Embedding ESD in Initial Teacher Education: From Compliance to Commitment - Sowing the Seeds of Change

Author(s):

Denise Summers(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 08 A JS, ESE for Teacher Education

Paper Session Joint session NW 30 with NW 24

Time:

2015-09-10

09:00-10:30

Room:

X. Előadó [C]

Chair:

Debby Cotton

Contribution

In 2007, a team of initial teacher educators addressed Sterling’s (2001) challenge to move towards a transformative approach to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The team carried out a co-operative inquiry research project (Heron and Reason, 2001) to encourage the professional development required to support student teachers in introducing ESD to their students. This democratic and participative approach enabled the team to develop into a collaborative community of practice in which they supported each other in developing the necessary knowledge, experience and values to confidently introduce ESD and a new global perspective within the initial teacher education (ITE) programmes, which until then had been almost entirely UK centric.

The author of this paper led the co-operative inquiry (Summers and Turner, 2011) and has seen the influence of ESD develop within her own, her students’ and her colleagues’ professional and personal lives. This raised questions about the influence on teacher educators (tutors) and student teachers (students) across the University partnership of Further Education Colleges and encouraged the research which is the subject of this paper. The aims were to:

explore students’ and tutors’ conceptualisations of ESD, to gather a broad perspective on the different ways of making sense of what is Sustainable Development, and its role in Education, to identify what has informed and influenced this understanding;
examine the stories of how this understanding has developed, and how it is affecting students’ and tutors’ personal and professional lives;
develop understanding of how this may have been influenced by the introduction of ESD within the ITE programmes.

The conceptual framework

To contribute to an understanding of the transformative approach necessary to move towards, Sterling (2011: 19) draws on Bateson’s (1972, in Sterling, 2011) concept and models of zero, first, second and third levels of learning and change which relate to the quality and depth of the learning experience. Tosey (2006) describes Bateson’s zero level of learning as ‘responding to stimuli but making no changes based on experience or information.’ The concerns of Dawe et al. (2005), Sterling (2009) and Blewitt (2010) suggest that education in general may be languishing at this level in relation to ESD. Sterling (2011) summarises the different levels of learning and change with the first level being conformative and leading to effectiveness and efficiency, the second level being reformative and encouraging assumptions to be examined and changed and the third level being transformative and moving towards paradigm change.

It is Bateson’s (1972, cited in Sterling, 2011: 23) third level, involving ‘a shift of epistemology or operative way of knowing and thinking that frames people’s perception of, and interaction with, the world’, which is required in order to challenge current ways of thinking and acting. As Sterling (2011) suggests, although moving from first to second order and from second to third order learning and change can be inspiring, it may also cause student resistance, as it can be challenging and threatening to question existing beliefs and assumptions. As Selby (2007: 10-11) argues, the transformation necessary will require educators to support students in addressing the ‘despair, pain, grief and loss’ which may result. However, this may be difficult for educators who are working within a policy context which promotes sustainability on the one hand, but high economic growth and consumerism on the other. As most formal education is concerned with first order learning, this presents major barriers to educators attempting to encourage higher levels of learning and change (Sterling, 2011), demonstrating the challenges faced in embedding ESD.

The next step in this research is to develop international links with teacher educators, to further embed ESD and the global perspective.

Method

The author of this paper led a team of teacher educators who carried out a co-operative inquiry (Heron and Reason, 2001) research project to embed ESD into the initial teacher education (ITE) programmes. This democratic and participatory approach supported them in developing themselves, their practice and their curriculum, (Summers and Turner, 2011). This paper discusses subsequent research which investigated whether this team can be considered to have been 'agents of change' (Martin et al, 2007: 359) in embedding ESD, as well as exploring progress made in enabling their student teachers and colleagues to move towards the anticipative and transformative approach required for a sustainable future. The decision was taken to develop case studies as this study is ‘an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context’ (Yin, 1984: 23). Questionnaires were sent to all students who completed the programme in the 2009/10 academic year and their tutors. Twenty-one students and 13 of their tutors completed these. The responses were analysed and themes generated and discussed with a critical friend who helped design the interview frameworks to explore the perspectives of the students and tutors. A question had been included to indicate those willing to be interviewed and from those, a ‘purposive’ sample was selected to reflect a ‘typical’ range (Wellington, 2000: 59-60) of the views expressed. Seven students and the six tutors who had introduced ESD to them, were interviewed and responses ranged from those who appeared very committed to including ESD in their practice, to those who, at least initially, did not see its relevance in ITE programmes. The interviews, lasting approximately 30 minutes, were recorded and transcribed, and participants chose pseudonyms. All were asked the same open questions, as well as questions to explore their questionnaire responses. The transcriptions provided descriptive case studies of the perceptions of each participant. Alongside this process, a review of the literature was carried out to identify relationships between the participants’ responses and ‘literature, policy issues or other substantive source’ (Yin, 1993: 4), to be able to provide a descriptive analysis of individual conceptualisations of ESD and explore the influences on, and effects of, these. We continue to develop ESD across our Institute of Education and now wish to explore international links to progress this further.

