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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain.
Sec. Circular Economy
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2025.1414055
This article is part of the Research Topic Integrating social aspects to improve resource recovery View all 4 articles

Circular Economy and Sustainable Development in Primary Education

Provisionally accepted
Aikaterini D. Kosta Aikaterini D. Kosta 1Kiriaki M. Keramitsoglou Kiriaki M. Keramitsoglou 1Konstantinos P Tsagarakis Konstantinos P Tsagarakis 2*
  • 1 Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece
  • 2 Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Acknowledging the importance of implementing environmental policies at the ground level, research reveals slow knowledge diffusion and behavioral challenges affecting policy outcomes. Despite the global consensus, national sustainable development policies often remain incomplete. Focusing on education, while the circular economy (CE) is extensively discussed in higher education, it remains notably absent in primary education curriculums. Drawing on the responses of 61 primary education teachers, this study (i) locates the lack of integration of circularity and sustainability concepts at Greek State primary schools, underscores the necessity for their inclusion into the curriculum more systemically and systematically to address disparities, and suggests solutions for a more comprehensive environmental education; (ii) unveils primary educators' awareness and positivity toward teachinglearning of sustainable development goals and education for a CE and emphasizes on their ongoing support, education, and training.

    Keywords: Circular economy, Education policy, Environmental Education, Sustainable development goals, Primary education

    Received: 08 Apr 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Kosta, Keramitsoglou and Tsagarakis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Konstantinos P Tsagarakis, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.