After a successful pilot year, we are thrilled to announce that we are once again offering our National Environmental & Sustainability Education in Teacher Education (ESE-TE) E-course for new educators. Registration for this e-course is officially open now until Sept. 19. There are limited spots available. Last year this course filled up extremely quickly, so please register ASAP if you are interested in joining!
Overview: This non-credit course is open to post-secondary students learning to be K-12 teachers & Early Childhood Educators who are registered in Canadian teacher education programs in 2022-23. This course is led by ESE experts from across Canada, and sponsored by EECOM, Canada’s only national Environment Education network. It is offered online through synchronous and asynchronous learning. A certificate & EECOM membership is awarded to those who successfully complete the course. Course Details and Meeting Dates: Check out the FAQ Registration opens Sept. 6 and ends Sept. 19, 2022. Register here Questions: Dr. Erin Sperling erin.sperling@utoronto.ca
For more details about the multifaceted and thought-provoking topics you’ll explore and the exciting ways you’ll collaborate with your classmates from across the country please see full details here.
Breaking news – The Association of Canadian Deans of Education (ACDE) launched itsAccord on Education for a Sustainable Future last week. This launch was part of the UBC Dean’s Distinguished Lecture: Climate Justice and Educational Responsibility featuring Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis – the recording is available online.
We commend the ACDE for recognizing the urgency of the climate crisis, and commit to supporting this policy statement, helping to ensure that all faculties of education embed its concepts into preservice and inservice teacher education across the country. We recognize that many faculties of education need support to fully implement the Accord, and so have prepared a ‘primer’ on Environmental & Sustainability Education (ESE) in Teacher Education as a starting point.
Please feel free to share the ACDE’s Accord and this primer with your networks to raise awareness about the critical importance of ESE, as well as starting points for enacting it, in Canadian faculties of education.
If you are a faculty member in a teacher education program in Canada, we encourage you to take advantage of the launch of this Accord to meet with your colleagues, program administration, Dean and community partners to advocate for a stronger presence for ESE and climate change education in preservice and inservice teacher education across the country.
To support your advocacy, you will find many resources, videos, course syllabi, research studies, reference lists and case studies on the ESE-TE network website. We are also offering a new speaker’s service to share expertise in ESE as requested.
We will continue to create and share supports and resources in the coming months, but needyour help to bring these forward to your faculty of education to advocate for better embedding ESE in Teacher Education in our country, and around the world.
The Association of Canadian Deans of Education is launching its Accord for a Sustainable Future on March 29,2022 (5:30-8pm PT), along with a lecture by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis (hosted by UBC).
Please consider inviting your own Dean and colleagues to attend this event with you – this is an opportunity to advocate for a stronger presence for climate change education and ESE in teacher education across the country. The link with further information is below; register in advance for this free online event.
A promotional image for Learning for a Sustainable Future’s new Climate Change Education survey, with an embedded QR code link to the survey.
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is excited to follow up with their second climate change education survey to see how things have changed since their ground-breaking one in 2019. For the 2021 survey, LSF wants to hear from K-12 educators, parents of K-12 students, students 12-18 years of age, faculty of education instructors, and members of the general public. Access the survey here.
A warm welcome to the new ESE-TE Standing Committee Members!
We are happy to announce that there are four new members of the ESE-TE Standing Committee (SC) from across Canada: Dr. Thomas Falkenberg (MB), Shannon Harding (NS), Dr. Andrejs Kulnieks (SK), and Alisa Paul (BC); read more about them on the SC webpage. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to SC members who have recently completed their terms for all of their hard work and dedication to ESE-TE: Dr. Debra Harwood (ON), Dr. Patrick Howard (NS), Dr. Rick Kool (BC), & Dr. Janet McVittie (SK). Our sincere thanks also to Dr. Douglas Karrow, who has completed his term as founding Co-Chair and will remain on the SC. Dr. Paul Elliott will be our new Co-Chair, joining Dr. Hilary Inwood. Thanks to all for their involvement!
