Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development at university level requires transformative education approaches that must be promoted by teachers as part of their practical activities. These approaches should engage learners in participatory, systemic, creative and innovative thinking and action processes in the context of local communities. Ocean i³ is an interdisciplinary, crossborder and intercultural learning environment that was created to respond to the plastic pollution problem along the Basque-Neoaquitaine coastline. The aim of this work is to understand the meaning that university teaching staff attach to the elements that make Ocean i³ a transformative environment in which education for sustainable development is promoted. The methodological approach is qualitative in nature, aimed at seeking the meaning and sense that Ocean i³ provides for teachers. Twenty-three people participated through interviews, and focus group. The analytical procedure consisted in an inductive content analysis. The results reveal that the teaching staff perceive Ocean i³ as a transformative education environment for university students due to its interdisciplinary approach, the challenge-based teaching methodology, the continuous collaboration with external agents related to the socioeconomic fabric of the region, the use of alternative spaces where academics can carry out educational activities, as well as the use of translanguaging to promote multilingual communication in the Ocean i³ community in a natural way. The complexity of the Ocean i³ environment induces teachers to learn to reinvent themselves so they can drive transformative education for sustainable development.

Keywords

References

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