Analyzing Educational Practices and Revealing Effective Approaches to Optimize Environmental Awareness: A Multicountry Study

Environmental education (EE) seeks to promote a culture of sustainability through practices that foster ecological awareness. However, many of these experiences remain scattered and insufficiently systematized, limiting their transformative potential. This underscores the need to analyze such practices across diverse international contexts to identify effective educational approaches that can enhance environmental awareness and inform future actions. A qualitative design with a descriptive phenomenological orientation was employed to explore the lived experiences of EE. Data were collected through online interviews with 25 teachers from diverse countries and were analyzed thematically using ATLAS.TI version 8. Five effective approaches to optimize environmental awareness emerged: (a) Sustainability Education (Education for sustainable development, Environmental Sustainability, EE, Sustainable Development, Environmental Research), (b) Environmental Competence (Environmental Knowledge (knowledge), Environmental Performance (skills), Environmental Attitudes (attitudes), Environmental Values (values), Environmental Ethics (valuations), (c) Global Environmental Challenges (Climate Change, Global Warming, Environmental Pollutions, Environmental Problems, Environmental Health), (d) Environmental Stewardship (Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental Assessment, Environmental Impact, Environmental Quality, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Policy, Environmental Management), (e) Pro-environmental Engagement (Ecological Awareness, Environmental Sensitivity, Environmental Concerns, Environmental Protection, Environmental Responsibility, Local Participation, Pro-environmental Behavior). The findings underscore the urgent need to implement educational practices that integrate pro-environmental knowledge, skills, and values among students. The study identifies five key approaches that can serve as strategic foundations for curriculum design, teacher training, and institutional policies. This international and multidimensional perspective offers concrete guidance for developing programs that foster critical ecological awareness and empower learners to become active agents of sustainability.