We are pleased to announce an exciting new report is now available! Environmental and Sustainability Education in Canadian Faculties of Education, 2017-2018: A research report for the EECOM Standing Committee on Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education completed by Drs. Richard Kool, Douglas D. Karrow, and Maurice DiGiuseppe can be downloaded by clicking the ‘download’ button above.
This study was conceived in June 2016 at the first National Roundtable on Canadian ESE-TE (ESE-TE stands for “Environmental Sustainability Education in Teacher Education”) held at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, where a “National Action Plan” was prepared, suggesting that a survey-based study be conducted to “assess the state of ESE-PTE in Canada” (Karrow & DiGiuseppe, 2019, p. 16).
From this event, a group of National Roundtable participants established the “EECOM Standing Committee on ESE-TE”, which, in the fall of 2017, formed a “Research Development Group” that planned and designed the current study. Three members of this Group formed a “Research and Author Team” that created the research materials, carried out the study, analyzed the data, and prepared this report.
The report presents the findings of this 2019 online survey assessing ESE in preservice teacher education (PTE) programs across Canada. Do you want to learn more about this report and the state of ESE in Canadian faculties of education?Register today for the upcoming online Research Symposium on April 21st as part of the EECOM conference!
EECOM conferences are the largest annual gatherings of people passionate about Environmental and Sustainability Education! This year’s conference is hosted by Toronto-based partners EcoSchools Canada, OISE, TDSB EcoSchools and Natural Curiosity. Find out all about this four-day event on the conference website. We look forward to seeing you online!
Drs. Lindsay Galway, Canada Research Chair in Social and Ecological, and Helle Moller at Lakehead are working on a research project with two masters students about decisions parents go through when weighing up having children or not due to the climate crisis.
If you are interested in participating, please see the Call for Participants poster.
Environmental and Sustainability Education remains a critical challenge for faculties of education across Canada. The involvement of educators at all levels of education is imperative to help Canadians address the climate crisis and make cultural and societal shifts to more sustainable forms of living. Teacher educators are key actors in this, given their influence on the education and training of pre-service and in-service teachers.
A recent special issue of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (vol. 23, issue 1) features articles by Canadian teacher educators who are strengthening this developing field through innovative research and developing new practices. This issue was co-edited by Doug Karrow, Laura Sims and Hilary Inwood, members of EECOM’s Standing Committee on Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education.
This work will be further explored in a biennial Research Symposium on April 21, being offered on the opening day of EECOM’s upcoming conference. Please join us for the Research Symposium and conference – the first time these events have been offered online!
Registration is open for EECOM 2021, Canada’s largest annual national environmental education conference! For the first time ever, EECOM 2021 will be taking place exclusively online, running April 21-24, 2021 and welcomes educators, grades 11, 12, and post-secondary students, classrooms, community organizations, and parents.
Register for EECOM now to guarantee your spot!
The conference kicks off with a Research Symposium featuring some of the leading researchers and educators from Canada and around the world on April 21 and an opportunity to provide input on identifying and prioritizing a national ESE-TE research agenda, followed by three days of dynamic sessions and workshops focusing on four themes: City as Classroom, Indigenous Education, EcoJustice Education, and Water Education.
We’ll also be bringing you three inspiring keynote addresses: a powerful and free public Earth Day kick-off by youth activist Larissa Crawford; a special co-presentation from Indigenous artists Christi Belcourt and Isaac Murdoch; and a deep-dive into climate justice with Julian Agyeman.
In addition to over 100 presenters across 70+ sessions, attendees will experience lively and unique opportunities to safely socialize with other passionate members of the EECOM community through a variety of “Nuit Verte” social events. From a vegan cooking class to a guided organic beer-tasting, this is one conference you won’t want to miss!
The best part? There’s no travel required, so you can learn and build your network while decreasing your environmental impact.
Learn more, view the schedule and speakers, and register your spot now at ecoschools.ca/eecom.
We have two exciting new Zoom webinars to announce from our partners at EECOM. These are about eco-anxiety and there are two offerings on two days (one in English and one in French). See below!
