In fall 2024, we have arrived at the final stages of our research to improve education for sustainable development and global education in pre-service teacher training in the V4 countries. In addition to the analysis of relevant documents on the topic, our empirical data are obtained from interviews. The main common aspects of the analysis of the recorded interviews are: interpretations of global education and education for sustainable development, strategic objectives, motivational factors, characteristics of institutional procedures, good practices and recommendations worth highlighting. In this report, we focus on the motivational factors identified in the analysis of interviews conducted in Hungarian training institutions (N: 24). The common belief and hope of the interviewees is that it is possible to improve the state of the world. Raising the issue invites them to think in a future-oriented way. The future is associated with a strong sense of worry and a strong impulse to act. This impulse is closely linked to the role of the teacher and that of the intellectual.
Among the motivating factors, many respondents highlighted the love of nature itself. We must recognise that emotional motives also play an important role in this issue. The other key factor is that interviewees already feel the weight of global issues in their own daily lives and their inevitability. This experience not only raises concerns for the future, but is also a powerful catalyst for a sense of responsibility and for a drive to act for the next generation. Respondents typically formulated their options for action in terms of their professional role, based on a strong identification with the role of teacher and intellectual. The motives associated with the teaching role are, on the one hand, the desire to share knowledge; on the other hand, identification with the professional tasks of identifying problems and finding solutions; and, finally, identification with the teaching role as a role model. In addition to the love of nature, the fear of the future and the will to do something, professional interest is also a specific motive, and the opportunity to work with colleagues is a related motive. At the institutional level, too, an important motive is the expansion of opportunities for cooperation and the commitment to funding activities that fit the institutional opportunities and professional profile, in addition to the expansion of resources.
Some point out that the university is really a kind of ivory tower where we also live in bubbles of opinion. However, as long as we only contact and educate people who are already interested in and more or less committed to the subject, we will not be able to have a sufficient social impact. The dilemma may therefore be to what extent global responsibility and sustainability should be a voluntary, optional learning option, and to what extent compulsory learning about it can be justified. It may seem an administrative motive that the output standards of pre-service teacher training must obviously be met. However, if sustainability and some areas of global education are not explicitly included in curricula, it is difficult to expect this approach and content to be fully reflected at system level. This international research collaboration will also help to integrate sustainability and global education into pre-service teacher training, for example by providing opportunities to learn from each others’ experiences and to disseminate identified good practices.
written by: Zsuzsanna Huszár, Tamás Béres, Ferenc Mónus, Judit Saád
translated by Agapé Szkárosi