• Energy Research

The world, society and education are constantly evolving, and to respond to these changes, the main governmental institutions have been proposing different global strategies to focus efforts in the same direction. Currently, the United Nations and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have presented a series of indicators that could help to minimise the environmental, economic and social instability we are experiencing. In this sense, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been described as a fundamental factor. Specifically, in previous work, we argued that physical education (PE) could be a good tool to contribute to SDGs. Based on this, no research analysing the voices of Physical Education Teachers (PET) on how this contribution could be made has been identified in previous literature. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: (1) to analyse the voices and opinions of active PETs in terms of the knowledge they have about Sustainable Development (SD); (2) to determine their opinions about the contribution that PE could make to SDGs; and finally, (3) to identify the challenges and limitations of pedagogical action of SD in PE. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis through a semi-structured interview with 41 active PETs was carried out. The main findings will be presented and discussed around four themes: (a) agreement on the concept of sustainability; (b) PE can contribute to the achievement of SDGs; (c) ambiguity in applying SDGs to PE lessons; and (d) teachers’ constraints on how to implement SDGs in PE. It seems to indicate that PETs do not have a multidimensional vision of sustainable development. While they recognise the potential of PE to contribute to SDGs through awareness raising and student learning, they point to its pedagogical and formative constraints as the main barriers to being able to contribute. They pointed to a lack of knowledge on how to do so, guidelines on how to integrate ESD, lack of involvement, shortage of time or resources in school physical education.

The objective of this work was to examine the perceptions of adults responsible for the care of children in their leisure time about the contribution of public playgrounds to motor, social, and creative development and obesity reduction in children, analyzing these perceptions according to sex, age, educational level, and level of involvement in the child’s education of the participants. The sample consisted of 1019 adults responsible for the care of children in their leisure time in Albacete (Spain). A validated questionnaire was the instrument used to assess perceptions of participants on the influence of the public playgrounds in motor, social, and creative development and obesity reduction of children. The instrument was validated on a first sample of convenience and had good reliability (α = 0.997) and construct validity (CFI = 0.997). The results showed that most participants agreed with the positive contribution of public playgrounds to social skills (78.8%), motor skills (53.7%), creativity (52.2%), and obesity reduction (48.8%) in children. Women, those between 30 and 49 years, those with a higher educational level and those with a higher level of involvement in the child’s education had more positive perceptions regarding the impact of public playgrounds to motor, social, and creative development and obesity reduction in children. These results should be taken in consideration to foster the use of public playgrounds in all sectors of population.