scholarly journals Responding to Global Challenges through Education: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable, and Pro-Environmental Education in Nordic Teacher Education Curricula

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12808
Author(s):  
Jaana Seikkula-Leino ◽  
Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir ◽  
Marcia Håkansson-Lindqvist ◽  
Mats Westerberg ◽  
Sofia Eriksson-Bergström
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Primary Teacher ◽  
Educational Goals ◽  
The Future

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.

scholarly journals Exploring and Promoting Ecological Consciousness in Teacher Education: the Possibilities of Educational Action Research in Education for Sustainable Development

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Gedžūne ◽  
Ginta Gedžūne
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Primary School Teacher ◽  
Ecological Consciousness ◽  
Research In Education

Exploring and Promoting Ecological Consciousness in Teacher Education: the Possibilities of Educational Action Research in Education for Sustainable DevelopmentThe paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study with 39 first year students of pre-school and primary school teacher education programmes who are taking an educational action research based study course "Environmental Pedagogy". The study aimed at engaging the students in reflection on their experiences of interaction with nature and uncovering their views on ecological consciousness. Qualitative content analysis sought emergent themes in students' reflections. A conceptual framework was identified containing three frames of reference: (1) inclusion-oriented frame of reference; (2) exclusion-determining frame of reference and (3) solution-oriented frame of reference. Conclusions were drawn about the possibilities of educational action research to encourage students' reflection on ecological consciousness and building sustainable and inclusive relationships with the world.

scholarly journals Exploring the Connections of Education for Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurial Education—A Case Study of Vocational Teacher Education in Finland

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11887
Author(s):  
Eveliina Asikainen ◽  
Annukka Tapani
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Entrepreneurial Education ◽  
Teacher Students ◽  
Vocational Teacher

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Entrepreneurial Education (EE) are quite abstract and demanding concepts for teacher students. Yet, Key Sustainability Competences and Entrepreneurial Competences entail important qualities of future citizens and workers, and teacher students should become prepared to accommodate education for these competencies in their teaching practice. This paper explores teacher students’ process of sense-making of sustainable development and how becoming a teacher who practices ESD connects with entrepreneurship. EE serves as a good mirroring surface to ESD as they both have their roots in Transformative Learning (TL) but pursue transformation towards different goals. The case study follows the vocational teacher education (VTE) students’ sensemaking of Sustainable Development as a part of teacher’s work during one semester which included integrated Thematic Studies of Sustainable Development. The qualitative content analysis of students’ texts focused on signs of transformative learning and was guided by the dimensions of sustainable development and learning goals set for teacher’s sustainability competences in the VTE curriculum. The results indicate that transformative learning is possible. Furthermore, they address the importance of certain entrepreneurial capabilities in the actualization of change agency.

GENDER AND SUSTAINABILITY: EVOLUTION OF DISCOURSE AND FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
YURI KOVALEV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Goals 2000 ◽  
Feminist Organizations ◽  
The Future ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Social Environmental

The purpose of this article is to analyze the stages of evolution of the UN social, environmental and gender policies and the peculiarities of their convergence into an integral concept of sustainable development, to assess the influence of feminist organizations on the direction and content of the concept of sustainable development, as well as criticism of «sustainability» and alternative development models proposed by feminist organizations and social movements, including the «Fridays for the Future» movement. The UN is the main international structure for shaping global social, environmental and gender policy. Over 75 years of the organization's activity, hundreds of documents have been adopted, dozens of conferences have been held in the field of eliminating social, gender and environmental inequalities. In 1992, the UN member states approved the «Agenda for the 21st century», in which social, gender and environmental aspects of development were combined into a holistic concept of sustainable development. Since that time, these political fields are considered in integrity and interconnection. International women's organizations have played a decisive role in integrating gender issues into the concept of sustainable development. Thanks to their activities, the legal aspects of enhancing gender equality are enshrined in the key UN documents on sustainable development - «Agenda 21» (1992), «Millennium Goals» (2000), «Implementation Plan» (2002), «The future we are want «(2012),» Sustainable Development Goals 2030 «(2015). At the same time, there are processes of the formation of an alternative gender discourse and feminist criticism of the official concept of sustainable development. International feminist movements and organizations have played a huge role in this. Currently, there are several feminist approaches to the study of the relationship between women and the environment: ecological-feminist, economic-ecological and post-structuralist. The most important area of activity for feminist organizations is the fight against global climate change. With the onset of the fourth wave of feminism in environmental protection, new trends and vivid leadership figures have emerged, and there has been a direct increase in women's presence in global climate policy. The most striking example of this trend is the climate movement «Fridays for the Future» (PRB), created by eco-activist G. Thunberg.

Sustainability Education and Teacher Education: Finding a Natural Habitat?

