Analysis of teacher training students' perception of human rights and sustainability: A critical look at textile consumption from the perspective of environmental justice

Abstract

Faced with contemporary socio-environmental challenges, universities must integrate human rights and environmental justice education with a critical approach. The textile industry exemplifies this urgency: it is highly polluting and exploitative, with unequal impacts on the Global South. 

The study has found interesting results on the students' perceptions and evidences a paradox: the socio-environmental damages of fast fashion are recognized, but unsustainable consumption habits are maintained. Analyses from the environmental justice and human rights approaches point to the relevance of the externalization of impacts to the Global South and labour exploitation in the textile chain among these perceptions, although it also makes clear the need for attitudinal change beyond raising awareness. For this, education must go beyond theory, promoting political action, critical consumption and denunciation of concrete practices and campaigns, as well as support for regulations reflecting the need for collective co-responsibility