Using the community as classroom in an Indigenous Perspectives in Education course: USB students explore the Arctic Topiaries exhibition on the Red River near The Forks, Winnipeg, in February 2019. Made of snow and ice, these warming huts were designed by @michaelmaltzanarchitecture and built by @jakobi_heinrichs in partnership with the Manitoba Inuit Association to celebrate the opening of the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) Inuit Art Centre.
Our What’s happening in ESE at… Series continues: This week we’re in conversation with Dr. Laura Sims from the Université de Saint-Boniface
By Alysse Kennedy ESE-TE Project Coordinator
Preparing preservice teachers within Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) at the Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) in Winnipeg, Manitoba may look a little different than at other Canadian faculties of education. As the only Francophone university in western Canada, USB places a particular emphasis on linguistic and cultural sustainability.
Tasked with the responsibility of preparing French-language educators in Manitoba as well as the overarching goal to educate for reconciliation, USB’s preservice teacher education program provides mandatory courses to support its teacher candidates. These courses are purposefully related to both the local communities being served and the long-standing cultural context within which the university is inherently steeped. Consequently, at the heart of these courses you’ll find pedagogical approaches that are not only community-focused but also community-based: teaching and learning strategies that address cultural and social aspects of ESE in TE (For more on these pedagogical approaches, see Block, Sims and Beeman, 2016).
Dr. Sims cites using the community as classroom, the community as teacher, using inquiry-based learning and research-based teachings as powerful pedagogical approaches not just for teaching about environmental and social justice concepts but to also engender a deeper context of overall inclusion (for more on inclusion see Sims and Desmarais, 2020). This commitment to inclusion is multifaceted. It includes growing the Francophone community within Manitoba. It includes anti-racist education as the Francophone community is becoming more diverse, with the majority (57%) of new Francophone arrivals being of African descent. Inclusive practices also have a crucial focus on decolonization: an earnest effort is made to focus on fulfilling their Treaty 1 responsibilities (for more on Dr. Sims’ experience teaching this course see Sims, 2019). Courses taught by Dr. Sims integrate ESE in an interdisciplinary way to encourage broader lateral thinking as well as collaboration.
With respect to managing eco-anxiety when dealing with tough topics like the environmental crisis, Dr. Sims strongly feels that community-based learning, using nature as a teacher and promoting agency through inquiry, action-based learning and responsible citizenship help to connect students’ psychological contexts with the environmental. These can foster positive mental health and wellness (for more see Sims, Rocque, and Desmarais, in press). These are aspects tied to inclusion that Dr. Sims believes can help USB’s faculty of education face the environmental crisis in a more meaningful way for their students.
Sims, L., Rocque, R., and Desmarais, M.É. (in press). Enabling students to face the environmental crisis and climate change with resilience: Inclusive environmental and sustainability education approaches and strategies for coping with eco-anxiety. International journal of higher education and sustainability.
Check out more articles related to teaching from USB’s Dr. Laura Sims below:
Special Guest Author post by Dr. Doug Karrow Photo courtesy of Dr. Lucie Sauvé
Note – A French-language version of this post is available following the English version
Dr. Lucie Sauvé
The Canadian Environmental Education and Communication Network (EECOM)’s Standing Committee on Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education congratulates Dr. Lucie Sauvé on the recent announcement of her retirement.
Lucie has been an avid supporter of the Standing Committee since its inception in 2017. She was a key and active participant during the National Roundtable hosted by Trent University, delivering one of its keynote addresses while contributing to several roundtables. She has provided important academic and emotional support to the fledgling organization since its early days, through her involvement in the Standing Committee’s research and outreach activities. In recent years, she has assisted by contributing key advice and resources to support federal grant applications and important research to various knowledge mobilization activities, e.g., Sauvé, L. (2019). Transversality, diversity, criticality, and activism: Enhancing E(S)E in teacher education. In D. Karrow & M. DiGiuseppe (Eds.), Environmental and sustainability education in teacher education: Canadian perspectives, (pp. 49-62). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature AG. ISBN: 978-3-030-25015-7
Dr. Sauvé began her education career as a history, geography and Latin teacher and contributed to the production and dissemination of educational materials in Quebec. She segued to academic life in the 1980’s by completing a master’s degree in environmental science and then the 1990’s by completing a doctoral degree, the first in the French-speaking world to focus on environmental education (read more about this here).
