Re-Coupling Nature and Culture: How Can Primary Teacher Educators Enable Pre-service Teachers and Their Pupils to Breathe Life Back into Humanity’s Tin Forests?

Author(s):  
Deborah Myers
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Buchanan

AbstractSustainability education competes for curricular space, both in schools and in teacher education. Opportunities and barriers for the inclusion of sustainability education in an Australian university primary teacher education program are examined in this article. The study focused on the roles, practices and perceptions of teacher educators in promoting sustainability education. Three focus groups were conducted with members of faculty staff from each of the K–6 Key Learning Areas to gather data, which were analysed according to three frameworks: espoused/aspirational and actual practices of staff members; barriers to and affordances for teaching sustainability education; and the nature of initiatives, in terms of teaching/learning activities, assessment tasks, and resources. Beyond the Social Sciences, and Science and Technology, we found that inclusion of sustainability education is somewhat sporadic. The article proposes some ways forward to promote and abet sustainability education in a tertiary context.


Author(s):  
Bernard Chemwei

This study examines the relationship between teacher educators’ attitudes towards computers and their level of ICT integration in instruction in public primary teacher training colleges in Kenya. Rogers’s Theory on the Diffusion of Innovations (2003) is used to understand the key factors affecting ICT integration as well as the teacher educators’ attitudes towards ICT integration in the classroom. In terms of methodology, the simple random sampling technique was used to select six teacher training colleges in Kenya and 169 respondents to participate in the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire, interview schedule and observation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data collected for means, frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviation. The Pearson Moment Correlation was used to determine the relationship between teacher educators’ attitude and their level of ICT integration. The study results indicated a low level of ICT integration in teaching in all teacher-training colleges. It was also noted that teacher educators had positive attitudes towards ICT integration. However, they did not seem to integrate the available ICTs in their classroom instruction. It was further established that there was a positive relationship between their attitude and their level of ICT integration in instruction.  The Ministry of Education should organise in-service training for teacher educators in teacher education institutions on ICT integration in instruction. At the same time, there is a need to applaud and encourage by means of incentives teacher educators who exhibit positive attitudes so as improve their ICT integration in their teaching. Consideration should be given to older teacher educators’ who may be holding poor attitudes towards computers.


Author(s):  
Patrick Farren

This paper examines an original construct, ‘‘transformative pedagogy’’, in the context of post-primary teacher education in Ireland. The construct is examined from philosophical and psychological perspectives, and key distinctions are drawn between it and other pedagogies. Links are made, where appropriate, to research findings from a recent study carried out by the author in cooperation with teacher-educators and student-teachers in the context of pre-service teacher education at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. In addition, the paper refers to examples that illustrate some of the benefits that can be derived from school-society links. ‘‘Transformative pedagogy’’ creates conditions that support teacher and pupils (participants) in developing their identity as whole persons who have a relationship based on interdependence. In essence, ‘‘transformative pedagogy’’ is about creating conditions that support participants in developing capacity as ‘‘beings-in-relation’’ as well as ‘‘beings-in-becoming’’. Key perspectives are used to frame the discussion: 1) identity, 2) beliefs and attitudes, 3) knowledge, 4) moral-ethical values, 5) socio-affective factors, 6) social interaction and collaboration, 7) critical reflection, 8) school and wider society. ‘‘Transformative pedagogy’’ is underpinned by moral-ethical values that support participants as ‘‘beings-in-relation’’ who are also ‘‘beings-in-becoming’’. Participants develop consciousness that is a prerequisite for constructing their own meanings as part of critiquing and shaping the world. The process implies committed action, informed by moral-ethical values, that is geared towards personal as well as social transformations. The construct suggests a need for a more integrated and trans-curricular approach to teaching and learning than has traditionally been the case in Ireland, and an approach that brings school life and wider community life into a more dynamic and fruitful alliance.   Key Words‘‘transformative pedagogy’’; ‘‘beings-in-relation'’; beings-in-becoming’’; whole person;  interdependence; metacognitive capacity; consciousness; advocates; moral-ethical values.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-59
Author(s):  
Lena Sjöberg

This study examines the organisation of the Swedish Primary Teacher Education (PTE) programme by studying a local educational policy practice. The empirical material consists of policy documents and interviews with teacher educators at a large university. The study focuses on the pedagogical discourses in teacher education, by studying whether the examinations, courses, and education are based on insulation or integrating principles, that is, strong or weak classification. The results of the study show that both the national policy text and the local organisation are based on principles and rationalities of strong classification, where the local policy practice is both constructed through and affected by commodification and market rationalities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12808
Author(s):  
Jaana Seikkula-Leino ◽  
Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir ◽  
Marcia Håkansson-Lindqvist ◽  
Mats Westerberg ◽  
Sofia Eriksson-Bergström

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the European Union’s strategies both set goals for solving environmental challenges faced by societies and communities. As part of solving these challenges, both the UN and the EU stress the development of entrepreneurial and innovative education. Teacher education plays a crucial role in these efforts, since teachers and teacher educators have a significant impact on educating citizens far into the future. In this research, we studied how Nordic (Finnish, Swedish, and Icelandic) primary teacher education curricula involve entrepreneurial, sustainable, and pro-environmental education. For this study, the authors analyzed the B.Ed. curricula of three academic teacher education institutions in Spring 2021. We used qualitative content analysis as our research method. According to the results, all three curricula incorporated both entrepreneurship education and sustainable development to some extent, although often not very explicitly. Given the urgency of problems such as global climate change, the educational goals and contents in these curricula related to entrepreneurial education and sustainable development are very limited. The idea of integrating environmental/sustainable and entrepreneurship education could be promoted in the future more explicitly, with these interdisciplinary educational themes emphasised more strongly in the curricula and education policies.


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