Young people are the future of society and agents for social change, and so it is crucial to provide education that not only equips them with knowledge and skills but also changes their attitudes and behavior towards sustainable development. This study provides a review on how pedagogical approaches in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education can be deployed to teach concepts of sustainability. It also shows how secondary school teachers perceived STEM education and how they applied integrated STEM disciplines in designing projects to address development issues in Vietnam. Seventy-seven STEM teaching projects of teachers across the country were analysed, and interviews were conducted with 635 teachers who participated in the STEM program. Teachers valued STEM education and were willing to apply constructivist pedagogical methods to help solve the real-world problems. It is hoped that an integrated STEM approach can transform education into an innovative and inclusive education for social equity and sustainable development.

Many Mediterranean countries have experienced water shortages during the last 20 years and future climate change projections foresee further pressure on water resources. This will have significant implications for irrigation water management in agricultural systems in the future. Through qualitative and quantitative empirical research methods carried out on a case study on four Mediterranean farming systems located in Oristano, Italy, we sought to understand the relationship between farmers’ perceptions of climate change (i.e., increased temperature and decreased precipitation) and of present and future water availability for agriculture as forecasted by climatic and crop models. We also explored asymmetries between farmers’ perceptions and present and future climate change and water scenarios as well as factors influencing perceptions. Our hypotheses were that farmers’ perceptions are the main drivers of actual water management practices and that sustainable practices can emerge from learning spaces designed from the understanding of the gaps between perceptions and scientific evidences. Results showed that most farmers perceived that climate change is occurring or will occur in their area. They also perceived that there has been an increased temperature trend, but also increased precipitation. Therefore, they are convinced that they have and will have enough irrigation water for agriculture in the near future, while climate change projections foresee an increasing pressure on water resources in the Mediterranean region. Such results suggest the need for (i) irrigation management policies that take into account farmers’ perceptions in order to promote virtuous behaviors and improve irrigation water use efficiency; (ii) new, well-designed learning spaces to improve the understanding on climate change expectations in the near future in order to support effective adaptive responses at the farm and catchment scales.

The impacts of natural hazards on education systems are an understudied subject. This paper conducts a systematic review of the literature on multiple hazards and school education to explore hazard-induced disruptions in school education and the determinants of its vulnerability and resilience. The PRISMA framework is adopted to examine how indicators of vulnerability are clustered into various components for school vulnerability assessment. As the involvement of school children is vitally important in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management at the local, regional, and global levels for resilience development in school education, the study also reviews school children’s participation in initiatives from various international organizations. The review results show that participation by children in DRR is generally weak due to the authoritarian tendency of society and lack of trust in the ability of children. It is observed that damaged infrastructure causes school closures for prolonged periods, leading to discontinuity of education. The review also highlights the lack of policies in implementing the Comprehensive School Safety Framework and the role of social networks in building resilience at schools. Future research should provide clear guidelines on children’s participation in DRR and the linkage between disruptions of school education and critical structural damage due to disasters.