After a short appointment at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières in 1991, she joined the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in 1993 where she remained until retirement at the rank of full professorof the Department of Didactics, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Director of the Research centre in environmental education and ecocitizenship (visit the Centre’ERE website here).
Lucie held the Canada Research Chair in Relative Education to the Environment from 2001-2011 contributing to developing of research in environmental education. As well, she has led several major international cooperation projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, and Bolivia.
I recall meeting Lucie for the first time as she helped coordinate and co-chair the 5thWorld Environmental Education Congress (WEEC), Montreal, Quebec, 2009. I was immediately captivated by her passion, unassuming leadership style, and the unique manner she conceptualized environmental education which focused on our “relationship with the environment [which] contributes to the formulation of our being-in-the-world. . . .” (read more here). This perspective on environmental education helped foster a much-needed critique on the reductive tendency of the ‘education for sustainable development’ discourse, which emphasized the development of an ethical social relationship with our environment.
Lucie’s research activities are exemplary and her publication record impressive, as is her ongoing directorship of the Centr’ERE of UQAM, where her legacy remains.
Anyone who has had the honour and pleasure of working with Lucie first-hand knows of her grace, passion, and keen intellect. In our ongoing work to educate another generation of teachers on the issues of Environmental and Sustainability Education, Lucie has been stalwart. We wish her all the best as she enters another exciting chapter of her life, as dedicated as ever to lead and educate a future generation Canadians about their ethical relationship with the environment.
Le Comité permanent du Réseau canadien d’éducation et de communication relatives à l’environnement (EECOM) sur l’éducation à l’environnement et à la viabilité dans la formation des enseignants félicite la Dr Lucie Sauvé pour l’annonce récente de sa retraite.
Lucie est une fervente collaboratrice du Comité permanent depuis sa création en 2017. Elle a été une participante clé et active lors de la Table ronde nationale organisée par l’Université Trent, prononçant l’un de ses discours principaux tout en contribuant à plusieurs panels. Elle a fourni un important et chaleureux soutien académique à cette organisation naissante depuis ses débuts, grâce à sa participation aux activités de recherche et de sensibilisation du Comité permanent. Au cours des dernières années, elle a offert des conseils et des ressources clés pour soutenir les demandes de subventions fédérales et d’importantes recherches dans le cadre de diverses activités de mobilisation des connaissances : par exemple, Sauvé, L. (2019). Transversality, diversity, criticality, and activism: Enhancing E(S)E in teacher education. In D. Karrow & M. DiGiuseppe (Eds.), Environmental and sustainability education in teacher education: Canadian perspectives, (pp. 49-62). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature AG. ISBN: 978-3-030-25015-7
La Dr Sauvé a commencé sa carrière en éducation comme enseignante d’histoire, de géographie et de latin et a contribué à la production et à la diffusion de matériel pédagogique au Québec. Elle est entrée dans la vie universitaire dans les années 1980 en complétant une maîtrise en sciences de l’environnement puis dans les années 1990, en complétant un doctorat, le premier dans le monde francophone à se concentrer sur l’éducation relative à l’environnement (en savoir plus ici).
Après une courte nomination à l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières en 1991, elle s’est jointe à l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) en 1993 où elle est demeurée jusqu’à la retraite comme professeure titulaire au Département de didactique, Faculté des sciences de l’éducation, et en tant que directrice du Centre de recherche en éducation et formation relatives à l’environnement et à l’écocitoyenneté (visitez le site Internet du Centre’ERE ici).
Lucie a été titulaire de la Chaire de recherche du Canada en éducation relative à l’environnement de 2001 à 2011, contribuant au développement de la formation et de la recherche en éducation environnementale. De plus, elle a dirigé plusieurs grands projets de coopération internationale en Bolivie, au Brésil, en Colombie et en Bolivie.
