Spheres of Agency: How Engineering Educators Approach Professional Development in Educating for Sustainability

Sustainability is increasingly recognized as a key driver in engineering education, which calls for a shift not only in education but also in educators' professional development. While research on sustainability in engineering education has mainly focused on institutional strategies and student learning, less is known about how educators approach their professional development in educating for sustainability. This study explores the experiences and strategies of eight educators active in sustainability education across two European universities. Using a qualitative research design, our study explored how these educators navigate their professional learning in this evolving field. Our findings revealed that professional development is shaped by an interplay between intrinsic motivation and external structures. The educators exercise agency across five nested spheres: individual, practice-based, departmental, institutional, and external. These spheres form a multi-layered learning ecosystem that reflects both self-directed and contextually enabled forms of professional development. Our study contributes to engineering education research by foregrounding educators' professional development, an underrepresented but critical dimension of sustainability education. It introduces a novel framework that contextualizes professional agency across five nested spheres which offers both a theoretical lens and a practical tool to inform educator support and institutional change. Furthermore, by focusing on educators already active in this area, we highlight practices that can guide professional development and institutional strategies to engage a broader educator base in sustainability transitions. Ultimately, our study offers a starting point for fostering transformative capacity within engineering education by illustrating how educators' agency can be understood and supported across individual and systemic levels.