Preservice teachers' perceptions of sustainability as 'professional practice'
Conference Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Preservice teachers in the School of Education, James Cook University are provided with productive opportunities to develop beliefs, values and practices about sustainability at different points in their education program. Education for sustainability is core practice within the recently refreshed teacher education program at the university. Preservice teachers were asked about their conceptions of sustainability, and familiarity with a range of approaches to teach sustainability education. Data were collected through focus groups. in each year of a four-year (Bachelor of Education) and a one-year program (Graduate Diploma of Education). This paper reports on preservice teachers' familiarity with, and exposure to, a range of approaches that characterize sustainability education, during both oncampus studies and practicum. Their views on the importance of learning how to 'teach sustainability' within these approaches are described. Results from this study provide infonnation on preservice teachers' perceptions of what sustainability means; and the gap between seeing it as important and the extent of opportunities they recognize as contributing to their professional practice as sustainability educators. The paper also explores the confounding effect of preservice teachers' limited views of what constitutes sustainability education, which can result in the rejection of experiences, which program planners saw as explicitly developing environmentally attentive learning.
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Publication Name
16th Biennial Australian Association for Environmental Education Conference – Leading Change: Living for One Planet
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ISBN/ISSN
978-0-9578335-3-1
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Pages Count
10
Location
Canberra ACT, Australia
Publisher
AAEE National Conference committee
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Publisher Location
Edith Cowan University, Perth WA
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