Curricular and pedagogical insights from higher education on eco-social transitions and climate change education: mapping student frames to design for agency, justice, and action

This article seeks to contribute to understanding how eco-social education in higher education affects how eco-social transitions are understood and problematized by higher education students. Despite recognizing the importance of current discussions on eco-social education, aimed at overcoming the focus on the formative function of higher education institutions through the introduction of active methodologies and the reformulation of university practices toward a transformative agenda, there are questions as to whether the current circumstances of eco-social education in the formative-curricular sphere provide an adequate scenario for these pragmatic approaches. For this purpose, this study takes the senior students at the University of the Basque Country as a case study, examining their perception of eco-social transitions using innovative methods such as the Grid Elaboration Method and automatic text analysis through the IRAMUTEQ program. We ask ourselves whether students’ perceptions are consistent with a view of transitions that transcend hegemony or whether, on the contrary, they strengthen it. The study reveals that students value aspects related to the environment, technology, and gender issues. There is evidence of robust environmental awareness and an inclination toward adopting sustainable technologies. However, they see these principles and values more as abstract horizons than as integral components of transition processes. The diagnosis concludes that eco-social transition is perceived from a hegemonic and anthropocentric perspective, focused on economic growth and transformation driven by technological innovation. This diagnosis is of interest for further comparative studies that aim to reconsider the formative-curricular sphere in the field of environmental education at the university level. These findings engage directly with Climate Change Education (CCE) by identifying the curricular and pedagogical factors that enable values to be translated into practice on a larger scale. The study outlines the implications for the design of educational programmes and assessments in higher education, providing actionable evidence for the redesign of CCE curricula at university level.