Abstract:
This study focuses on the design and implementation of the Teacher Education and
Sustainability Scale (TESS), an instrument to assess the professionalism of teacher educators in relation
to sustainability in the context of Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Despite the importance of the SDGs, there is very little research on the identity of teacher educators
in relation to sustainability. The Teach4Reach 2.0 project, an international collaboration between
the University of Pretoria, the University of Vienna and the University of Innsbruck, aims to fill the
research gap in the quantitative measurement of this key area by examining the professionalism
of teacher educators in relation to sustainability in order to strengthen their identity. The TESS
questionnaire was developed in a structured four-stage process that initially included AI-generated
items and was followed by expert refinement and a testing phase with participants from Austria and
South Africa. The findings discuss the process of developing the TESS questionnaire and include a
critical reflection on AI and on the need for targeted professional development for teacher educators
in the field of sustainable development.
