<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">As students continue to review the sustainability of higher education institutions, there is a growing need to understand the economic returns of degrees as a function of a sustainable institution. This paper reviews a range of international research to summarize the economic drivers of higher education attainment. Although the cost inputs to higher education are fairly well understood, the economic return of a degree is not. Students misperception of economic returns coupled with a dynamic definition of employability create the framework for unsustainable debt loads for graduates. This paper proposes three metrics that can be used to assess the economic sustainability of students graduating higher education that can be used to supplement the broader definition of sustainability within higher education.</abstract>

Is Higher Education Economically Unsustainable? An Exploration of Factors that Undermine Sustainability Assessments of Higher Education

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Sustaining teachers in culturally and linguistically diverse schools has been a prominent issue for years. This qualitative study focused on the impact of an enhanced preparation program on the cultural dispositions of five pre-service mathematics teachers. It is postulated that if positive cultural dispositions are developed in teacher candidates, the possibility of them remaining in cultural school settings is likely. Themes emerged demonstrating that the enhanced program heightened the participants’ awareness of cultural and linguistic differences, as well as, their commitment to impacting academic achievement. Of the five participants, four teach in a culturally and linguistically school after five years in the profession, demonstrating sustainability after participating in the enhanced program.</abstract>

Culturally Responsive Dispositions in Prospective Mathematics Teachers

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Uncertainties and debates regarding the term of sustainable development are still going on, and similarly, the notion of education for sustainable development (ESD) is open to debate. There has been an attempt to make the concept of ESD evident, which is quite challenging. <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_dcse-2016-0014_ref_014_w2aab2b8b9b1b7b1ab1ac14Aa">Palmer (1998)</xref> stated the appropriateness of ESD within environmental education and presented ESD as a new trend for teaching and learning about the environment. In line with these interpretation, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_dcse-2016-0014_ref_016_w2aab2b8b9b1b7b1ab1ac16Aa">Sauvé (2002)</xref> pointed out that ESD seems to emerge as a current issue within environmental education. Contrary to these claims, some researchers do not interpret ESD as an evolution within environmental education. According to <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_dcse-2016-0014_ref_019_w2aab2b8b9b1b7b1ab1ac19Aa">Sterling (2001)</xref>, ESD can be recognized as sustainable education in which there is a movement toward the renewal of education systems and institutions ‘doing better things’ and ‘seeing things differently’. Apart from those qualitatively different interpretations of ESD, in 1998 the Council for Environmental Education published a strategy report (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_dcse-2016-0014_ref_003_w2aab2b8b9b1b7b1ab1ab3Aa">CEE, 1998</xref>) which is particularly significant for teachers. This report specified seven key dimensions regarding ESD, namely: interdependence; citizenship and stewardship; needs and rights of future generations; diversity; quality of life, equity and justice; sustainable change; and uncertainty and precaution in action. This study could provide an analysis of Turkish middle school science textbooks with respect to these key dimensions on ESD. Current evidences showed that these textbooks do not refer to the dimensions of sustainable development sufficiently.</abstract>

Delving Into Key Dimensions of ESD Through Analyses of a Middle School Science Textbook

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The aim of the present paper is to awake awareness of the term “sustainable development” and show that the very term is not understood in a unilateral way. A discrepancy of perception and thus understanding of the notion of sustainability blurs its meaning. Numerous scholars and researchers use the term sustainable or sustainability to refer to the area where abilities of using methods to prevent natural resources can be demonstrated. Besides, scholars and researchers, especially in Central Europe, approach sustainability in a holistic way, paying more attention to a doer (subject) than to the doer’s vicinity full of natural resources (objects). Also school teachers in Poland, when given a task to explain the meaning of sustainable development, tend to underscore personal, social and intellectuals’ abilities and skills of people. The teachers’ observations served as catalysts to develop the presented in the paper discussion and conclusions.</abstract>

Philosophy of Sustainable Development, Polish Perspective

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The definition of cultural sustainability in education is explored in this article by looking into conceptions of cultural sustainability collected through expert queries and focus group engagement. These conceptions are compared with the scientific and especially pedagogical discourse on the matter as well as Soini and Birkeland’s theory of story lines of cultural sustainability and Barth’s theory of micro-, median- and macro-levels of culture. The analysis shows that the viewpoint of education brings a new dimension to the discussion on cultural sustainability. It specifically broadens the “culture in” definition from the perspectives of supporting children’s and youth’s identity process and micro-level encounters. From a theoretical point of view, the study therefore adds depth to the examination of cultural sustainability.</abstract>

Culture in Sustainability – Defining Cultural Sustainability in Education

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper aims to present some conceptual insights into the research paradigm of complexity that deals with such problems like sustainability, education, and, more specifically – sustainability education. The transdisciplinary perspective and cognitive approaches of a hermeneutical cycle and semantic waves used in argumentation assist in grasping the essence of complexity and the main principles of complex dynamic systems. The comparison of simple, complicated and complex systems in a field of sustainability education provides an example of using complexity thinking with social systems. Then the complexity in an epistemological context, as the research paradigm, could be used for dealing with the challenging problems of sustainability, education and sustainability education from the point of view of post-normal science. The concept of transdisciplinarity has been developed as a research framework starting from the general approaches to its application for sustainability, education and sustainability education. The specific types of collaboration in educational research for sustainability and the modes of knowledge produced by transdisciplinary research in this field will be described, ending with reflections and suggestions for further analysis.</abstract>

