Abstract
In creating a society whose citizens have sustainable lifestyles, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) plays a key role. The concept of sustainable development (SD) has developed independently from the input of educators so understanding how educators view SD is of great importance. In order to gain an understanding of and to investigate the experiences of others, we conducted a phenomenographic study. Twenty-four participants in an elementary science methods course completed the Draw-a-Sustainable Development and the Draw-an-Environmental Steward Test before and after instruction on topics of food chains, populations, ecosystems, climate change, as well as economic and societal issues related to sustainability. An Environmental Attitudes Questionnaire indicated that the participants were overall pro-environmental before and after the course. However, participant’s conceptions of SD continued to be very narrow with a lack of understanding of the interconnectedness between the environment, energy, and technologies to political, economic, and societal concerns. Participants during interviews identified that they felt unprepared to teach about SD. Participants were unable to explain how stewardship was connected to sustainability or how the actions of some might affect others. In order to ensure a sustainable future, our educational leaders will require more planned experiences related to SD as well as throughout their teaching careers.
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Hagevik, R., Jordan, C., Wimert, D. (2015). A Phenomenographic Study of Beginning Elementary Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Sustainability. In: Stratton, S., Hagevik, R., Feldman, A., Bloom, M. (eds) Educating Science Teachers for Sustainability. ASTE Series in Science Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16411-3_2
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