What Does Education for Sustainable Development Offer in Initial Teacher Training? A Systematic Review

Abstract Promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education implies an improvement and quality in the exercise of responsible citizenship, being the key in the training of future teachers as the main agent of change and transition towards sustainability in society. The aim of this study is to collect and analyze scientific evidence on the attitudes, competences and training of future teachers towards ESD. Therefore, a qualitative methodology has been carried out based on a systematic review of the most important scientific databases (WoS and Scopus). One of the most interesting results shows that there are favorable attitudes of our education students towards sustainability and their commitment to the environment. However, we can conclude that, in the training of our teachers, there is a deficit in the development of professional skills needed to implement ESD (teaching practice) to contribute to social welfare.