Envisioning Complexity: Towards a New Conceptualization of Educational Research for Sustainability

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In order to reach far in the work for sustainable development, communication in foreign languages prior to strategic decisions is required from international partners. In this communication English has become the lingua franca. Even though the use of EFL (English as a foreign language) is widely spread, it is clear that in some geographical regions English has quite recently taken the role as the language of international communication. It is therefore relevant carry out studies in order to identify possible causes for misunderstandings when communicating in EFL. With the aim of providing material for research on EFL by 12-year-olds, the creation of a language corpus on the use of English in the Baltic region is in process. The first part of the data collection was completed in August 2016 and the data comprises some 2,200 texts written in 2015–2016 by Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian and Swedish learners. The aim of the present study is to investigate young learners’ written communication on issues related to sustainable development.A qualitative method was used on a limited sample of to identify key words in the production by young learners of five different nationalities. Abstract nouns related to topics which can be regarded to refer to sustainable development were collected and analyzed.The results show that 12-year-olds are able to communicate in English for discussions on issues related to sustainable development. This indicates that successful international communication in English on these matters is within reach with a continued process of English language learning at schools in the Baltic region.</abstract>

A Corpus of Young Learners’ English in the Baltic Region – Texts for Studies on Sustainable Development

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Exploring one’s worldview requires a journey into one’s heart, soul and mind (Knowing Self). But Knowing Self requires Knowing Others, imperative in a global world. To what extent do schools prepare students for participation in that global world, especially when it comes to awareness of its worldview diversity, and no less its religious diversity? This paper presents the findings of two research projects highlighting knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards various worldviews. The findings of the first is rather discouraging, a result of little to no attention given to teaching about religion in the schools. The second is much more encouraging, a result of worldview education that explores both religious and secular worldviews – their impacts on individuals and society. It then gives a brief description of a worldview framework that deepens and broadens awareness and understanding of self and others, encourages questioning and openness, and develops critical thinking.</abstract>

Enhancing Religious Education Through Worldview Exploration

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Although the importance of self-esteem in educational achievement is contested, it remains a significant touchstone of multicultural religious education. This study set out to establish differences in demographics and attitudes between high self-esteem and low self-esteem Buddhist teenagers who are a small religious minority in Britain. Low self-esteem teens expressed less well-being, more worry in relationships with their family and friends, low motivation in school, more supernatural beliefs, more introversion, felt Buddhism irrelevant and used the internet more. Self-esteem was not linked to religious values or environmental concern. Narrow focus on self-esteem as an educational aim risks the known weaknesses of multiculturalism that have since been overcome in pluralist education. The limited usefulness of the self-esteem concept does however reveal ways forward for teachers of minority education, introverts and sustainability.</abstract>

How Sustainable is Pupil Self-Esteem as an Educational Objective for Religious Minorities?

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In today’s higher education institutions in which sustainable development has been highly emphasized, individuals have changed the understanding of graduates of higher education; as such universities have emerged into a reconstruction period. In such a process, universities have been in need of academicians who are well development in both personal and professional domains. The concept of Lifewide learning, which is an important sustainable development tool, has underlined the fact that people should graduate as wholly-developed people to fulfill the needs of future societies, which releases the idea that academicians are to be role models for students. This study reflects on the research designed to develop and test an instrument that could identify the component of an academician’s Lifewide learning habits. Because of the complex nature of the Lifewide learning, considerable attempts were made in order to handle the process of classifying the cognitive, affective, social, technical and cultural domains related to academicians working in faculties of education. The developed instrument was trialled with 50 academicians, and the data was subjected to an explanatory factor analysis, allowing the identification of 6 sub-dimensions of Lifewide learning. These dimensions appeared to be capable of differentiating between problem-solving, professional habits, cultural interaction, leadership, care-based habits and leisure habits of academicians. The final version of the scale was applied to 211 academicians from faculties of education at 30 universities via “Google Drive”, and Lifewide habits of related people were assessed regarding their gender, title and department. Depending on the collected data, Lifewide learning habits of academicians were discussed, and some suggestions were proposed to support their professional and personal development.</abstract>

Evaluating Lifewide Learning Habits of Academicians for Sustainable Development

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Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education

 Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education is an international, double blind peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for the examination of policies, theories and practices related to discourse and communication for sustainable education. Since contemporary discourse study has extended its field to the study of multifaceted contexts of discourse, it is able to be integrated in the broader study of the phenomena of communication in relation to sustainable education. The journal Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education publishes research articles and reviews. Its diversity is apparent in the variety of its theories, methods and approaches, thus avoiding the frequent limitation to one school, approach, academic branch. The only criteria will be the quality and the originality of its articles. The journal Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education welcomes articles which explore inspirational ideas in sustainable education, are written in innovative ways or are presented in experimental ways. It does not have article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.  Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 