In contributing towards the discourse on developing teachers’ capabilities for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this study examines the relationships between sustainability knowledge, readiness, and self-efficacy for teaching sustainability concepts among vocational teachers in Malaysian colleges. Grounded in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, the research assesses the combined effect of teachers’ sustainability knowledge and readiness on their ability to teach sustainability effectively. Using a cross-sectional survey design, a sample of three hundred and seventy-five (375) vocational college teachers and structural equation modeling (SEM), the results indicate no significant link between teachers’ sustainability knowledge and their readiness for ESD. However, a positive relationship between teachers’ readiness and their self-efficacy was found. The study shows that while sustainability knowledge does not directly enhance readiness for ESD, it is a strong predictor of self-efficacy in teaching sustainability. Moreover, readiness has a greater effect on self-efficacy than sustainability knowledge alone, highlighting the importance of conceptual understanding in building teachers’ confidence and competence in sustainability education. Despite focusing specifically on Malaysia and using self-reported data, which to some extent limits the study’s findings, the outcomes offer practical insights for educational policymakers, vocational institutions, and educators. They underscore the need for a comprehensive educational approach beyond just knowledge transfer. This research contributes to the sustainability education discourse and suggests areas for future studies, including exploring contextual differences and adopting longitudinal study designs to better understand the dynamics between sustainability knowledge, readiness, and teaching self-efficacy in vocational education.

(2020). The WHO, the global governance of health and pandemic politics. Educational Philosophy and Theory. Ahead of Print.

(2020). US–China Rivalry and ‘Thucydides’ Trap’: Why this is a misleading account. Educational Philosophy and Theory. Ahead of Print.

The inspiration for this collective writing project began with a digital conference entitled ‘Knowledge Socialism, COVID-19 and the New Reality of Education’ held at Beijing Normal University. In this conference and through this article, multiple researchers spread across six continents have engaged in the collaborative task of outlining emerging innovations and alternative contingencies towards education, international collaboration, and digital reform in this time of global crisis. Trends associated with digital education, knowledge openness, peer production, and collective intelligence as articulated by Michael A. Peters’ conception of Knowledge Socialism are given careful analysis and exploration. Some of the members of this collective endeavor to identify problems, others, begin to draw boxes around potential solutions. Overall, this article engages with real world challenges and innovations that look beyond dominant neoliberal trends in the knowledge economy to build bridges toward novel possibilities in this era of rapid digital change.

We investigate the nexus between education spending and education success measured through attainment rate for 50 US states. Our emphasis is mainly to use state-level data on education spending which occur in general and specific terms. The outcome from our finding can be summarized as follows. One, education spending constitutes a significant factor that motivates people for higher education and it is a motivating factor that ensures completion. Two, we establish further emphasis with the types of spending and its differing stance on education success. While general spending plays important roles in this regard, specific (particularly spending on capital project) is found to reverse the success rate. This suggests that capital spending on education necessarily needs to reach a defined threshold to incite positive check in the current nexus. Three, the magnitude of impact for total spending is lower than when general spending is used, which make the impact of capital spending more conspicuous. Lastly, we also establish asymmetric impact of spending across differing categories between Black Belt and Non-Black Belt states. While the spending pattern is significant for both regions, the magnitude is higher for the Black Belt region indicating the tendency of the region to benefit more when spending improves. We further offer important policy stance.