Tensions and Opportunities in Environmental Education in Preservice Education

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

Abstract

How significant a component of initial teacher education should environmental education be? Faced by the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and resource depletion, one might think it should be at the top of the agenda. In 2009 the Ontario Ministry of Education published a policy framework for Environmental Education. It presented a vision statement, policy framework, goals, strategies, and actions to assist public education stakeholders implement the policy. For faculties of education it provided timely support for existing and new initiatives in environmental education with both teacher candidates and faculty alike. Yet there were few models to follow in doing this work, and lots of unanswered questions: to what extent does environmental education play a role in pre-service programs, how does it inform pedagogy and what shape does it take? What are the challenges faced by pre-service faculty doing this work, and what supports are in place?

Research on environmental education in Canadian pre-service teacher education programs is limited, but growing. Lin’s (2002) survey of environmental education in Canadian pre-service teacher education programs suggests that little has changed since Towler’s (1981) survey; Beckford’s (2008) review of environmental education in Ontario programs notes the limited number of pre-service programs offering courses in this area. The ESD Working Group’s study in 2012 on this topic found that faculties of education are making “modest but promising progress toward reorienting teacher education to address education for sustainable development” (CMEC, 2012, p. 3), including both course-specific and program-wide infusion. However, our experience in the field indicates that environmental education is most often presented in existing subject-specific curriculum courses (typically science, social studies, or geography), potentially losing the interconnectedness of environment, society, economy, politics, and culture necessary for a full implementation. What can faculty do to more effectively assert EE as an interdisciplinary field within pre-service education? How can we enrich and deepen pre-service teachers’ experiences of and competence in environmental education?

Working from these starting points, Ontario faculty gathered to launch a collaborative inquiry to discuss challenges, share pedagogical practices, and plan how to better integrate environmental education into the curriculum of their faculties of education. The result was a guide called DEEPER: Deepening EE in Pre-service Education Resource (Inwood and Jagger, 2014), aimed at supporting and inspiring faculty, staff and students to broaden and deepen the implementation of environmental education in pre-service (and other higher education) programs. It shares the expertise of educators who have found successful ways of integrating environmental education into pre-service education, providing professional development for those just starting in this field, and demonstrating the power of a collaborative approach to environmental education when faculties of education, school boards and NGOs work together.

This paper will trace the history and current state of environmental education in pre-service education in Canada, and share some of the key results from the DEEPER guide. By sharing our ‘vexing’ questions and initial answers, we aim to re-energize discussions in this research area, bringing both a message of urgency and hope, to the critical study of environmental education in pre-service education.

Authors

• Hilary J. Inwood, University of Toronto - OISE

• Douglas David Karrow, Brock University

• Paul Elliott, Trent University

• Maurice DiGuiseppe, University of Ontario Institute of Technology