Education for sustainable development (ESD) is meant to be an overarching perspective for all school subjects. In Germany, it has already been implemented in the state’s curricula as a general educational goal (Kultusministerkonferenz [KMK], 2017). Teachers are the key elements in the education system (Baumert & Kunter, 2013).They may foster transdisciplinary competences which enable learners to acquire knowledge, take informed decisions and participate in socio-political processes moving society towards sustainable development (Rieckmann, 2018, S. 39).
Teacher education currently is focused on subject specific contents. ESD is only integrated in teacher education of so called key disciplines (e.g. natural sciences, geography, social sciences) but not on the structural level (Rieckmann & Holz, 2017). Going beyond the key disciplines physical education (PE) holds considerable potential to reach ESD-goals. PE not only aims at developing movement skills but also social and personal competencies (Gieß-Stüber & Thiel, 2016). In PE, students may acquire knowledge about and critically reflect on environmental effects of leisure activities, socioeconomic and enviornmental issues in supply chains, or social practices and political topics using the example of sport. PE teachers may empower students “to take informed decisions and make responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society” (UNESCO, 2020, S. 8) in the context of sport, game and play.
But only limited academic effort has been made to elucidate the role PE may play to reach ESD-goals (Gieß-Stüber & Thiel, 2016; Lake et al., 2001; Lohmann et al., 2019). For PE teacher education (PETE), an integrative concept of the professional competence that PE teachers need for implementing ESD goals within PE is still missing. Such a concept would be beneficial for analyzing the present situation of ESD implementation in teacher education, to inform PETE curriculum development, and to evaluate efforts of implementing ESD in PETE.
As a basic theoretical framework, we refer to Baumert and Kunter’s (2013) generic model of professional competence which comprises two major components, namely
- Professional knowledge: specific declarative and procedural knowledge (competence in the narrow sense: knowledge and skills) and
- Belief systems: professional values, beliefs, and goals; motivational orientations; and professional self-regulation skills.
Professional competence has to be conceptualized as profession-specific and domain-specific (Baumert & Kunter, 2013). Assuming that PE and ESD are different domains, PE teachers need to build up professional competences for both domains and integrate them in order to reach ESD-goals within PE lessons, school physical activity and extra-curricular outdoor-activities (Lohmann et al., 2019). The concept of professional competence has received regarding PE teachers (e.g., Heemsoth & Wibowo, 2020; Vogler et al., 2017) and ESD educators (Bertschy et al., 2013; Cebrián et al., 2020). However, different approaches have been used to define professional competence for ESD and PE. Moreover, no attempt has been made to build an integrated model of ESD specific professional competences for PE teachers.
The purpose of this paper is to make a theoretical contribution to clarifying central concepts and to furthering the discussion of the professionalization of PE teachers in the context of ESD by means of a systematic review. To reach this goal we will analyze and evaluate the core attributes of the professional competence construct for ESD educators, as reflected in contemporary research literature. This paper will first explore and critically discuss the following research question: What are the defining attributes of professional competence and its components of teachers in the context of ESD? From the findings to this question and building on literature about subject specific competencies of PE teachers we will then suggest an integrated theoretical model of ESD specific professional competence for PE teachers.