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Primary Teacher ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teaching Learning

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.

scholarly journals Preparation of Teachers for Ecological Education of Preschoolers Taking Into Account the Natural and Sociocultural Environment of the Kindergarten

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 122-131
Author(s):  
Lavrentyeva Nina G. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Ecological Education ◽  
Sociocultural Environment ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Future

A teacher is a key figure in ecological education of preschoolers for their safe and happy future life. Intensiveness of preschooler’s development, dependence of his life from grown-ups, direction of development to future life requires to raise social ecological responsibility of teachers before the future generation. The purpose of the article is to show the specific character of teachers’ training as the organizational and pedagogical condition of ecological education of preschoolers in the conditions of natural and sociocultural environment of a kindergarten. Analysis of theoretical sources and teaching practice allows you to identify the most valuable content lines and technological mechanisms of professional training of preschool students and practicing teachers for environmental education of children. The research methods are the analysis of the theory and practice of environmental education of preschoolers, professional training of teachers, generalization, and correlation of the analysis results with the goals of sustainable development, comparison, systematization, questioning of teachers of preschool educational organizations. Achieving the goals of sustainable development of society makes it necessary to focus the content and technologies of organizing environmental education for children on the knowledge of the consistency of the structure and functioning of the natural and sociocultural world, the allocation of ecosystems of different levels in it. In this case, the semantic needs of the future will be reflected in the pedagogical design of the present. Determination of the system-forming role of environmental education will optimize professional training and comprehend the unity of natural science and humanitarian knowledge. Strengthening the personal orientation of education by taking into account the level of training, individual interests, preferred styles of information processing, increases cognitive activity and creative self-realization of each student. The use of project activities and interactive forms and methods of designing environmental education for children create conditions for improving the professional qualities of teachers, increase the value of training. Thus, the directed specificity of the content of vocational education of kindergarten teachers from the perspective of the future increases their social and environmental responsibility to future generations and the effectiveness of the results of environmental education of preschoolers in the process of professional implementation. Keywords: professional training, ecological education of preschoolers, natural and sociocultural environment, system-forming role of ecological education, social ecological responsibility

scholarly journals Factors Influencing Teacher Educators’ Research Engagement in the Reform Process of Teacher Education Institutions in Myanmar

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110613
Author(s):  
May Thu Kyaw
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Research Engagement ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Teacher Education Institutions

This study addresses how similar teacher education institutions differ in terms of teacher educators’ research engagement and what causes these differences. Underlying factors were explored by comparing teacher educators’ research engagement at two Education Colleges in Myanmar that differed in terms of the educators’ research activities. Applying the qualitative case study research design, data were drawn from a document analysis and semi-structured interviews with the college principals and teacher educators. Institutional expectation and encouragement for teacher educators’ research engagement, their views on research, ways of their research engagement, and the motives and challenges in each case were scrutinized using a summative approach to qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate that personal, institutional, policy-related, and system-related factors influence teacher educators’ research engagement. This suggests that, apart from the consideration of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, teacher educators’ autonomy in their research engagement should be secured and their policy awareness and buy-in assured.

PROBLEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION AS A THREAT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (ON THE EXAMPLE OF EARTH SCIENCE SPECIALTIES)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenia Nepeina ◽  
Natalia Istomina
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Educational Goals ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Future

The purpose of this article is to draw the attention of researchers to the topic of mismatch of the future and group expectations of higher school students’ image with the educational goals of global sustainable development (SD). The article shows the relevance of studying these concepts, assuming that they pose a threat to SD. To eliminate it, it is necessary to develop higher education in the direction of its futurization. The novelty of the work is related to the results of research among Russian students majoring in Earth Sciences.

Malawi mathematics teacher educators’ understanding of Lesson Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Janne Fauskanger ◽  
Arne Jakobsen ◽  
Mercy Kazima
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Mathematics Teacher ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Lesson Plans ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mathematics Teacher Educators

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to better understand the challenges involved in introducing Lesson Study (LS) into teacher education in Malawi by studying mathematics teacher educators’ (TEs’) understanding of planning for LS. Design/methodology/approach This study is a part of a wider ongoing project designed to improve the quality and capacity of mathematics teacher education in Malawi. One of its components is professional development of all mathematics TEs in Malawi using an LS model. The units being analyzed comprise of the TEs’ written lesson plans and qualitative content analysis is the chosen analytical approach. Findings Based on the analyzed research lesson plans, the TEs have difficulty in focusing on their own learning parallel to the student teachers’ (STs’) learning, and struggle with predicting STs’ responses to tasks. In addition, there is a pervasive lack of emphasis on planned and focused observation of STs’ learning, as evidenced by a review of the research lesson plans. Research limitations/implications This is a small-scale study due to LS being introduced to Malawi teacher education for the first time and the need to test before possible upscaling. Practical implications The paper includes a description of mathematics TEs’ understanding of LS in an African context, which can be a valuable information for TEs who are attempting to use LS. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to learn more about TEs’ understanding of LS worldwide.

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