Geography Teachers’ Knowledge of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Özet

The 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has now been accepted as an idea for a more peaceful world. Malaysia has implemented the SDGs into the 11^th Malaysia Plan, and including the education sector. The Secondary School Standard Curriculum (KSSM) Geography has incorporated elements of global sustainability and global citizenship at the lower and upper secondary education levels. Geography teachers have a responsibility to understand the idea of SDGs that they need to integrate into the teaching and learning (T&L) activities in the classroom. However, the findings from previous studies showed that the level of teachers' knowledge about Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and SDGs is still low level, even though they have been introduced for a long time. This study was conducted to measure the level of knowledge among Geography teachers in Penang and to examine the differences between option and non-option teachers based on their SDGs knowledge. A total of 252 participants were involved in this study. This study used a quantitative method through a questionnaire instrument. The findings showed that the overall general knowledge of SDGs was at a high medium level which included the term of Sustainable Development (SD), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and meaning of sustainable targeted SDGs by the year 2030. Meanwhile, 17 goals of SDGs showed high and high medium levels among Geography teachers. Overall, teachers' knowledge was at a high level for the dimension of environmental based on the 17 goals of SDGs. The rest of the goals were observed at high medium levels for the economic and social dimensions. Besides, the findings indicated that there is a significant difference between the groups of option and non-option teachers. Therefore, in this case, specific training in the SDGs agenda is required for Geography teachers to increase knowledge and facilitate the integration of SDG elements into the teaching and learning (T&L) activities.