Expected Outcomes

Introducing ESD has encouraged student teachers and teacher educators to develop as a ‘community of practice’ and make the connections between ESD, their subjects and their students’ lives and experiences, in order to encourage the hope and sense of purpose needed (Stevenson, 2006). This will support the development of ‘agents of change’ (Martin et al, 2007: 359) with the potential to encourage this in the students of the student teachers too. Embedding ESD in our curriculum has resulted in some evidence of Sterling’s (2011: 25) first order learning and change in students and tutors who simply complied in order to ‘do things better’ and meet requirements. There is greater evidence of Sterling’s (2011) second order learning and change in those who are starting to examine and challenge their assumptions and extend their practice to introduce a global ESD perspective and ‘do better things’. There are glimmers of Sterling’s (2011) third level change, as some are beginning to ‘see things differently’ which could lead to the transformative and anticipative approach required. This suggests there is the potential to encourage a ‘politicised critical pedagogy’ (Avis and Bathmaker, 2004: 15), which could provide the more realistic approach to ESD which Huckle (2012) requires. From initial compliance to commitment, it is clear that seeds of change have been sown. There are many obstacles to overcome in striving to encourage second, let alone, third order learning and change. However, the second order learning achieved is a good step forward and in a highly regulated, intense and short initial teacher education programme, it may be a more realistic goal than the radical shift of worldview required for third order change. Continuing as agents of change to consolidate this and encourage the transformation necessary should prepare student teachers for unknown challenges in a sustainable future.

References

Avis, J. and Bathmaker, A-M. 2004. ‘The Politics of Care: emotional labour and trainee further education lecturers.’ Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 56(1), 5-19. Blewitt, J. 2010. ‘Business as usual? It’s just not an option.’ Adults Learning, 22(4),16-17. Bonnett, M. 1999. ‘Education for Sustainable Development: a coherent philosophy for environmental education?’ Environmental Education Research, 29(3), 313-324. Dawe, G., Jucker, R. and Martin. S. 2005. ‘Current Practice and Future Developments – A report for the Higher Education Academy’. www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/tla/sustainability/ sustdevinHEfinalreport.pdf Heron, J. and Reason, P. 2001. ‘The Practice of Co-operative Inquiry: Research ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ People’, in Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. (eds] Handbook of Action Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 179-188. Huckle, J. 2012. Towards greater realism in learning for sustainability, in A.E.J. Wals and P.B. Corcoran (eds.) Learning for sustainability. Wageningen/Utrecht: Wageningen Academic Publishers. Martin, K., Summers, D., Sjerps-Jones, H. 2007. 'Sustainability and teacher education.' Journal of Further and Higher Education, 31(4),351-362. Selby, D. 2007. ‘As the heating happens: Education for Sustainable Development or Education for Sustainable Contraction?’, Int. J. Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2(3-4),249–267. Sterling, S. 2001. Sustainable Education: Re-visioning Learning and Change. Dartington: Green Books. Sterling, S. 2009. ‘Sustainable Education’ in Gray, D., Colucci-Gray, L. and Camino, E. Science, Society and Sustainability: Education and Empowerment for an Uncertain World. New York/London: Routledge, 105-118. Sterling, S. 2011. ‘Transformative Learning and Sustainability: sketching the conceptual ground.’ Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 5, www2.glos.ac.uk/offload/tli/lets/lathe/issue5/Lathe_5_S%20Sterling.pdf Stevenson, R.B. 2006. ‘Tensions and transitions in policy discourse: recontextualizing a decontextualized EE/ESD debate.’ Environmental Education Research, 12(3-4),277-290. Summers, D. and Turner, R. 2011. ‘Outside the green box – embedding Education for Sustainable Development through the use of co-operative inquiry.’ Educational Action Research, 19(4),453–468. Tosey, P. 2006. Bateson’s Levels Of Learning: a Framework For Transformative Learning? Paper presented at Universities’ Forum for Human Resource Development conference, University of Tilburg, May 2006. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1198/1/fulltext.pdf United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. 1992. Agenda 21, Chapter 36, ‘Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training. www.unutki.org/default.php?doc_id=84 Wellington, J. 2000. Educational Research - Contemporary Issues and Practical Approaches. London: Continuum. World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future. www.un-documents.net/ocf-ov.htm#I.3 Yin, R.K. 1984. Case study research: Design and Methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Yin, R.K. 1993. Applications of Case Study Research. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.

Author Information

Denise Summers (presenting / submitting)

Plymouth University

Plymouth Institute of Education

PLYMOUTH

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