Je me souviens avoir rencontré Lucie pour la première fois alors qu’elle aidait à coordonner et coprésider le 5eCongrès mondial d’éducation relative à l’environnement (WEEC), tenu à Montréal, Québec, en 2009. J’ai été immédiatement captivé par sa passion, son style de leadership sans prétention et sa manière unique de conceptualiser une éducation relative à l’environnement axée sur notre « relation à l’environnement [qui] contribue à la formation de notre être-au-monde. […] » (en savoir plus ici). Cette perspective sur l’éducation relative à l’environnement a contribué à susciter une critique indispensable de la tendance réductrice du discours associé à l’éducation pour le développement durable, en mettant l’accent sur le développement d’une relation sociale éthique avec notre environnement.
Les activités de recherche de Lucie sont exemplaires et son bilan de publications impressionnant, tout comme sa direction du Centr’ERE de l’UQAM, où son héritage demeure.
Quiconque a eu l’honneur et le plaisir de travailler avec Lucie connaît sa grâce, sa passion et son intelligence vive. Dans notre travail continu pour éduquer une autre génération d’enseignant.e.s sur les questions de l’éducation relative à l’environnement et à la viabilité, Lucie a été bien présente . Nous lui offrons nos meilleurs vœux alors qu’elle entre dans un autre chapitre passionnant de sa vie, aussi dévouée que jamais à éduquer les futures générations de Canadien.ne.s, concernant en particulier leur relation éthique avec l’environnement.
Join teacher educators from across Canada and the US to discuss how they are pivoting environmental learning in teacher education to digital formats. Learn from faculty experienced with online teaching about their preferred strategies,promising practices, and innovative ways they are engaging preservice students and inservice teachers in Environmental & Sustainability Education.
Details: Thursday September 24, 2020 – 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Register in advance for this webinar using this Zoom link here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We look forward to having you join us for this free event!
The CJEE realizes the impact teacher educators have on future generations of teachers and their students, and as such the editors felt it was time to dedicate a volume to the topic.
– Editorial by Karrow, Inwood & Sims, p. 6
It’s finally here! The latest issue of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (CJEE) recently published online is a special edition taking a closer look at Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in Teacher Education (TE) in Canada. This brand new issue is guest edited by Doug Karrow (Brock University), Hilary Inwood (OISE/University of Toronto) and Laura Sims (Université de St. Boniface) and takes a look at what’s happening in Canadian Teacher Education from coast to coast. The seven articles comprising this edition represent a variety of topics, contexts, problems, methodological approaches and more.
This publication marks the very first time in the CJEE’s 23 year history that a volume has been devoted to exclusively to Teacher Education. Inspired by the last Research Symposium held by the ESE-TE National Network, this special issue is a testament to the ESE-TE Network’s strong belief in the importance of having a “vibrant and thriving ESE-TE research community” to drive the field forward.
This CJEE Special Edition in Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education is now available to read for free online at https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/issue/view/89
Let us know your thoughts on this issue or what else you’d like to learn about in ESE in TE by commenting below or on Instagram (link below)!
Special Guest Author post by Dr. Ellen Field Photos courtesy of LSF/LU
A recent national climate change education study led by Dr. Ellen Field from Lakehead University and Learning for a Sustainable Future establishes benchmarks of Canadians’ understanding of climate change, their perspectives on climate change impacts and risks, and views on the role of schools and climate change education.
The study surveyed 3,196 Canadians including 1,231 teachers, 571 parents, 486 students in grades 7 – 12, and 908 respondents from the general public. The study also provides the first comprehensive snapshot of climate change education practices across Canada.
The report, Canada, Climate Change, and Education: Opportunities for Public and Formal Education provides the national methodology and data and is publicly available. Alongside the national report, regional reports have been written for the Atlantic region, Ontario, and Manitoba, with others to follow. For each region, a knowledge mobilization session is coordinated in which policy makers and educational practitioners review data for the region and collaborate on sector specific climate change education action plans (these plans are publicly available: http://lsf-lst.ca/en/cc-survey).
