Education for sustainability and learning theories: a bibliometric study for the last 10 years

Abstract

A powerful tool for social change and transformation for sustainable future has been considered Education for Sustainability (EpS). Thus, in order for the expected results and objectives of EpS to be achieved, new pedagogical proposals are necessary, behavioral change and attitudes must be attained from pedagogical approaches that focus on the criticality of students. For this to be possible, EpS finds opportunities in theories of learning of constructivist epistemology, such as: Theory of Experiential Learning, Transforming Learning, Liberating Learning and Social Learning. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify and analyze the characteristics of scientific publications on the subject of education for sustainability linked to theories of Experiential, Transformative, Liberating and Social learning. The operationalization of the survey took place through a bibliometric study, which has been searched in the Web of Science and Scopus in the last ten years, as well as in the annals of ANPAD events. The results show that these are themes that are evident in recent years, and that the theory of social learning is the one that is most consolidated in the literature when it comes to education for sustainability.