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CJEE Special Issue + Join us for the Research Symposium!

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!


WEBINAR EVENT | “Shifting ESE Online in Teacher Education” – Sept. 24 @ 1:00pm (EST)

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!


Research Symposium of EECOM’s Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education (ESE-TE) Standing Committee

EECOM’s Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education (ESE-TE) Standing Committee will be hosting a bi-annual Research Symposium on April 28th, 2021 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), in Toronto, Ontario.

The logo for the 2021 EECOM conference taking place in Toronto which includes the ESE-TE Research Symposium. The logo features the Toronto skyline with buildings, trees and water, with the Two Row Wampum belt symbolizing The Dish with One Spoon Treaty. The theme for this conference is Exploring the Nature of Cities: Urban Environmental Education in Action.
EECOM 2021 conference logo

The focus of the upcoming research symposium is on research activities in the field of ESE in preservice and inservice teacher education. The research symposium is meant to be an opportunity to share research in a supportive community of like-minded individuals who are committed to furthering the field of ESE-TE. The symposium is academic in style, featuring 15-20 minute presentations. To date, presenters have been notified of acceptance. All people interested in this area of research are welcome to attend!

For more information, visit the EECOM 2021 conference website

Submitted by Laura Sims


EECOM Research Roundtable Reflections

The recent Research Roundtable hosted by the ESE-TE committee of EECOM was a success!  We welcomed over 70 educators  and researchers to this event, which took place on Oct. 18 as part of the 2018 EECOM conference in BC.  It was such a pleasure to meet so many people dedicated to learning about how to better integrate ESE into both preservice and inservice  teacher education.  The Roundtable hosted over 20 research presentations; a sincere thank you to all of the presenters!  These provided an excellent introduction to the variety of research being done in ESE-TE across Canada, and initiated many conversations around the importance of teacher ed that permeated the wider EE conference.  The day ended with three break out sessions focused on: Indigenous Ed and ESE; types of supports, resources, and professional learning needed in this area; and how best to move forward in this work.  These drew on the experience and expertise of those in attendance to identify what is needed to broaden and deepen the work being done in ESE-TE.

Many who attended the Roundtable have asked for more info on how to get involved in this work.  Here are a few suggestions:

  • join our network to get regular updates, resources and calls for involvement in ESE-TE
  • deepen your understanding of the current praxis of ESE-TE
  • share your work in ESE-TE in an upcoming issue of CJEE
  • advocate for a clear presence of ESE in your local faculty of ed

Special Signature Event on Climate Change at CACS-ACÉC 2018

At CSSE at the University of Regina last May there was a signature event with a focus on Climate Change, organized by the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies (CACS).  According to the promotional materials, the goal of the sessions was to address critical issues of today’s world in order to engage a non-academic public and to make scholarly ideas accessible to everyday Canadians. I was only able to attend the third part of the planned event, which integrated the arts into public climate change education.

Organizer Paul Zanazanian (McGill) commented that the event “examines the challenges of climate change from several disciplinary perspectives. Our goal is to provoke thought and discussion, and hopefully activism, on this topic that is so important to all of us.” The event was co-organized and performed as well by Kathryn Ricketts (U of Regina).

Kathryn Ricketts. Photo by Valerie Triggs and Michele Sorensen

The Performative art pieces, as a walking tour with durational art-making, took place in the green space that runs along campus, on the banks of Wascana Lake. Kathryn Ricketts presented a dancing embodiment of her bird-character Remington. This anthropomorphized bird wore a fur coat and a rubber pigeon mask, and moving to an internal music, it intermittently gave out all of its birdseed, and then came back looking for food, but by then many of the onlookers had  dropped the seeds into the tall grasses under our feet.

Another evocative performance, facilitated by Sarah Schroeter and her third year Drama Education students (Allene Bautista Chernick, Robyn Dyck, Erin Goodpipe, Tara Hanson, & Sara Salazar – U of Regina), invited us into a formal dinner set under the Joe Fafard statue “Mind’s Garden”. Each of the courses of the imaginary meal became more and more confrontational, including the grizzled spine of a deer and ending with the “ashes of our children”. The takeaway of these interactive performances was the sense of provocation, dissonance, and necessity; in tackling climate change education, we must prepare for engaging in pedagogies of discomfort and for preparing our teacher candidates for this new reality.