A Comparative Study of Sustainability Education among Iranian EFL Instructors and Social Sciences Instructors

During the twentieth century, the views of sustainability and its vital contribution to the refinement of education systems have become so momentous that many researchers have sought to remove barriers to achieving sustainability in the education system and across disciplines. Yet, such research has been less common in the humanities. Hence, the present study tried to depict a picture of the strengths and shortcomings of EFL and Social Sciences (SS) instructors in terms of sustainability literacy, sustainability implementation, and eventually Sustainability Education (SE). Moreover, it provides the readers with the status of SE in EFL and SS faculties in Iran and offers clear recommendations for how and in which specific areas to adopt interdisciplinary approaches for SE development. This comparative study can pave the way for further practical studies in these areas through a quantitative method using a researcher-developed questionnaire with 300 participants. It proved that SS instructors have the potential to make outstanding contributions to sustainability literacy enhancement and EFL instructors are well aware of the strategies which work for sustainability implementation. It also came down in favor of the specific courses which should be incorporated into all-round teacher education policy. The study can be an important step towards teacher education reform and has implications for different fields of humanities. It has been implied that multidisciplinary approaches can bring about livelier and more effective teacher training programs.