From the Margins to the Mainstream: Canadian and International Teacher ESE

Special Guest Editoral for Volume 32, Issue 2

A state-wide systems approach to embedding the learning and teaching of sustainability in teacher education

[Extract] Education systems have a key role to play in preparing future citizens to engage in sustainable living practices and help create a more sustainable world. Many schools throughout Australia have begun to develop whole-school approaches to sustainability education that are supported by national and state policies and curriculum frameworks. Pre-service teacher education, however, lags behind in the effort to build the capacity of new teachers to initiate and implement such approaches (Steele, 2010). Evidence suggests this is because there is limited or no core environmental or sustainability knowledge or pedagogy in pre- and in-service courses and programs available to teachers in a thorough and systematic fashion

New Initiatives for Building Education for Sustainability in Initial Early Childhood Teacher Education in Sweden – Critical Aspects and Noticeable Needs

There is an identified need for research capable of enhancing understanding of effective practice in the embedding of Education for Sustainability (EfS) in Initial Early Childhood Teacher education (IECTE). Research further finds that innovative teaching strategies are needed to build new teachers’ capacity to prepare future citizens to manage critical sustainability challenges. This study meets this need by investigating how EfS is implemented in two IECTE programmes at two Swedish universities where EfS is embedded throughout the years of study, and the learning students demonstrate at the end of the programmes in relation to EfS. Findings reveal that students demonstrate a range of understandings related to EfS and the role of the early childhood teacher in EfS. Findings further suggest there is an overall need to deepen IECTE students’ EfS theoretical and pedagogical content knowledge to enable them to close a gap between the theory and teaching of EfS in early childhood education settings

Comparing education for sustainable development in initial teacher education across four countries

Purpose: This paper undertakes a cross-comparative inquiry into Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) related to governance, initiatives and practices in initial teacher education (ITE) across four countries with very different contexts – Sweden, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. It provides insights into issues arising internationally, implications for ESD in ITE, and offers learnings for other countries and contexts. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-comparative study design with overarching themes and within-case descriptions was applied to consider, compare and contrast governance characteristics, initiatives and practices from each context. Findings: The approaches to governance, initiatives and practices that each country adopts are unique yet similar, and all four countries have included ESD in initial teacher education to some extent. Comparing and contrasting approaches has revealed learnings focused on ESD in relation to governance and regulation, practices, and leadership. Research limitations/implications: Making comparisons between different contexts is difficult and uncertain, and often misses the richness and nuances of the individual sites under study. However, it remains an important endeavour as the challenges of embedding ESD in initial teacher education will be better understood and overcome if countries can learn from one another. Originality/value: Scrutinising different approaches is valuable for broadening views about possibilities, and understanding how policies and initiatives translate in practice

Challenges in Reorienting Early Childhood Education for Sustainability in Initial Teacher Education: Transforming, Creating and Expanding

This editorial essay introduces a special issue on education for sustainability, early childhood education and initial teacher education. We adopt a duoethnographic approach to first provide an overview of the issues, gaps, tensions and challenges in past and current trends in early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) in initial teacher education (ITE). Then, from our perspectives as four teacher educators located in disparate regions of the world: Finland, Turkiye, Canada, and Australia, we invite readers into our own stories as a starting place to explore the papers within the special issue. Through this dynamic interplay of four critically questioning minds and five papers, we aim to transform, create, and expand understanding of the interplay between ECEfS and ITE. We acknowledge that readers will derive their own understandings and responses from the papers, hence, our interpretations are not prescriptive, but rather aim to provoke further contributions to an emerging and developing field

Embedding EfS in teacher education through a multi-level systems approach: Lessons from Queensland

This paper reports on the fourth stage of an evolving study to develop a systems model for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) into pre-service teacher education. The fourth stage trialled the extension of the model to a comprehensive state-wide systems approach involving representatives from all eight Queensland teacher education institutions and other key policy agencies and professional associations. Support for trialling the model included regular meetings among the participating representatives and an implementation guide. This paper describes the first three stages of developing and trialling the model before presenting the case study and action research methods employed, four key lessons learned from the project, and the implications of the major outcomes for teacher education policies and practices. The Queensland-wide multi-site case study revealed processes and strategies that can enable institutional change agents to engage productively in building capacity for embedding EfS at the individual, institutional and state levels in pre-service teacher education. Collectively, the project components provide a system-wide framework that offers strategies, examples, insights and resources that can serve as a model for other states and/or territories wishing to implement EfS in a systematic and coherent fashion

Social-Ecological Resilience through Education for Sustainability: a case study of community scale resilience

The intersection of education for sustainability and social-ecological resilience has received little attention to date, as an an area of research. Education for sustainability is an educational approach which promotes change towards sustainability. Resilience builds capacity to mitigate disruptions, self-organise, learn and adapt. The premise of this book is that successful education for sustainability provides the skills, knowledge and understandings of students, staff and others in the school community to build capacity to manage change in ways that open rather than limit future options. This book adopts a social-ecological perspective to investigate social resilience through education for sustainability. To do this, the author investigates ways four Far North Queensland schools, in Australia, renown for prioritising sustainability education, organise teaching and learning practices and enact the everyday management of the school. In so doing, the author produces a set of propositions about social-ecological resilience at school community level. The book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in sustainability education and resilience

More Than a Sign on the Fence? Teacher Learning and the Reef Guardian Schools Program in Far North Queensland

Whole-school education for sustainability programs aim to enable teachers, students and their communities to take positive actions to address local sustainability issues. Research identifies there is a lack of research which evaluates the impacts and effects of these types of programs for students, teachers and communities. The research described in this book addresses this gap by investigating whether, as a consequence of participating in such a program, teachers are thinking and acting differently. The research involves ten teachers from three diverse schools in Far North Queensland, Australia, who are active participants of the Reef Guardian Schools Program, an action-based sustainability education program. Analysis revealed that all the participant teachers demonstrated changes in the way they do things and in the way they think in both, their professional and personal lives, as a consequence of participating in the Reef Guardian Schools Program. This book discusses how learning for the teachers unfolded together with unanticipated results that emerged from the data. This includes sense of place, sense of responsibility and awareness

Implementing education for sustainability in higher education through student-centred pedagogies.

Education for Sustainability scholars advocate for student-centred transformative pedagogies that espouse learning through active, participatory and experiential learning. However, within higher education there is a lack of empirical and reflective research to support implementation. This chapter begins to address this gap through an action research study that investigated the implementation process and outcome of such pedagogies. Data from weekly journals, student questionnaires and group interview is used to explore learnings related to the processes, methods and challenges experienced. Findings highlight tensions and complexities between theory and practice of EfS pedagogical practice within the university context