceptualising transformative language teaching for sustainability and why it is needed. Environmental Education Research, 30(3), 377–396, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2023.2167941
Maijala, M., Laine, P., Mutta, M., & Kuusalu, S.-R. (2023). Kestävä kehitys yliopistojen kieltenopetuksessa [Sustainable language teaching at university]. Yliopistopedagogiikka, (2)2023. https://lehti.yliopistopedagogiikka.fi/2023/12/22/kestava-kehitys-yliopistojen-kieltenopetuksessa/