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.

An electronic search strategy was employed using the following databases: (i) ERIC (via proquest), (ii) Web of Science Core Collection, (iii) fachportal-paedagogik. These databases used in educational sciences are suitable for the topic and increase the probability that relevant studies have been found. The Boolean logic combinations search strategy was adopted within the electronic databases and build around the key concepts of ‘professional competence’ AND ‘education for sustainable development’. The criteria for inclusion in this systematic review were (i) Papers with a peer reviewed, published status and book chapters in English or German language until the date last searched, i.e. 15 August 2020. (ii) Papers that have as main goals: a. the conceptual development of a model of teachers’ professional competencies for ESD b. the advancement of existing theoretical models of teachers’ professional competencies for ESD c. the empirical assessment of teachers’ professional competencies for ESD or subdomains of professional competence The authors followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. First, after removing duplicates, titles and abstracts of 694 papers were screened. Second, full texts were obtained for records that met the basic inclusion criteria and then examined if they were eligible for the review. In both steps two reviewers independently rated the papers. Any discrepancies between reviewers were resolved by consensus. Records were kept of this process and interrater agreement was calculated for both steps (> 85%). Secondary search will be conducted in the Journal of teacher education for sustainability within the last five years (i.e., 2015 onwards). Additionally, included full-texts will be manually searched for references to ESD-specific competence models that have been developed in referenced literature. After this process, and consistent with the exclusion criteria, a total of approximately 40 papers will be included in the review. The final sample of full-texts will be analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2020). This method involves a deductive definition of the main categories based on the theoretical and the empirical background, as outlined in the introduction, and an inductive definition of the subcategories based on the material. Data analysis comprises the following steps: (i) coding of the entire data using the main categories, (ii) compilation of all coded text passages with the same main categories, (iii) inductive definition of subcategories based on the material, (iv) coding of the entire data using the refined category system and (v) evaluation and interpretation.

Data analysis is still ongoing and will be finalized to the date of the conference. As main categories we used definitions of ESD-specific professional knowledge and definitions of ESD-specific belief systems. Several theoretical frameworks were used to describe and define ESD-specific professional competences of teachers (Bertschy et al., 2013; Cebrián et al., 2020). From these models we suggest that not only professional knowledge and belief systems play an important role for teaching ESD but the personal behavior (e.g., proenvironmental or sustainable behavior, social-political action) might evolve as a third component that should be regarded as part of teacher’s professional competence. Within the main category of professional knowledge, the most comprehensive definition will be reached for content knowledge and we will suggest further inductive subcategories . For pedagogical content knowledge we expect that student-centered methods that facilitate systems thinking and critical thinking and the transformation of knowledge into action play an important role. Further categories of professional knowledge might include the ability to cope with uncertainty and tolerance of ambiguity as well as the ability to motivate students to make responsible decisions reflecting the guiding principle of sustainable development. Regarding belief systems we expect to find fewer clear definitions than for professional knowledge. However, some references emphasize that belief systems and moral values are specifically important to guide teachers within the context of ESD. An integrated model of ESD-specific professional competences of PE teachers will be developed based on the findings of this review. We will suggest that PE teachers not only need PE-specific professional knowledge (i.e. training science and related pedagogy), beliefs, motivation and self-regulation but they should integrate ESD-specific professional knowledge (i.e. environmental, social, and economic issues in the context of playing sport, sport-related consumer behavior and mobility, professional sport and related pedagogy) and belief systems.

Baumert, J. & Kunter, M. (2013). The COACTIV Model of Teachers’ Professional Competence. In M. Kunter, J. Baumert, W. Blum, U. Klusmann, S. Krauss & M. Neubrand (Hg.), Mathematics teacher education: Bd. 8. Cognitive activation in the mathematics classroom and professional competence of teachers: Results from the COACTIV project (S. 25–48). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5149-5_2 Bertschy, F., Künzli, C. & Lehmann, M. (2013). Teachers’ Competencies for the Implementation of Educational Offers in the Field of Education for Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 5(12), 5067–5080. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5125067 Cebrián, G., Junyent, M. & Mulà, I. (2020). Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development: Emerging Teaching and Research Developments. Sustainability, 12(2), 579. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020579 Gieß-Stüber, P. & Thiel, A. (2016). Beitrag des Schulsports zum Lernbereich Globale Entwicklung. Sekundarstufe I. In KMK & BMZ (Hg.), Orientierungsrahmen für den Lernbereich Globale Entwicklung im Rahmen einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (2. Aufl., S. 357–378). Cornelsen Verlag. Heemsoth, T. & Wibowo, J. (2020). Fachdidaktisches Wissen von angehenden Sportlehrkräften messen. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, 50(2), 308–319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-020-00643-0 Kultusministerkonferenz. (2017). Zur Situation und zu Perspektiven der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung: Bericht der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 17.03.2017. Lake, J. R., Stratton, G., Martin, D. & Money, M. (2001). Physical Education and Sustainable Development: An Untrodden Path. Quest, 53(4), 471–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2001.10491759 Lohmann, J., Wegner, E. & Gieß-Stüber, P. (2019). BNE outdoor - Eine Modulkonzeption zur Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung durch Natursport. https://doi.org/10.25847/ZSLS.2018.011 Mayring, P. (2020). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. In G. Mey & K. Mruck (Hg.), Handbuch Qualitative Forschung in der Psychologie (S. 495–511). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. Rieckmann, M. (2018). Learning to transform the world: key competencies in education for sustainable development. In A. Leicht, J. Heiss & W. J. Byund (Hg.), Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development: Education on the move (S. 39–59). UNESCO. Rieckmann, M. & Holz, V. (2017). Verankerung von Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung in der Lehrerbildung in Deutschland. Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik(3), 4–10. UNESCO. (2020). Education for sustainable development: A roadmap. Paris. https://www.unesco.de/bildung/bildung-fuer-nachhaltige-entwicklung/unesco-programm-bne-2030 Vogler, J., Messmer, R. & Allemann, D. (2017). Das fachdidaktische Wissen und Können von Sportlehrpersonen (PCK-Sport). German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, 47(4), 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-017-0461-4