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School gardening and garden-based learning (GBL) have gained great popularity in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic forced many educators to think creatively about safe, outdoor education. Scholarship from diverse disciplines has demonstrated the positive impact of GBL on student learning, attitudes toward school and various health outcomes. Despite widespread interest in school gardening, GBL remains absent from most teacher education programs. This is a critical disconnect, as teacher education programs deeply inform the pedagogy of future teachers. In this article, the authors discuss an independent study course for pre-service teachers designed to bridge this gap and share the perspectives of the future teachers who completed the course.

To understand and evaluate the experiences of the preservice teachers engaged in the GBL independent study course, the authors conducted an exploratory qualitative case study.

The authors argue that GBL curriculum integration in teacher education programs, along with garden-focused PDS partnerships, can be powerful levers in expanding gardening initiatives and preparing pre-service teachers to garden with their future students.

The authors also provide GBL suggestions for universities and partnership schools.

Place-based, social studies teaching and learning has the potential to foster engaged citizens connected and committed to improving their communities. This study explored the research question, “In what ways do classroom and field-based experiences prepare teacher candidates (TCs) to make connections between place-based education and elementary social studies education?”

This qualitative case study examined how elementary TCs learned about, researched, curated and created place-based social studies educational resources related to community sites. Data collection included TCs’ Pre- and Post-Course Reflections as well as Self-Evaluations, which were analyzed using an inductive approach and multiple rounds of concept coding. Several themes emerged through data analysis.

The authors organized their findings around three themes: connections (i.e. place becomes personal), immersion (i.e. learning about place to learning in place) and bridge building (i.e. local as classroom). The classroom and field-based experiences in the elementary social studies methods course informed the ways in which TCs learned about and connected to the concept of place, experienced place in a specific place (i.e. downtown Statesboro, Georgia), and reflected upon the myriad ways that they could utilize place in their future elementary social studies classrooms.

TCs (as well as in-service teachers and teacher educators) must become more informed, connected and committed to places within their local communities in order to consider them as resources for elementary social studies teaching and learning.

The study aims to examine the moderating influence of perceived co-worker support in the nexus between compulsory citizenship behaviour, job involvement and social loafing amongst university interns.

Four hundred and sixty-two) respondents took part in the study by completing a self-reported questionnaire distributed via online WhatsApp platform. The respondents were selected using multistage sampling technique. The data were processed and analysed using IBM SPSS version 24 and PLS-SEM, respectively.

Results reveal interns’ experience of compulsory citizenship behaviour positively influences their social loafing and negatively influences their job involvement. Furthermore, the support received from co-workers’ reduces the negative influence of compulsory citizenship behaviour on interns’ (1) social loafing and (2) job involvement.

The study’s main limitations have been identified as the type of organisation in which the internship was completed and the number of years of internship experience. Future research may seek to address this problem by obtaining data from a cohort that is categorised based on the nature of the organisation and duration of the internship.

Perceived co-worker support has been found to reduce the negative effects of interns’ compulsory citizenship behaviour on their job outcomes. It is recommended that organisations establish a supportive work environment to assist interns. This can be achieved through various means, such as engaging in team-building activities and assigning mentors, among other strategies.

One of the first to have examined a model linking compulsory citizenship behaviour, job involvement, social loafing and perceived co-worker support amongst interns in a higher education environment.

LGBTQ+ spaces are often considered as safe havens for the LGBTQ+ community, as they can gather free from prejudice and fear. This research explores the effect that heterosexual people attending LGBTQ+ venues have on this community. This paper considers the impacts on the community, the importance of their safe spaces and identifies practical implications to be considered in protecting these spaces.

The study implemented a multi-method qualitative data collection approach with LGBTQ+ community venue attendees in the UK. Stage 1 utilised an online qualitative survey and collected data from 558 respondents. Stage 2 saw critical incident techniques (CITs) used with 12 participants. The data collected were analysed using a thematic system.

