Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T22:29:12.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Telling Reflections: Teaching Sustainably in a Complex Learning Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2016

Debbie Prescott
Debbie Prescott*
Affiliation:
School of Education, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Debbie Prescott, School of Education, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina Campus, Ellengowan Drive, Casuarina, NT 0909, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines learning design in a postgraduate preservice teacher setting. The overarching aim was to embed environmentally responsive approaches throughout two companion units for diverse student cohorts. This article reports on a teacher educator self-study in a regional university with extensive online delivery for large units (300–800 students) in a 1-year course. The author examines how assessment tasks in literacy- and numeracy-oriented units are designed to meaningfully integrate environmental sustainability using contextual cues, collaborative learning, complex tasks, and reflexivity. The author argues for the use of these four key guidelines of environmentally responsive pedagogies alongside environmental education programs to emphasise messages of sustainability even in units that are not traditionally environmentally oriented. Challenges include problematising the nature of effective teaching and dealing with the complexities of purposeful learning. Innovative unit learning design alone, however, is inadequate if the surrounding systems are fragmented and seen as separate to learning about sustainability.

Keywords

literacyteacher educationassessmentenvironment
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 32 , Issue 1: 18th AAEE Biennial Conference - Sustainability, Smart Strategies for the 21st Century , March 2016 , pp. 80 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bamford, B. (1999). From environmental education to ecopolitics. Affirming changing agendas for teachers. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 31, 157–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, D. (1971). Classroom contexts for language and learning, Educational Review, 23, 235–247.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. (2012). Sustainability education and teacher education: finding a natural habitat? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 28, 108–124.Google Scholar
Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, F.M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.Google Scholar
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2012). Fitting teacher education in/to/for an increasingly complex world. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 9, 30–40. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/complicity/article/view/16531/13213.Google Scholar
Davis, B., Sumara, D., & Luce-Kapler, R. (2008). Engaging minds: Changing teaching in complex times (2nd ed.) New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Davis, B., Sumara, D., & Luce-Kapler, R. (2015). Engaging minds: Cultures of education and practices of teaching (3rd ed.) New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, K., & Wiltshire, K. (2014). Review of the Australian Curriculum — Final report. Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/review-australian-curriculum-final-reportGoogle Scholar
Edwards-Groves, C., Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2014). Classroom talk: Understanding dialogue, pedagogy and practice. Sydney, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).Google Scholar
Ferreira, J., Ryan, L., Davis, J., Cavanagh, M., & Thomas, J. (2009). Mainstreaming sustainability into pre-service teacher education in Australia. Canberra, Australia: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA).Google Scholar
Ferreira, J., Ryan, L., & Tilbury, D. (2014). Planning for success: Factors influencing change in teacher education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 30, 136–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-school approaches to sustainability: An international review of sustainable school programs. Canberra, Australia: Department of the Environment and Heritage.Google Scholar
Jardine, D. (2012). Pedagogy left in peace. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Kennelly, J., Taylor, N., & Serow, P. (2011). Education for sustainability and the Australian curriculum. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 27, 209–218.Google Scholar
LaBoskey, V.K. (2004). The methodology of self-study and its theoretical underpinnings. In Loughran, J., Hamilton, M.L., LaBoskey, V.K., & Russell, T. (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 816–869). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
McDowell, P. (2013). Curriculum through literacy: Applying ‘parallel pedagogy’ in pre-service teacher education. In Pandian, A., Liew, C.C.L., Tan, D.A.L., Muniandy, J., Lee, B.C., & Toh, C.H. (Eds.), New literacies: Reconstructing language and education (pp. 230–246). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Mercer, N. (1995). The guided construction of knowledge: Talk amongst teachers and learners. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Moekle, K.R. (2012). The rhetoric of sustainability: Ecocomposition and environmental pragmatism. In Bartels, K.A. & Parker, K.A. (Eds.), Teaching sustainability; Teaching sustainably. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.Google Scholar
Morin, E. (1999). Seven complex lessons in education for the future (Poller, N., Trans.). Paris, France: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Schultz, M., Rockström, J., Öhman, M., Cornell, S., Persson, Å., & Norström, A. (2013). Human prosperity requires global sustainability: A contribution to the post-2015 agenda and the development of sustainable development goals. Stockholm: Stockholm Resilience Centre.Google Scholar
Sterling, S. (2012). The Future Fit Framework: An introductory guide to teaching and learning for sustainability in HE. York, UK: The Higher Education Academy.Google Scholar
Thomas, I. (2014). Pedagogy for education for sustainability in higher education. Sustainability 6, 1705–1708. doi:10.3390/su6041705.Google Scholar