Sustainability has become increasingly important in recent decades and has become a key concept in various areas of society. The early integration of sustainability principles into education is of crucial importance, as the elementary school years represent a decisive phase in children's development. During this phase, fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviors are formed that will have a significant impact on later lives and the relationship with the environment. Elementary school offer a unique opportunity to reach people from different social backgrounds and thus impart a common basic knowledge that can serve as a basis for shaping a sustainable society. Elementary schools are therefore an ideal place to introduce children to the principles of sustainability and sensitize them to the challenges of the 21st century. The aim of the study is to explore the current state of sustainability education in elementary school. It takes a closer look at whether elementary school students are old enough to be confronted with sustainability, what methods already exist and what the challenges are in implementing sustainability education. The basis for the study is an online survey conducted at 60 different elementary school in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany. In conclusion, while there is room for improvement, the survey results suggest a growing awareness of the significance of sustainability education in elementary schools. The findings call for targeted efforts to enhance curriculum integration, teacher training, and resource provision to promote a more sustainable and environmentally conscious generation of students in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

This study aims to examine and challenge the impact of local government policy governance on the oil palm plantation sector in Riau Province, Indonesia. It was discovered that 1,628 million hectares of illegal oil palm plantations are located within forest areas. Plantation area and crop harvest areas are declining due to the increase in damaged old plants, low productivity of plantation crops, inadequate facilities and infrastructure conditions, low technology application, plantation business licensing, limited downstream plantation industry and marketing, assistance in changing the attitudes, behavior, and skills of farmers. The methodology used was exploratory qualitative to explore this topic, and the determination of research topics was conducted using Biblioshiny application analysis. Then, the data was analyzed using Nvivo 12 Plus software. The results of this study discovered that the policy governance of the oil palm plantation sector as a leading commodity in Riau Province, Indonesia, is influenced by three dimensions: firstly, the actor dimension; secondly, the structural dimension; and third, the empirical dimension of governance. This research contributes as a knowledge reference to oil palm plantations.

Lifelong learning (LLL) is progressively recognized as a crucial component of personal and professional development, particularly for adult students. As a heavily populated developing country, China requires profound national education reform to support its economic development and maintain its competitive advantage on the global economic stage. The governmental policy endorses the execution of diverse forms of lifelong learning programs to bolster the national education reform. However, implementing such programs can be challenging for all the stakeholders of the programs, especially for adult students. The weaker foundational knowledge and insufficient online learning abilities of adult students particularly highlight the academic challenges they face. This study explores the academic challenges faced by adult learners in a Chinese vocational college’s LLL program. Focusing on ex-soldiers, unemployed individuals, migrant workers, and new professional farmers (aged 22–44), data were collected from 16 adult students via purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis revealed recurring thematic academic challenges. Additionally, the study found that adult student attributes (highest education level, age) significantly influenced the unique academic challenges they encountered. This research provides practical solutions to improve LLL programs and promote successful lifelong learning experiences for adult students. 

As urbanisation increases, questions arise about the desirability of further urban growth, as it was not accompanied by corresponding economic growth, and social and environmental problems began to grow in the largest cities in the world. The objective of the article is to substantiate the limits of urbanization growth in Kazakhstan based on the study of theoretical views on this process, analysis of the dependence of social and economic parameters of 134 countries on the urbanisation level and calculation of the urbanisation level that contributes most to economic growth and social well-being. To achieve the goal, the following tasks have been set and solved: theoretical views on the process of urbanization have been generalized; a hypothesis has been put forward about the emergence of an “urbanization trap” in which the growth of large cities is not accompanied by economic growth and improvement of social well-being; an analysis of the dependence of socio-economic indicators on the level of urbanization has been carried out on the example of 134 countries of the world; the level of urbanization that maximizes economic growth and social well-being is calculated; the necessity of the development of small towns in Kazakhstan is substantiated. To solve the problems, the methods of logical analysis, analogies and generalizations, economic statistics, index, graphical, Pearson correlation analysis, Spearman and Kendall rank regression based on models in SPSS were used. As a result, the following conclusions are made: the hypothesis of a possible deterioration of socio-economic indicators in large cities is confirmed; the best positive result is demonstrated by the level of urbanization of 50%–59%. The recommendations are justified: in Kazakhstan, it is necessary to adhere to the level of urbanization no higher than 59%; the growth of urbanization should be ensured through the development of small towns; it is necessary to improve the methods of managing the process of urbanization and develop individual city plans.

The COVID-19 epidemic has given rise to a new situation that requires the qualification and training of teachers to operate in educational crises. Amidst the pandemic, online training has emerged as the predominant approach for delivering teacher training. The COVID-19 pandemic has created potential opportunities and challenges for online training, which may have a long-lasting impact on online training procedures in the post-pandemic era. This study aims to determine the primary potential and constraints of online training as seen by instructors. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) identified online training opportunities and challenges by examining the to-be-applied behavioral intention variables that influence trainees. These variables include individual, system, social, and organizational factors. The study has applied the Phenomenological technique to address the research issues, using the Semi-structured interview tool to get a comprehensive knowledge of the online training phenomena amongst the pandemic. A total of seven participants were selected from a list of general education teachers at the Central Education Office of the Education Department in Bisha Governorate. These people were deliberately selected because of their high frequency of completing training sessions throughout the epidemic. A series of interviews was conducted with these participants. The findings indicated that the primary prospects included both equal opportunities and digital culture within the individual factors, enrollment in training programs and variation in training programs across organizational characteristics, the use of digital material and electronic archiving within the system variables, engaging in the exchange of personal experiences, providing constructive criticism, and fostering favorable communication within the realm of social factors. However, the primary obstacles included deficiencies in digital competencies, compatibility of trainees’ attributes, and dearth of desire as per individual factors, the temporal arrangement of training programs, as well as the lack of prior preparation and preparedness within the realm of organizational factors. Other challenges included the absence of trainer assessment, limited diversity of training exercises, and technological obstacles within the system factors, and ultimately the absence of engagement with the instructor, and lack of engagement with peers are within the social variable.