The LGBTQ+ community has experienced an increase in frustration and fear as a result of more heterosexual attendees infiltrating their safe spaces. Both participants and respondents discussed the importance that security personnel play in ensuring safe spaces. Finally, the findings demystified that not all attendees in LGBTQ+ venues are allies, and that there is a need for those outside the community to better understand the importance of these spaces for the LGBTQ+ community, as many heterosexuals do not consider how they should act.

Limitations associated with the implementation of the CIT were identified. Further training is advised for researchers employing this method to prepare them for dealing with the emotional impact of participants’ experiences.

This study highlighted the need for security and staff working at LGBTQ+ venues to undergo extensive inclusivity training, and for stricter door policies. Participants also argued for LGBTQ+ venues to educate heterosexual attendees about the community and their historical and present-day struggles and culture.

This paper is of practical value to those who organise and manage LGBTQ+ events, bars and nightclubs. An enhancement to the four types of space framework originated by Castilhos and Dolbec (2018) has been identified.

This study aimed to detect the relationships between mindfulness and events participation, and then between the later and psychological empowerment.

The proposed model's underlying hypotheses were empirically tested with data collected through an online survey addressed to a convenience sample of frequent leisure participants (n = 199). The authors applied the structural equation model (SEM) to confirm the aforementioned relationships. To assess the adequacy of the psychometric properties of the measures, the authors performed a confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model, with a maximum likelihood estimation method.

Under the effects of the lockdown period environment, the results express a positive relationship between a mindful state of mind – related to observation/attention – and the yearnings and perceptions about the participation in events. This relationship for consistency was proven to be moderated by the perception of the participation importance to the individual subjective well-being/mental health. Due to participation insights, there was a positive effect on psychological empowerment, supporting the relationship that had been hypothesized.

The authors propose and test a new model that contributes to the theory and examines how mindfulness behavior can effect more alluring and intense participation in events and what are the anticipated outcomes in terms of psychological empowerment.

Halfway into the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) timeline, we deemed fruitful an injunction into current teacher education (TE) practices at higher educational institutes (HEIs). The scoping literature review used all known English nomenclature interrelating to environment, sustainability, development, and education as regards TE. We explicated and modelled the data through timelines favourable to UN initiatives within a spatiotemporal metric. Thematic research topics and research methodologies strictly pertaining to TE were rigorously researched and delineated. Our study aims to elucidate a grander picture of the trends-as-patterns of environmental and sustainability education in teacher education (ESE-TE) research in HEI and potential contributions to come.

The spatiotemporal study adopts a scoping review as an investigative tool to probe current research trends on ESE-TE in the academic literature with respect to thematic research topics and research methodologies midway through the SDGs.

A total of 2,142 research papers spanning five decades, 152 journals and 96 countries were screened equally by two researchers. Of the 788 papers deemed eligible (i.e. English-language, peer-reviewed, pre-service/in-service TE that explicitly mentioned ESE-TE research), data from 638 studies have been included in the authors’ study.

Comprehensive trends in the international literature of all known environmental and sustainable education nomenclature specific to international ESE-TE research throughout the time period (1974 – 2021) were identified. Value is accrued by illuminating international trends in research topics and methodologies, exposing gaps in the history of the subfield, and predicting future trends for Agenda 2030 (e.g. SDG 4 – education) to mature the field.

This paper aims to describe a case between practitioners and social marketing academics to grow and scale a programme that engages with primary schools, teachers, children and the education network, inspiring students to become marine leaders and ocean champions.

Over a six-year period, the authors first applied collective intelligence to work with stakeholders across society to better understand the barriers and solutions to teaching children (6–12 year olds) about the ocean in schools. Following this, a Collective Impact Assessment of the Explorers Education Programme took place to grow the impact of the programme.

The Explorers Education Programme has grown its numbers higher than pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, the Explorers Education Programme had the largest number of participating children, reaching 15,237, with a growth of 21% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and 79% compared to 2021. In 2023, the programme won the “Best Education Outreach Award” category of the Education Awards in Ireland.

