Abstract
We sent a questionnaire to a total of 2,604 home economics teachers in middle and senior high schools to ascertain their interest in and understanding of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), including the practices, content, learning methods, and topics emphasized in ESD for home economics classes. In terms of how much home economics teachers understand ESD, the questionnaire results revealed that those who “know ESD very well” and those who “have heard about ESD” constitute less than 40% of the respondents. In contrast, in terms of how much interest there is in ESD, the questionnaire results revealed that those who are “very much interested in ESD” and those who are “somewhat interested in ESD” constitute a high percentage of respondents at 74.4%. The questionnaire results, therefore, indicate that many home economics teachers conduct their classes with specific content that can lead to ESD, even though those who conduct classes with ESD in their mind constitute a low proportion of respondents at 26.0%. Consequently, we conclude that the high ESD scores in the home economics classes are not related to teachers’ interest in and understanding of ESD but are related to whether or not teachers are aware of ESD.
