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A dream of the future: making teachers fit for global sustainability!
The University of Potsdam will publish an interdisciplinary book on sustainability and international teacher training in 2025.
A dream of the future: making teachers fit for global sustainability!
On June 11, 2025, the book “The Impact of the Border and the Limit of Influence: Educating Teachers for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship” was published. The title addresses the training of teachers in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and their importance for global education. The editors are Prof. Dr. Britta Freitag-Hild, Stefanie Goertz, Prof. Dr. Isolde Malmberg and Prof. Dr. Linda P. Juang. The work is in Potsdam University Press appeared.
The book is the result of international collaboration and was created as part of the DAAD project “UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education”, which runs from 2021 to 2024. Scientists from over ten partner universities and institutions were involved in this project. Contributions from the international summer school “Teaching the SDGs” in 2022 at the University of Potsdam were also included.
Thematic focuses and goals
The focus of the book is preparing future teachers for sustainability issues. The editors emphasize the need to develop intercultural and language-related skills through measures to internationalize teacher training courses. These objectives are of great importance in the current educational landscape, especially given the need to provide teachers with an understanding of global developments and their impact on society.
The DAAD has been supporting the internationalization of teacher training for years. Since 2019, over 3,000 scholarships for school internships abroad have been awarded as part of 36 model projects. The mobility rates of teacher training students vary greatly depending on the subject and type of school. In the second funding phase from 2025 to 2029, further measures are to be taken to increase the international mobility of teacher training students in order to give them practical experience and to intensify the dialogue between universities and politics. The aim is to give greater consideration to less mobile groups, especially prospective teachers at vocational schools. These initiatives are also reflected in the content of the current book, which is dedicated to the target group of international teacher training.
Importance of education for sustainable development
In the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), sustainable development is defined as meeting the needs of the current generation without endangering future generations. This approach was formulated at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the 17 global sustainability goals were adopted in 2015. The fourth goal of this agenda is central to education and focuses on accessibility, equity and inclusion.
In Germany, the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs dealt with the issues of education for sustainable development at an early stage. The first recommendations were passed in 2007 aimed at structurally integrating ESD into the education system. An orientation framework for curricula and textbooks has been established to anchor ESD as an integral part of education, and a separate recommendation for schools is planned for 2024.
The publication of the book by the University of Potsdam is also a step towards intensifying international cooperation efforts and passing on knowledge about ESD and the associated challenges. These efforts are reflected not only in teaching, but also in applied research and exchange between educational institutions, which is crucial for the realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.