Investigating Strategies to Promote Environmental Education in Teacher Education in Wisconsin

• In Event: 65.080 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 65.080-1 - Questioning the Place of Environmental Education in Preservice Education

Abstract

Wisconsin has a long history in conservation and environmental education. In the 1930s, Wisconsin citizens first identified the need for conservation education for youth in the state and, in 1983, it was determined that schools must have curriculum plans that integrated environmental education. Additionally, environmental education model academic standards were published in 1998. Teacher education institutions are further mandated to prepare future teachers to teach such topics. As found in other studies and in other states (Lane et al., 1994, 1996; Mastrilli, 2005; McKeown-Ice, 2000; Meredith et al., 2002), the implementation of environmental education in teacher education varies and leads to the question: In what ways are pre-service teachers being prepared to teach K-12 students about the environment? The goal of this study was to review the environmental education preparation of pre-service teachers in Wisconsin. Surveys and interviews of 33 teacher preparation program representatives asked them to describe how environmental education was integrated into their program.

Interesting trends emerged from these data, two of which are described here:
(a) They can choose to, but they do not have to - The majority (75%) of teacher education programs do not have a separate environmental education course. Many of these programs fulfill the environmental education requirement by having pre-service teachers enroll in a science course. However, each of these pre-service teachers enrolls in at least one science or social studies methods course. An investigation of course syllabi shows that the pre-service teachers are usually asked to peer teach, develop a unit to teach to K-12 students, and/or investigate an issue. Rarely is the pre-service teacher required to use an environmental topic for these activities. When asked about this, many respondents commented that, “They can choose to, but they do not have to select an environmental topic.” It is up to the individual pre-service teacher, and those who are not overly interested in environmental issues usually choose another topic.
(b) Weak connections to social studies - Other than geography, there is little mention of social studies concepts in environmental education preparation. As one teacher education program representative said, “The perception with both many faculty and most students is that environmental education is a natural science.” There is only one teacher education program in this State that explicitly states on their website that environmental education is integrated within their social studies methods course. While some believe the content of environmental education issues rests squarely in the sciences and the processes of what action should be taken lie within the realm of social studies, it seems the connections between the environment and social studies are not transparent enough.

Our presentation will critically examine these results, as well as explore what teacher education programs successfully presenting environmental education: besides having at least one individual who has championed environmental education on their campus, they also have a driving force at the institutional level, a social resource (as described by Gamoran et al., 2003) that facilitates the development of high quality environmental education activities.

Authors

• Rebecca Franzen, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

• Scott A. Ashmann, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay