Ecosphere Developing Environmental & Sustainability Education In Teacher Education

Breaking news – The Association of Canadian Deans of Education (ACDE) launched its Accord 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 need your 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.

Launch of the Accord on Education for a Sustainable Future: Dean’s Distinguished Lecture, Climate Justice and Educational Responsibility Featuring Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis

March 29, 5:30-8pm PT

Registration is required

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.

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.

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.