The relation of professional action competence in education for sustainable development (ESD) to sustainability teaching outcome expectancy, ESD value and teacher self-regulation

The aim of the study was to investigate in-service primary, middle and high school teachers' professional action competence in ESD (PACesd) and how sustainability teaching outcome expectancy, ESD value and teacher self-regulation predicted their professional action competence in ESD. This research's analysis comprised two parts. First part was assessing the validity and reliability of the adapted version of PACesd scale. A total of 302 in-service teachers participated in that stage of the research. Second part was conducting multiple regression analysis. 475 in-service teachers participated in that stage of the research. PACesd Scale, IMPesd Scale, Sustainability Teaching Outcome Expectancy Scale and Teacher Self-Regulation Scale were used to investigate research questions. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences in PACesd scores among in-service teachers teaching at different levels of education (i.e., primary, middle, high school). Furthermore, the model including ESD value, sustainability teaching outcome expectancy and teacher self-regulation were able to explain a large portion of variance in PACesd after controlling for the influence of education level in which in-service teachers teach. Also, the model containing ESD value, sustainability teaching outcome expectancy and teacher self-regulation was tested at each education level and it was found that the highest variance in PACesd was explained at primary school level, and it was followed by middle and then high school.