The review article presents an analysis of the literature on environmental literacy in sustainable development. By utilizing techniques to examine multiple documents published between 2013 and 2023, including citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, subject area analysis, and keyword analysis, this study aims to provide valuable information and…

Purpose: Higher educational institutions, such as universities of applied sciences, have a significant role in promoting progress towards a sustainable future as defined by the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper aims to identify how the UN SDGs are featured in master's theses set in work-life contexts.…

The field of higher education (HE) is characterized by diversity stemming from multiple sources. Diversity results in boundaries that carry the potential to promote personal and professional development for HE students. Boundaries also offer the possibility of learning generic skills and planning and carrying out challenging tasks that require…

Critical thinking as a concept, has a rich history and is central to much of the debate within international educational research and increasingly within environmental and sustainability education (ESE). Currently, it is gaining a foothold in the curriculum and in practice in Nordic countries. However, to date, there has been no proper account of…

Sustainability action at universities is complex and requires engaging multiple competences that reside on different levels outside and inside the organisation. In addition to individual competences, social communities also possess collective resources and characteristics that do not translate into a sum of individual abilities. Based on a…

The aim of this study was to obtain knowledge on sustainability competences in the context of guidebooks for primary school teachers of environmental education. A two-step content analysis of Finnish primary-level teachers' guidebooks in environmental studies was conducted: First, guidebooks were scanned for content related to sustainability.…

Purpose: Calculating an organization's carbon footprint is crucial for assessing and implementing emission reductions. Although Finnish higher education institutions (HEIs) aim for carbon neutrality by 2030, limited research exists on plans to reach a similar target in any country. This paper aims to address the shared and individual challenges…

Self-regulation in the governance of higher education systems is often assumed to improve institutional performance, accountability, and responsiveness. Although studies of higher education governance have addressed the extent of self-regulation across national systems, there has been less investigation of the links between self-regulation and…

Academic support is an important part of quality education provision in higher education institutions (HEIs). Although many researches discuss about the different approaches and their effectiveness of academic support in retaining students and meeting their diversified needs, there is not so much literature written on the academic support in…

UNESCO has indicated the need for more research to test the effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD). This study analyzes how ESD is included in the Finnish national core curriculum and examines four environmental indicators to determine if a correlation exists between ESD and a cleaner physical environment in Finland. The…

Purpose: This study aims to determine how sustainable development (SD) demands (according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) SD themes from 2005) are connected to the contents of education, research, development and innovation (RDI) in higher education institutions (HEI). Education and the RDI nexus may affect HEI's…

Purpose: This study aims to explore the extent and types of E-Learning used, as method and tool, to support education for sustainable development (ESD); and to understand the coverage of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in massive open online courses (MOOCs). Design/methodology/approach: The study extends the morphological box of ESD in higher…

In the present study, we present a cross-country comparison of the status and condition of sustainable development (SD) in the Nordic physical education (PE) curricula. The aim of the study was to increase knowledge of how SD perspectives are represented and conceptualised in the Nordic PE curricula. An expert-driven research approach was used…

Purpose: This study aims to explore the range of sustainability-related discourses by the stakeholders within a particular Finnish Higher Education Institution (HEI); interaction between the discourses and the context of the HEI; and the extent to which different understandings of sustainability cause challenges for the implementation of the…

Climate change (CC) has widespread impacts on human and natural systems and thus threatens the future of contemporary youths. Only a few studies on climate change education (CCE) have been published in Finland, and no research has been conducted on upper secondary education. Thus, this study investigated Finnish university students' views on CCE…