Here are some key findings from the national data focused on Canadians’ perspectives and knowledge:
79% of Canadians are concerned about the impacts of climate change and 78% believe there are risks to people in Canada
85% of Canadians are certain that climate change is happening
43% of Canadians failed a basic climate science test
There is a gap between perceptions and awareness: 51% of Canadians feel they are well-informed about climate change, only 14% correctly answered 8-10 basic climate science questions
Only 30% of Canadians think that new technologies will solve the problem without individuals having to make big changes.
57% of Canadians believe their actions have an impact on climate change and 79% indicated that, while personal actions are important, systemic change is needed to address climate change.
Here are some key findings focused on climate change education and schools:
65% of Canadians and 79% of teachers think the education system should be doing more to educate young people about climate change.
Only ⅓ of closed-sample teachers reported teaching any climate change. Of teachers who do integrate climate change content, most teach 1-10 hours of instruction per year or semester.
Only 32% of closed-sample teachers feel they have the knowledge and skills to teach about climate change. Educators say they need professional development, classroom resources, current information on climate science, and curriculum policy.
While climate change is predominantly taught in science and social studies classes, when it is taught, 75% of closed-sample teachers and 81% of open-sample teachers believe it is the role of all teachers.
Youth as an imperative climate audience Within the report, we chose to apply a ladder of engagement (EcoAnalytics, 2016) to the different respondent groups (teachers, students, parents, members of the general public), to help policy makers, administrators, educators, and non-profit groups have a better understanding of how Canadians perceive and engage with climate change at a broad level. The groups are analyzed according to four audiences:
Empowered: agree climate change is happening and do think it’s caused by humans AND indicated that there are things we can do to change it.
Aware – agree climate change is happening and do think it’s caused by humans AND indicated that there is nothing that we can do to change it.
Sceptics – agree climate change is happening and do not think it’s caused by humans OR, neither agree nor disagree that climate change is happening
Dismissives – disagree that climate change is happening
National – Ladder of Engagement
n=3196 (Educator OS = 1120, Educator CS = 111, Parent CS = 571, Student CS= 486, General public = 908)
Looking at the data, 46% of students in grades 7 – 12 are categorized as Aware. These students understand that climate change is happening and that it is caused by humans but do not believe that human efforts in mitigation or adaptation will be effective. This is concerning when considering how this mindset may affect youth in terms of how they frame their future quality of life, opportunities, or possibilities.This survey provides the first benchmark of grade 7 – 12 students’ perspectives on climate change in Canada. Previously, EcoAnalytics (2016) identified youth age 18 – 34 as the largest Aware group and therefore an important group to target with education programs to shift into the Empowered segment of the ladder of engagement.
In this critical moment, we need to not only follow through on our policy commitments but work to enact systemic change to address the crisis at hand.
Thank you to Dr. Field, LSF and LU for sharing these exciting developments on Ecosphere.
Tell us your thoughts: should our education system be doing more to teach young people about climate change? What’s happening in your school, board, university or community to embed climate action? Share in the comments here or on Instagram by clicking on the post included below.
In September 2021 we launched a Canadian-wide E-course on ESE for preservice teachers. Over 260 students registered for the course, far exceeding expectations for filling the two cohorts (95 are currently enrolled.) Unique in its co-curricular, online approach and national reach, this E-course introduces teacher candidates to core ESE principles connected to Land & place, Indigenous Knowledge, sustainability, diversity, equity & inclusion, wellbeing, and action & agency. Each month, students participate in a synchronous online class, and undertake 2 readings and learning tasks on their own, as well as develop a culminating Inquiry Project. A research study is investigating students’ experiences in this course.
The initial promotion image from August 2021 for the Canadian-wide E-course on ESE for preservice teachers.
n=3196 (Educator OS = 1120, Educator CS = 111, Parent CS = 571, Student CS= 486, General public = 908)
