Integrating sustainability in economics education: understanding moments of transformative learning in secondary schools in Belgium

Abstract

Despite the rising popularity of integrating sustainability and ethics in economics education, the neoclassical view remains dominant in economic curricula and little structural change in economics education is visible in practice. In an effort to address this deficit, transformative learning is encouraged to integrate sustainability and pluralistic perspectives into economics education. However, there is a lack of cases and best practices in which transformative learning is successfully implemented in formal economics education. Therefore, the aim of the study is to operationalize parts of the transformative learning process in the field of economics education, what we choose to label in this paper as transformative moments. A quasi-experimental design was adopted in this study. New teaching materials involving sustainability related topics and more pluralist economic perspectives were developed by the researchers with the aim of creating opportunities for transformative learning. A mixed method approach was used to (1) investigate how students experienced the newly developed educational materials, (2) investigate whether students changed their perspectives, and (3) illustrate what specific transformative moments look like. The results operationalize what transformative moments can look like in economics classes and reveal how parts of the transformative learning process are reflected by students. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to illustrate parts of the transformative learning process, more specific transformative moments, for sustainable development in economics education.