Ecocriticism Course: Development of English Pre-service Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Sustainability

Abstract

To address a paucity of knowledge on a way to enhance pedagogical content knowledge of sustainability (PCKS), the authors of the study developed an ecocriticism course and investigated its impact on English pre-service teachers' PCKS. A mixed-method convergent research design was employed. Forty-seven pre-service English teachers at one of the English education departments in Indonesia joined the course and received a pre- and post-questionnaire survey of PCKS. They were also required to generate English instructional ideas related to environmental sustainability at the end of the course in the open-ended questionnaire. The survey and open-ended questionnaire data were analyzed using a paired-sample t-test and content analysis. The results informed that the English pre-service teachers' PCKS, knowledge to create and provide learning opportunities for English learners to enhance the learners' sustainability capacity, was developed in the course. Accordingly, to orient English teacher education institutions towards sustainability, an ecocriticism course is suggested to integrate into the curriculum.

The Effect of Environmental Education Open Inquiry Learning Kits on the Environmental Literacy of Pre-service Biology Teachers

“…Through good mastery of environmental literacy, it is expected that it will be able to teach it to the wider community, particularly students in the future as an endeavour to introduce environmental conservation in order to realize education for sustainable development (Dada et al, 2017). Teacher should have the ability to facilitate learning that can create and provide learning opportunities for students to develop their capacity for sustainability (Saiful & Setyorini, 2022).…”

Social Ecology and Environmental Diversity in Teacher Education

“…The first departure from this model, the Global Communities module (a precursor to the current SEEDs program), experimented with another form of environmental and sustainability education: one that aimed to critically re-examine the epistemology of teacher education itself (Alsop et al, 2007). This approach relates closely to the eco-criticism component of sustainability education espoused by Saiful and Setyorini (2022) where eco-criticism may enhance the development of teachersí pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) about sustainability.…”

Need Analysis for Developing English Teaching Materials Using the Eco-ELT Approach to Enhance Environmental Literacy Among High School Students in Dompu Regency

“…Environmental literacy is the ability to understand, analyze and act on environmental issues (McBride et al, 2013) environmental literacy on a national scale, especially the local scale of Dompu regency. In the Dompu regional and national context, environmental literacy is essential to deal with increasingly urgent environmental challenges such as climate change (Ephraim, 2019), the destruction of biodiversity (Nursa'adah et al, 2021), and environmental destruction (Coyle, 2005;Saiful & Setyorini, 2022). In fact, English learning is a crucial aspect in high school, but the problem is that there is no initiative from teachers to integrate English learning with environment-based English materials (Eco-ELT).…”

“…In developing English teaching materials using the Eco-ELT approach in improving the environmental literacy of high school students in Dompu Regency, it is necessary to establish in-depth, detailed and comprehensive problem-solving steps in order to be able to become a solution or problem-solver. The needs analysis was conducted by analyzing the needs of students and in-depth analysis of the basic principles of Eco-ELT from various literature (Al Fawareh et al, 2023;Glotfelty, 1996;Misiaszek, 2020;Saiful, 2020;Saiful & Setyorini, 2022;Swanson & Levine, 2020), and interpretation of the social and learning environment in senior high schools, particularly in Dompu regency.…”

“…This approach aims to improve students' understanding of the relationship between English, the environment and sustainability (McBride et al, 2013;Misiaszek, 2020). In addition, Eco-ELT emphasizes the importance of English teachers as moral agents who are responsible for raising students' awareness and sense of belonging to the surrounding nature, designing lesson plans and creating learning materials that spread environmental values (Saiful & Setyorini, 2022).…”