Sustainability-related personal values of pre-service biology teachers

Educators can have a great impact as role models, particularly at the level of attitude formation. This is all the more important because attitudes toward complex issues such as sustainability are less rigid and therefore easier to change. Thus, teachers’ broader personal value sets can play a critical role in the successful implementation of UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development goals in their classrooms. Our study shows that while university teacher training in biology seems to be significantly positively associated with the development of the nature-based universalism value, other sustainability-related values do not change in a similar way, although teacher training offers great potential in this regard.