Education for Sustainability: An approach to the professional development of teachers

SUMMARY Sustainability is now a required component of science and geography curricula for schools in England, but there is little guidance for teachers to help them fulfil this requirement. In this study an approach was used which enabled teachers of students of 13-18 years in three schools to take some control of their professional development. The research was based on participatory appraisal, participatory action research and co-operative enquiry methods. The teachers set their agenda for achieving their objectives using the researcher as a facilitator. A model was constructed of the main factors affecting sustainability. This was used to devise an approach to teaching that was trialled with several different classes. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated against the criteria identified by the teachers. The results showed that the methodology was effective in this context and it also has wider potential in addressing other pedagogical issues for practising teachers.

[1]  B. Massumi,et al.  The postmodern condition : a report on knowledge , 1979 .

[2]  L. Mason,et al.  Discussing the Greenhouse Effect: Children's Collaborative Discourse Reasoning and Conceptual Change. , 1998 .

[3]  D. Harvey,et al.  The Condition of Postmodernity , 2020, The New Social Theory Reader.

[4]  Jennifer D. Young,et al.  Linking EfS and Biodiversity? A UK-wide survey of the status of education within local biodiversity action plans , 2001 .

[5]  Reflections on the ‘sustainable development’ debate , 1994 .

[6]  J. Heron.  Feeling and Personhood: Psychology in Another Key , 1992 .

[7]  R. Allen.  World conservation strategy. Living resource conservation for sustainable development. , 1980 .

[8]  S. Sterling,et al.  Education for sustainability , 1996 .

[9]  D. Tilbury.  Environmental Education for Sustainability: defining the new focus of environmental education in the 1990s , 1995 .

[10]  C. Gayford.  Biodiversity Education: A teacher's perspective , 2000 .

[11]  I. Berlin,et al.  Four Essays on Liberty , 1969 .

[12]  R. Chambers.  Rural Appraisal: Rapid, Relaxed and Participatory , 1992 .

[13]  C. Gayford.  Environmental Education in Schools: An Alternative Framework , 1996 .

[14]  David Boud,et al.  Appreciating adults learning : from the learners' perspective , 1987 .

[15]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[16]  Bob Jickling,et al.  Education for the Environment: a critique , 1998 .

[17]  L. Sauvé,et al.  Environmental Education and Sustainable Development: A Further Appraisal. , 1996 .

[18]  John Francis Fien.  Environmental education for a new century , 1998 .

[19]  John Fien,et al.  Education for the environment: Critical curriculum theorising and environmental education , 1992 .

[20]  O. Fals-Borda.  Knowledge and people's power : lessons with peasants in Nicaragua, Mexico and Colombia , 1988 .