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.
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:
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.
n=3196 (Educator OS = 1120, Educator CS = 111, Parent CS = 571, Student CS= 486, General public = 908)
