Exploring Education for Sustainable Development: a Comparative Study of Two Theories

Abstract: This study aims to investigate current attitudes towards Sustainable Development among students and evaluate their correlation with two theories of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Namely, the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory, that emphasises the intersection of three pillars: Profit, People, and Planet; and the Four Components theory, which integrates Socio-economic, Environmental, Legal, and Moral & Ethical dimensions.   The Four Component theory is a recently developed approach that builds upon similar concepts from the TBL model but also incorporates additional critical factors. The research seeks to explore the extent to which these theories influence students' attitudes towards Sustainable Development.   This study intends to provide insights into the role of educational theories in shaping students' attitudes towards Sustainable Development, highlighting potential gaps in current educational practices and the need for more comprehensive approaches to education for sustainable development, ESD. By performing a quantitative study using a self-completion questionnaire, data were collected and analysed with the programme IBM SPSS. The results showed a significant impact on the attitudes towards sustainable development among students from the factors of: People, Socio-economic, Environmental and Legal. The Legal factor yielded a negative impact on the attitudes towards sustainable development whereas the others yielded a positive impact.    The study concluded that neither one of the frameworks, Triple Bottom Line or The Components, offered a complete structure for education for sustainable development on their own. A discussion was brought up imploring the potential of a new framework incorporating the People dimension from Triple Bottom Line together with the Socio-economic-, and Environmental components from the Four Components theory. This framework shows a potential way forward for education for sustainable development and the need for it based on the positive attitudes attained during the study.