RT journal article
T1 Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers’ Perceptions of Critical Thinking and Sustainability: A Comparative Study Between Spain and Poland
A1 Aragón Núñez, Lourdes
A1 Opora, R.
A1 Casanova Correa, Juan
A2 Didáctica
K1 critical thinking
K1 initial teacher training
K1 perceptions
K1 sustainability
AB This study explores the perceptions of future educators, specifically Early Childhood Education students at the Universities of Cádiz and Gdansk, regarding the interconnections between critical thinking and sustainability. The work aims to provide valuable insights into general teacher training, examining how these students’ experiences are contextualized within their respective educational systems and cultural contexts. To achieve this, eleven group interviews (three in Cádiz, eight in Gdansk) were conducted using a structured and expert-validated script. The transcribed data were qualitatively analyzed using QDA MINER v.6 software. Key findings reveal divergent perceptions of critical thinking among pre-service teachers: while Spanish students leaned towards a subjective understanding, Polish students emphasized an objective, data-driven approach. This distinction has significant implications for the conceptualization and teaching of critical thinking in educator training. Despite these differences, both groups of participants highlighted the necessity of implementing active methodologies in higher education (such as cooperative learning, problem-solving, and debates) to foster critical thinking, both for their own development and for preparing for their future practice with young children. This study also identified an excessive emphasis on theoretical aspects of sustainability in these future teachers’ training and a limited understanding of their practical application in the classroom. Furthermore, explicit connections between critical thinking and sustainability were scarce in student responses, highlighting a gap in current educator training in these areas. Collectively, the results suggest significant weaknesses in current teacher training efforts regarding the development of critical thinking and its effective integration with sustainability competencies
PB Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
SN 2071-1050
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37879
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37879
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 21-sep-2026