An Examination of Pre-Service Primary School Teachers Awareness of Sustainable Development

This study aims to examine pre-service primary school teachers’ awareness of sustainable development by analyzing it in relation to various variables. Specifically, it investigates whether their awareness differs significantly based on their engagement with scientific publications during undergraduate education, the frequency of reading sustainability-related academic content, their use of media sources (e.g., newspapers, TV channels, magazines), their attention to sustainability-focused media content, and their perceptions of how much their undergraduate education contributes to this awareness. The research was conducted during the 2024–2025 academic year with 164 pre-service teachers studying in the Department of Primary Education at a public university in Türkiye. A descriptive survey design, a quantitative research method, was employed. Data were collected using the Sustainable Development Awareness Scale developed by Öztürk Demirbaş (2011). As the data followed a normal distribution, parametric tests were used in the analysis. The results showed no statistically significant differences in sustainable development awareness based on participants’ general media use, attention to sustainability-related media content, or perceived contribution of undergraduate education. However, a significant difference was found in favor of participants who reported reading scientific publications specifically related to sustainable development.