Assessing the State of Canadian Environmental Sustainability Education in Teacher Education in a Post-Truth Era

• In Event: 18.043 - Assemblage Thinking and the Mobilization of Education for Sustainable Development Policy Within a Canadian Province

Abstract

Today’s world is fraught with myriad environmental challenges. Thus, there is need for skilled teachers capable of preparing tomorrow’s youth to effectively confront these challenges. In the past decade, Canadian ministries of education have enacted policies mandating environmental sustainability education (ESE) in K-12 education. By extension, these policies also require teacher education (TE) institutions to emphasize ESE in their programs. However, evidence suggests that implementation of effective ESE pedagogies in TE remain patchy and inconsistent. Thus, there is urgent need to assess the status of ESE-TE in Canada to inform today’s educators and policy makers. This paper reports on pan-Canadian research undertaken in 2018 by a group of ESE-TE educators aimed at assessing the state of ESE-TE in Canada today.

Authors

• Maurice Digiuseppe, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

• Douglas David Karrow, Brock University

• Richard Kool, Royal Roads University

• Patrick Howard, University of Alberta

• Emily Lin, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Paul Elliott, Trent University

• Laura Sims, Université de St. Boniface

• Robert Vanwynsberghe, The University of British Columbia