Learning to Teach Sustainability: Insights from a Transdisciplinary, Local and Authentic Project

There is increasing recognition of the need to integrate sustainability education (SE) into school curricula, and assessments such as PISA 2025 emphasise the importance of pupils’ ability to apply sustainability knowledge in authentic contexts. Because sustain-ability issues require social, environmental, and economic perspectives, transdisciplinary real-world approaches are recommended. However, many teachers find SE challenging, and initial teacher education (ITE) students often feel unprepared. This study investigates how a transdisciplinary approach can prepare students for sustainability teaching. Fifty-four fourth-year students participated in a two-week transdisciplinary sustainability project. Working in groups, they explored a self-selected local sustainability issue, engaged with community actors, and proposed solutions. The data consist of individual reflection notes describing how the project supported their understanding of transdisciplinarity, authenticity, subject integration, and teacher preparedness, which were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the project strengthened students’ preparedness for sustainability teaching and, through transdisciplinary approaches, offered a concrete model of best practice for SE. Engagement with authentic, local issues fostered emotional involvement, relevance, and deeper understanding, while collaborative work enhanced insight into distinct disciplinary perspectives on SE. Students further emphasised the need for clear subject expectations and strong pedagogical framing.