Catalytic Communication in Sustainability Education: Bridging the Knowledge–Action Gap Through Affective Engagement and Strategic Praxis

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can support and strengthen responses to the environmental challenges faced today. However, the sustainability knowledge–action gap remains mostly unbridged. This article examines communication as a lever for learning and behavior change in sustainability education and compares the use of communication in conventional delivery and a narrative, dialogic and affective communication mode in secondary, university and community-based learning settings in a mixed-methods experimental study. Quantitative measures (pre-, post-, follow-up) included knowledge, systems thinking, emotional engagement, motivation and self-reported sustainable behaviors. Qualitative data, including interviews, observations and action research projects, were also collected to gain deeper insights into learner engagement with knowledge, systems thinking, emotional engagement and motivation. Results suggest that participants in the catalytic communication condition felt more cognitively and emotionally engaged than the control condition, and displayed more long-term pro-environmental behavior. Mediation analysis suggests that the increase in pro-environmental behavior may be driven by an increase in feelings of empathy and hope associated with the learning experience. This supports the understanding that tailored communication can help to reduce the knowledge–action gap in ESD and provides additional insights into the usefulness of cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of sustainability-oriented pedagogical approaches.