Volume 13, Issue 2 - Special Issue: Global Goals for Sustainability in European Language Teaching / Guest editors: Minna Maijala & Salla-Riikka Kuusalu

Sustainability has become a topical issue in many disciplines and increasingly also concerns language education and research, but the role of sustainability remains understudied in the field of language teaching. Consequently, language education could concentrate more on education for sustainable development (ESD) as it is considered crucial in reaching the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030. Language education has immense potential to promote ESD because it deals with a wide range of cultural and societal themes and uses interactive teaching methods that contribute to democratic goals. Various language teaching methods are related to the components of the action-oriented ESD framework. Therefore, there are several features in language teaching that are already consistent with the principles of ESD. The Special Issue “Global goals for sustainability in European language teaching” aims to widen the perspectives around ESD in relation to language teaching, about its practical implementations in different countries and educational systems and open a discussion concerning what aspects in European and global language teaching could be promoted and further developed to support both the global sustainability goals and the future demands of language education. In this introduction, we discuss the principles of sustainability and ESD and the necessity of their implementation in foreign language education and elaborate on the gaps in understanding and implementation of sustainability in language teaching. Finally, we summarise the main points in each article of this Special Issue.

Agency enhances teachers’ professional development and influences their capability of integrating education of sustainable development (ESD). This study focuses on language teachers’ agency as educators for sustainability both at the institutional system level and in language classes. We investigate how language teachers perceive their agency in ESD, how their experiences affect their perception of agency in ESD, and how they use their agency in the integration process. Data were gathered with individual semi-structured interviews of six language teachers in Finland and analysed using a modified inductive paradigm model. The teachers considered having agency in ESD when they received enough support, had sufficient guidance, could affect teaching materials, and had proactive students. Teachers had many operational strategies for solving the challenges in integrating ESD, but negative experiences and lack of support were reflected as a diminished capability for agency and decreased capacity to integrate ESD.

Immigration to Finland has increased significantly over the past decade. As Finnish schools become more diverse, teachers must develop their cultural competence – their ability to work respectfully with people from different cultures. An even deeper understanding of supporting social justice in education can be achieved through cultural humility , which is the ability to recognize one’s own cultural biases and be open to seeing things from another culture’s point of view. Until now, this concept has not been investigated in education. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate pre-service language teachers’ ( n = 26) understandings of culture, cultural humility and social justice. The data consisted of responses to three open-ended questions in an online survey. The data were analysed qualitatively using theory- and data-driven content analysis. The pre-service teachers understood culture primarily in terms of customs and traditions but had a relatively sound understanding of social justice; however, it was mainly based on human rights, with only a few mentions of human obligations. They had only a developing understanding of cultural humility. Based on our results, pre-service language teachers may become better equipped to advocate for social justice in education if cultural humility is included in teacher training.

English reading comprehension skills are essential in Finland, as English has become the dominant foreign language learned in schools and it is widely used in Finnish society. Therefore, acquiring adept English skills is essential to ensure equal education and job opportunities. Generally speaking, children with a migrant background may face many challenges in reading comprehension (Grabe & Yamashita 2022; Kaukko et al. 2022), putting their linguistic and social sustainability at a disadvantage compared to children born to Finnish-speaking parents. They often have to navigate in several languages, depending on how long they have been in the Finnish education system. This study explores adolescents’ (ages 13–14, N=62) morphological awareness with varying first language literacy levels. As morphological awareness is considered a key contributor to reading comprehension, we assume that low morphological awareness will result in low English reading comprehension proficiency. To investigate this assumption, tests to measure morphological awareness and English reading comprehension were administered and the obtained data were analyzed quantitatively. The results of the study support our assumption. Although the results indicate immense variation in test scores, a positive correlation was found in the impact of morphological skills on English reading comprehension. The results of the study will be used to develop better ways to address morphological awareness in EFL classrooms and thereby contribute to increased social sustainability.

In the context of globalization and university internationalization, sustainability can serve as both a pedagogical goal and course content that connects English language education with other disciplines. This study reports an initiative integrating the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into an English for Global Citizenship (EGC) curriculum at an international liberal arts faculty in a private university in Tokyo. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), the course design operationalized CLIL’s four dimensions—content, communication, cognition, and community—through six global issue modules. Using a repeated cross-sectional survey design, longitudinal student feedback collected across nine administrations from 1083 respondents was reanalyzed. Learners consistently valued SDG integration, reported perceived gains particularly in presentation, listening, and writing as well as in increased motivation and awareness of global issues, while also expressing a continuing need to strengthen speaking. Findings suggest that incorporating SDGs into university-level English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses can foster learner engagement and autonomy and contribute to sustainable, well-coordinated curriculum management. The study concludes by highlighting the importance of systematic program evaluation and stronger articulation between English and related content courses to enhance the long-term sustainability of language programs.

The United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) stated in Agenda 2030 pose an urgent challenge to education, but research shows that language teachers have not been quick to adopt education for sustainable development (ESD). To help integrate ESD into language education, a didactic model of transformative language teaching for sustainability (TLS) gives a framework for enhancing ESD-related communications skills and competencies. This study describes one practical example of a language teaching approach that aligns with the TLS model: a university English course based on Bohmian dialogue philosophy. A sample of 94 student self-assessments from the course was analyzed for the possible transformative effects of practicing dialogue through a lingua franca. The analysis showed that ethical dialogue in a higher education English course can contribute to ESD, especially as a method of raising awareness of the skills and competencies needed when thinking together about such complex issues as sustainability. The present study suggests that the Bohmian dialogue approach would be a relevant addition to language teaching methods that support transformation-oriented ESD and, moreover, the approach may have potential for further applications in language education.

Departing from the developing fields of ecocriticism and posthumanism, the present article is aimed at analysing the ecological and posthuman potential of picturebooks, and to show their potential in fostering ecological wisdom and awareness in the context of language education. In particular, the article will first describe and uncover the representation of the relationship between humans and natural non-humans, namely plants, animals, and the elements considered as belonging to nature in Western culture, in three picture books, written in Italian, English, and Spanish, through Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Then, it will briefly present the implications of this analysis in the design of a training course for foreign language teachers interested in teaching a language while educating for sustainability through the promotion of ecological thinking.

This article reviews recent literature concerned with the issues of interdisciplinary integration of sustainability-related content in American higher education curricula and expands the discussion into the integration of sustainability-related content into modern foreign language classrooms, particularly at the introductory and intermediate levels of study. The article first unpacks the concept of sustainability as an interdisciplinary curricular construct in a postsecondary context and situates it alongside recent research in education for sustainability (EfS) and content-based second language (L2) instruction. It then outlines the specific challenges and affordances of sustainability content and language integration for introductory and intermediate level language learners. Finally, the authors propose several considerations for language-and-content integration in order to both foster sustainability competencies and support student linguistic development in an instructed L2 setting at all levels. This article will be of interest to L2 educational professionals, higher education policy makers, and researchers concerned with enhancement of language and content integrated practices at tertiary levels of education.