The global challenges that humanity faces including inequality and climate change, is the point of departure in the sustainable development (SD) agenda. Perhaps the most broad and ambitious action plan for SD is the 2030 agenda that comprises 17 intertwined SD goals (SDGs). These goals cover social, economic, and environmental dimensions of SD.

Education has the potential to empower people with SD competences to make responsible decisions in pursuit of a just society in the present and future generations, and to realise the 2030 agenda. School physical education and health (PEH) may not only be an important cornerstone to the holistic development of students but may also contribute to the SD agenda. Even though scholars such as Lake et al. (1) discussed issues around sustainability already at the beginning of the 2000s, this perspective has received limited attention in research about PEH.

Recently, however, there has been a growing interest in exploring links between PEH and the SD agenda, including links to the 2030 agenda and the SD goals. This may be important because the unique subject characteristics of PEH, such as movement education and health, can have distinct contributions to the SD agenda. In Sweden, PEH cover areas such as movement, health and lifestyle, and outdoor life and activities (outdoor visits). The core content includes movement activities, both indoors and outdoors, different aspects of health and training methods, and safety and consideration in connection with various activities. Although there are no explicit statements related to SD in the PEH syllabi (2), the Swedish National Agency for Education’s (SNAE) curriculum for the compulsory school include some explicit statements related to SD that is common to the school in general and all subjects. For example, “teaching should illuminate how the functions of society and our ways of living and working can best be adapted to create sustainable development” (p. 8) (3).

Some research to date suggests that PEH may already be implementing content to promote SD competences without making explicit references to the SD agenda (4, 5). In relation to the 2030 agenda and the SDGs, however, relatively little is currently known about the distinct role of PEH, and how SD can be understood, framed and integrated in PEH (6). Although not all may be relevant, targets from several SDGs could be addressed through PEH, including good health and well-being, gender equality, and reduced inequalities, together representing social, economic, and environmental dimensions of SD (4, 7, 8). Importantly, rather than additions of content to an already overcrowded curriculum, SD perspectives in the field of PEH should be interpreted as an overarching teaching approach and tie to core areas of the subject, such as physical activity, movement education, and health and well-being (4, 5). This may, however, necessitate novel teaching approaches, and professional development education (4).

Although PEH may have unique characteristics that can contribute to the SD agenda, most research to date has been theoretical and we lack empirical studies with focus on PEH teachers. Little is therefore currently known about SD from the perspectives of PEH teachers and students. The present study adds to the literature by exploring SD competencies among certified PEH teachers in Sweden.

The participants of the present study were certified PEH teachers in Sweden. They were recruited through a digital register with E-mail addresses to certified (diplomas of certification) teachers provided by the SNAE. Data was collected using an online questionnaire. Webropol 3.0 survey and reporting tool was used to send the questionnaire to the E-mail addresses during June to October 2022. We asked the participants to provide information on sex and year of birth. We also asked about number of years of experiences teaching PEH. Furthermore, the participants were asked whether they ever had taught about SD in PEH. To explore SD competencies among PEH teachers, we used the Physical Education Scale for Sustainable Development in Future Teachers (PESD-FT) that was developed by Baena-Morales et al. (9). The PESD-FT contained 18 items that were answered using an eight-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 8 (strongly agree). Examples of items for the three SD dimensions were “I could make physical education lessons accessible to everyone regardless of gender, race or personal situation” (social dimension), “I could develop employability skills in physical education lessons” (economic dimension), and “I could improve knowledge to promote sustainable lifestyles during physical education lessons” (environmental dimension). We created different groups of participants based on the collected background information. A SD competence index (SDC-I) was created by summarising the total score for all the 18 items (minimum: 18; and maximum: 144), with the logic being the higher the SDC-I scores, the higher the SD competence. Descriptive statistics (median, range) were calculated and reported for continuous variables. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney U-test were used to explore differences in SDC-I score across different groups of participants. Furthermore, proportions (%) were calculated for categorial variables. The chi-square (χ2) test was used to explore differences in the distribution of proportions for each of the 18 PESD-FT items across different groups of participants. All analyses were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 29.0. (IBM Corp. in Armonk, New York, USA), and the alpha-level was set to 5% (p < 0.05).

A total of 2078 certified PEH teachers (42% males, median age: 48 years) answered the questionnaire. The median number of years teaching experience was 10 (range: 1 to 50). In total, 60% of the participants reported teaching PEH when completing the questionnaire. In the total sample, the median SDC-I score for all participants was 107 (range: 18-144) out of 144. Most participants agreed with the items about making PEH lessons accessible to everyone regardless of gender, race, or personal situation, and that PEH can be used to improve people’s physical ability. The median SDC-I score was significantly lower among males 104 (range: 18-144) compared to females 108 (range: 18-144) (p = 0.027). Of the 18 items, there were significant sex differences for one item that concerned the economic dimension, and three items that concerned the environmental dimension: the score for males were lower compared to females (all p < 0.05). There were differences between younger (<40 years) and older (≥40 years) participants, where older participants had significantly higher score (p = 0.042). Also, participants who reported less than 10 years of teaching experiences in PEH (median: 104; range: 18-144) had significantly lower SDC-I score compared to those with 10 years or more of experiences (median: 109; range: 18-144) (p < 0.001). Moreover, 31% reported having taught about SD in PEH. This study shows that the SD competencies may differ by sex, age and years of teaching experienceg among certified PEH teachers in Sweden. In addition, that many certified PEH teachers feel that they need professional development in the area of SD. Future studies are required to understand more of what types of competencies PEH teacher education programmes and practicing PEH-teachers are lacking to fulfil the call for a contribution to the SD agenda.

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