The growing acceleration of socio-ecological crises has increased demands for higher education to move beyond disciplinary teaching toward competence-based sustainability education. In science teacher education, this shift requires not only aligning curricula with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but also developing transformative sustainability competencies. This review analyzes the relationship between UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) learning objectives and the European GreenComp framework, exploring their integration into science education programs. Based on a qualitative thematic review of 65 publications published between 2015 and 2025, the study identifies a strong emphasis on normative and methodological aspects of sustainability education, while critical-political perspectives and futures literacy remain less represented. The paper proposes an integrative model built around three interconnected dimensions: SDG-oriented learning objectives, sustainability competences, and a critical socio-ecological perspective. The findings indicate that effective curriculum design in science teacher education must combine content-oriented and competence-oriented approaches. UNESCO’s ESD objectives provide socio-environmental relevance and normative guidance, whereas GreenComp contributes systems thinking, anticipatory competences, and action-oriented learning. However, the review warns that sustainability education risks remaining functional rather than transformative unless issues of power, inequality, and socio-ecological justice are explicitly addressed.
Muñoz-García et al. (Thu,) studied this question.