A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Operational principles for fostering transformative qualities and capacities in higher education sustainability science and practice




AuthorsFagerholm, Nora; Coles, Neil; Beery, Thomas; Torralba, Mario; Hakkarainen, Viola; Albert, Christian; Andersson, Erik; Bergström, Ryan; Bieling, Claudia; Gentin, Sandra; Klonner, Carolin; Stahl Olafsson, Anton; Raymond, Christopher; Rouhiainen, Henna; Wamsler, Christine

PublisherSpringer Nature

Publication year2025

Journal:Sustainability Science

ISSN1862-4065

eISSN1862-4057

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-025-01746-z

Web address https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-025-01746-z

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/505082391


Abstract

Education for sustainability is widely recognised as a critical pathway for driving the transformations needed to address today’s polycrisis. Despite growing theoretical and conceptual advancements in sustainability education, current approaches have not achieved the deep systemic changes required. While university networks and individual institutions increasingly integrate sustainability into their education, concerns persist that transformative learning agendas often remain superficial. In particular, they frequently fail to equip learners with the emotional resilience and skills necessary to engage effectively with complex global challenges, as well as educators with the pedagogical framework to facilitate such learning. This article emphasises the need to advance transformative learning in sustainability science and practice in higher education by addressing the inner dimensions of sustainability: our individual and collective values, beliefs, worldviews, and associated transformative qualities and capacities. This means targeting deep leverage points and meaningful change by supporting more relational approaches, including an integrated inner–outer change in being, thinking, and acting. We provide seven operational principles for supporting the inner–outer transformation towards sustainability in learning and teaching sustainability science and practice, especially in geography and related fields. These principles highlight the importance of nurturing five clusters of transformative qualities and capacities—awareness, connection, insight, purpose, and agency—guided by relational approaches required to support profound and integrative learning experiences. We provide concrete examples of how to implement these principles. The proposed principles aim to inspire educators and learners to deeply engage with sustainability challenges to contribute to transformative change across individual, collective, and system levels.


Downloadable publication

This is an electronic reprint of the original article.
This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail. Please cite the original version.




Funding information in the publication
The authors acknowledge funding from their respective countries/institutions as follows: N.F.: European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme project CHARTER (grant no. 869471) and the Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Research Council of Finland MUST project (grant no. 358365, WP3 grant number 358368). C.W.: Swedish Research Council Formas: (i) project Mind4Change (grant number 2019-00390), and (ii) project TransVision (grant number 2019-01969). C.K.: Academy of Finland (GreenPlace Project, Academy Research Fellow, grant number 321555). H.R.: the Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Research Council of Finland BIODIFUL project (grant no. 364367).
Open Access funding provided by University of Turku (including Turku University Central Hospital).


Last updated on 2025-03-11 at 07:57