Embedding Sustainability into Engineering Education: What Support Do the Teachers Need?

During the past two decades, engineering educators have increasingly been integrating sustainability in their teaching. However, a central obstacle in mainstreaming the integration in all education is the lack of competencies of the teachers. Even though some measures have been established to overcome this barrier, surprisingly little is known of what creates the feeling of being supported for the teachers. We interviewed fourteen teachers from the Nordic and Baltic technical universities to explore what factors they associate with a feeling of being supported, and what they find to hinder their actions. The most interesting finding was that almost all the other supporting factors that emerged, resources, funding, and commitment from top management, were underpin by the initiatives being officially recognized. The central factors underlying the challenges the teachers faced were related to the lack of institutional processes. Our findings can inform technical universities to improve the support they develop for teachers to integrate sustainability in the education. The findings can also encourage engineering educators to support each other in the joint sustainability endeavors.