This research stresses the importance of measuring impact. The long-term impact of the Explorers Education Programme at societal, environmental and economical levels takes a much longer time frame to measure than the six years of these research collaborations.

The collaborative approach between academics and practitioners meant that this research had practical implications, whereby necessary and effective changes and learnings could be directly applied to the Explorers Education Programme in real time, as the practitioners involved were directly responsible for the management and coordination of the programme.

The value of collaborations and engagement between academia and practice cannot be underestimated. The ability to collectively reflect and assess impact moves beyond “an” intervention, allowing for more meaningful behavioural, social and system changes for the collective good, inspiring the next generation of marine leaders and ocean champions.

Initiating a practical model for embedding transformative learning in education that will promote sustainable development is a challenge for higher education. Siam University decided to assign a task force with the mission to work with communities in order to propose guidelines of learning for sustainability (LfS) based on real-life experiences. Selected communities which have agreed to be the community living labs for teaching and learning activities of the university were chosen based on the Bray and Thomas’ Cube Model. There are differences in sizes (number of members), locations (urban, suburban), and histories (old settlement with long history and rich culture and the newly settlement communities consisting of migrated members). Community-based participatory research (CBPR) was applied in the study. The initial model was developed from the synthesis of experiential work with communities in sustainability-related projects. After revision, the “Learning for Sustainability Action Model” was proposed. Success factors in implementing the model were also suggested.

As UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) are integrated across Asia-Pacific Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), the purpose of this descriptive and exploratory study is to investigate undergraduates’ own self-stated commitment to the SDGs and their perceived feasibility by the 2030 target.

A mixed-methodology approach covered quantitative and qualitative approaches facilitated by purposive selection of an Asia-Pacific HEI via a Japanese liberal arts college where a questionnaire survey was administered in Autumn 2021. Responses were monitored from freshmen students in twin courses within the same major (introduction to “Environment” and “Development” studies, respectively; n = 177) that both integrated SDGs within their respective curricula.

Students in both classes rated the SDGs as a useful learning tool but were sceptical of their feasibility by 2030. A self-stated commitment was high, especially among environment studies students. Multiple regression was run to predict SDGs commitment from gender, major, perceived SDGs’ usefulness and feasibility. These variables partially predicted SDGs commitment but only gender and major variables added statistical significance. Moreover, the same variables were less equivocal in terms of predicting the self-stated belief that the SDGs could be achieved by 2030.

The findings can inform instructors of students’ perceptions towards SDGs. Significant differences raise academic and applied discussion points, such as how to engage male students, for example, by setting up sustainability “business case” practicums.

As global HEIs grapple with effective ways to vertically integrate SDGs into a university’s curriculum, students’ opinions are often underrepresented. This paper’s originality and value address these gaps by exploring a holistic student-centric perspective on SDGs in the context of commitment. This paper also has implications for more effective cross-curricula integration of the SDGs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of four different sport programs on various social and subjective health outcomes among prisoners.

Four different sport programs (endurance, strength, dance-like martial arts, soccer) were provided in 2020 and 2021 in a German prison. Participants completed paper-pencil surveys before and after the sport programs (n = 134 observations), including questions about potential social health (enjoyment of physical activity, interpersonal exchange, interpersonal trust, self-efficacy) and subjective health outcomes (health status, health satisfaction, well-being). Further information such as prisoner characteristics were added to the data.

Results of regression analyses show that the endurance program had a significant positive effect on interpersonal trust, while the soccer program had a negative effect. Subjective well-being increased significantly after the strength and the soccer program. The weekly sport hours before imprisonment had a positive association with enjoyment of physical activity and interpersonal exchange while being negatively related to health status and health satisfaction. Furthermore, the number of months of imprisonment before the survey, being a young offender, the prisoners’ body mass index, educational level and migration background were significantly associated with several social and subjective health outcomes.

This study analyzed the effects of different sport programs for prisoners on various social and subjective health outcomes, revealing differences across programs and outcomes. The findings suggest that sport can be a way to enhance prisoners’ social and subjective health, ultimately facilitating their rehabilitation process.