The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and their sustainability awareness. STEM education has a vital role in nations’ economic growth, technological innovation, and sustainable development (Nguyen et al., 2020). Basically, STEM education aims to develop students’ 21st-century skills such as problem-solving, creative thinking, collaboration, and teamwork while students deal with real-life problems in an integrated context (Furner & Kumar, 2007). However, in spite of the benefits of STEM education, there are many challenges regarding teachers’ implementation of STEM (Shernoff et al., 2017). Findings of several research studies indicate that the implementation of STEM is related to teachers’ attitudes toward STEM education (e.g., Thibaut et al., 2018). As a result, researchers need to explore teachers’ attitudes toward STEM to increase students’ achievement and interest in STEM fields (Al Salami et al., 2017).

STEM attitude can be defined as “an individual’s thinking, feelings, and behaviors towards STEM” (Sırakaya et al., 2020, p.563). STEM attitudes of teachers may be affected by their professional experience, background characteristics, gender, and subject matter as well as school-related variables (Al Salami et al., 2017; Thibaut et al., 2018). In addition to these, according to Burgess and Buck (2020), the conceptions of STEM and sustainability of pre-service teachers participating in sustainability-related issues-focused STEM teaching are positively interrelated. Sustainable development is described as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987) and has economic, environmental, and social aspects which should be considered in a holistic manner (Harris, 2000). Economic sustainability addresses the reduction of poverty, corporation of responsibility (UNESCO, 2006), and improvement of the living standards of individuals and society (Atmaca et al., 2018). Environmental sustainability aims to protect natural resources, reduce environmental pollution, and use renewable energy sources (Atmaca et al., 2019). Social sustainability comprises employment, human rights, gender equity, peace, and human security (UNESCO, 2006). According to Bybee (2010) STEM could be used to address issues such as “personal health, energy efficiency, environmental quality, resource use, and national security” (p.996), which can be considered as related to sustainability. In this context, sustainable development and its goals can be associated with STEM education (Kates, 2011). In the current study, therefore, we investigated the relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward STEM education and their sustainability awareness. The following research question guided the study: “To what extent does pre-service teachers' sustainable development awareness predict their attitudes toward STEM education?”

A correlational research design was employed to investigate the research question of the study. Data were collected from 193 third and fourth-year pre-service teachers who have been attending teacher education programs related to STEM disciplines in a state university (e.g., mathematics education or chemistry education programs). The pre-service teachers have taken most of the pedagogical courses such as teaching methods, curriculum, assessment, and developmental and learning psychology. Of 193 pre-service teachers, 30 were males, and 162 were (One person did not indicate the gender). The majority of the pre-service teachers reported that they did not attend any course or project related to STEM and sustainability. Data were collected using two instruments: The first one was the Attitude towards STEM Education Questionnaire developed by Yaman (2020). It has one dimension with 17 items in a 5-point Likert-type. The inter-item correlations were checked for validity. All correlations were satisfactory, ranging from .57 to .62 The Cronbach’s alpha value was found to be .94. The second instrument was the Sustainability Development Awareness Questionnaire developed by Atmaca et al. (2019) to measure teacher candidates’ awareness of the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. It consisted of 36 items in a 5-point Likert-type. Confirmatory factor analysis was run to test the factor structure of the instrument via MPlus Version 6.11 (Muthén and Muthén 1998-2015). Satisfactory fit indices were obtained, confirming three factors. The Cronbach’s alpha value was .88 for the economic dimension, .94 for the social dimension, and .87 for the environmental dimension. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the extent to which pre-service teachers’ sustainability awareness in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects predicted their attitudes toward STEM education using the SPSS 28.

Before multiple regression analysis, preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure that there was no violation of assumptions. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the STEM attitude questionnaire (M = 4.48, SD = .57) and for the environmental dimension (M = 4.57, SD = .58), economic dimension (M = 4.60, SD = .53), social dimension (M = 4.70, SD = .56) of Sustainability Development Awareness Questionnaire. Results of multiple regression analysis indicated that the combination of two particular dimensions of sustainability awareness, which are economic and environmental dimensions, positively and significantly predicted pre-service teachers’ STEM attitudes of (r2 = .422, F(2,190) = 69.470, p < .001). The multiple correlation coefficient was found to be .65, indicating that approximately 42.2% of the variance of STEM attitude can be explained by the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The economic dimension made the strongest unique contribution to the prediction of STEM attitude (β = .427, sr2 = .095, p < .001), explaining 9.5% of the variance. The environmental dimension was also found to make a statistical contribution to the prediction of STEM attitude (β = .277, sr2 = .04, p < .001) by uniquely accounting for 4% of the variance. In addition, the effect size for overall multiple regression analysis indicated a large effect size (Cohen’s f2 = .73). These findings suggest that teachers’ attitudes toward STEM education can be enhanced by developing their sustainability awareness. Teacher education programs may include more courses on sustainability which provides pre-service teachers the opportunity to develop awareness and positive attitudes toward STEM education. In addition, educators and curriculum developers, in particular, should holistically integrate all sustainability aspects in STEM education programs.

Al Salami, M. K., Makela, C. J., & Miranda, M. A. (2017). Assessing changes in teachers’ attitudes toward interdisciplinary STEM teaching. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 27(1), 63-88. Atmaca, A. C., Kıray, S. A.,& Pehlivan, M. (2018). Sustainable Development from Past to Present. In Shelley, M. & Kiray, S.A. (Ed.). Education research highlights in mathematics, science and technology (pp. 186-214). Atmaca, A. C., Kıray, S. A., & Pehlivan, M. (2019). Development of a measurement tool for sustainable development awareness. International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education, 6(1), 80-91. Burgess, A., & Buck, G. A. (2020). Inquiring into environmental STEM: Striving for an engaging inquiry-based E-STEM experience for pre-service teachers. In V. L. Akerson & G. A. Buck (Eds.) Critical questions in STEM education, (pp. 61–84). Springer. Bybee, R.W. (2010). What is STEM education?. Science, 329(5995), 996. Furner, J. & Kumar, D. (2007). The mathematics and science integration argument: A stand for teacher education. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology, 3(3), 185–189. Harris, J. M. (2000). Basic principles of sustainable development. (Global Development and Environment Institute Working Paper No. 00-04). Kates, R. W. (2011). What kind of science is sustainability science? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(49), 19449–19450. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. 1998-2011. Mplus User’s Guide. 6th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén. Nguyen, T. P. L., Nguyen, T. H., & Tran, T. K. (2020). STEM education in secondary schools: Teachers’ perspective towards sustainable development. Sustainability, 12(21), 8865. Shernoff, D. J., Sinha, S., Bressler, D. M., & Ginsburg, L. (2017). Assessing teacher education and professional development needs for the implementation of integrated approaches to STEM education. International Journal of STEM Education, 4(1), 1-16. Sırakaya, M., Alsancak Sırakaya, D., & Korkmaz, Ö. (2020). The impact of STEM attitude and thinking style on computational thinking determined via structural equation modeling. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 29(4), 561-572. Thibaut, L., Knipprath, H., Dehaene, W., & Depaepe, F. (2018). How school context and personal factors relate to teachers’ attitudes toward teaching integrated STEM. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 28(3), 631-651. UNESCO. (2006). United Nations decade of education for sustainable development 2005–2014, UNESCO: International implementation scheme. UNESCO. WCED. (1987). Our common future: A report from the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford University Press. Yaman,F.(2020)Öğretmenlerin stem eğitimine yönelik farkındalık, tutum ve sınıf içi uygulama özyeterlik algılarının incelenmesi [Doctoral dissertation, Dicle University].