The Environmentally Educating Teacher: Synthesis of an Implementation Theory for Pre-service Courses

ABSTRACTThis paper sets out to establish a tentative implementation theory which can inform the work of teacher educators working with novice (student) teachers in their initial professional development related to environmental education. The paper begins with an exploration of the problem of how to encapsulate environmental education within pre-service programs by looking at attempts over the years to encourage and stimulate the professional development of the environmentally educated teacher through pre-service programs. The paper then reports on research carried out by the method of deliberative inquiry which examined the work of two environmental education initiatives: the OECD-funded ENSI project, a co-operative curriculum development program based in primary and secondary schools; and the European Union-funded EEITE program, a development initiative based in universities offering pre-service courses in eleven European Union member states. The paper discusses how ENSI'S aims and guiding principles and EEITE'S organizing principles, key elements and program characteristics were considered and a tentative implementation theory established. This theory, it is argued, constitutes a criterial framework of process skills and values which can inform and guide the inclusion of environmental education within pre-service teacher education programs. The paper ends with a call for a critique of the theory presented.