We find ourselves in an era marked by complex global challenges intertwined with local social-ecological issues. The challenge facing teacher education today is to prepare future teachers with the socio-ecological knowledge, skills, attitudes and values essential for sustainable living by reorienting current unsustainable ways of thinking and doing. 

The Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme aimed to strengthen the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development in teacher education institutes and prepare future teachers to teach sustainability across the curriculum, using a whole-school approach that involves the entire school community and facilities in sustainable practices. Teacher educators from 11 southern African countries participated in UNESCO’s Sustainability Starts with Teachers (SST) capacity-building programme that initially kicked off in 2019. A total of 180 Higher Education Institutes from Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated in the project.

This resource book developed for the Education for Sustainability – Change Projects in Southern Africa, shares examples of innovative curriculum transformation in teacher education by foregrounding the critical role of an ESD change project approach.

To read more about this publication and the SST work, access the full article here: https://sustainabilityteachers.org/resource-book/