diff --git a/t/t0000-sharness.t b/t/t0000-sharness.t
index a9d98b46cca5..b476ba41d9e9 100755
--- a/t/t0000-sharness.t
+++ b/t/t0000-sharness.t
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ run_sub_test_lib_test () {
 	(
 		cd "$name" &&
 		cat >".$name.t" <<-EOF &&
-		#!$SHELL_PATH
+		#!/bin/sh
 
 		test_description='$descr (run in sub sharness)
 
diff --git a/t/t0001-basic.t b/t/t0001-basic.t
index 1b212116fa56..d871417b822e 100755
--- a/t/t0001-basic.t
+++ b/t/t0001-basic.t
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ test_expect_success 'test_under_flux works' '
 	mkdir -p test-under-flux && (
 		cd test-under-flux &&
 		cat >.test.t <<-EOF &&
-		#!$SHELL_PATH
+		#!/bin/sh
 		pwd
 		test_description="test_under_flux (in sub sharness)"
 		. "\$SHARNESS_TEST_SRCDIR"/sharness.sh