Measuring student teachers’ understandings and self-awareness of sustainability

Abstract

Understanding sustainability is important, as people need to cope with issues associated with over-population and over-consumption. Education is seen as a key strategy to assist with the development of people's understandings of this complex concept, which could then lead to them being able to make more sustainable lifestyle decisions. In order to teach this concept, teachers need to understand sustainability. This paper investigated 77 New Zealand student teachers' understandings of sustainability and the level of self-awareness of their understandings. A definition of sustainability was developed for this research from which two tools were constructed to measure these teachers' level of understanding and self-awareness. Findings showed that many of these student teachers had simplistic understandings of sustainability that were focused on an environmental component. Further evidence of their low level of understanding was illustrated in the way that over half of this group were not able to accurately rate their own level of understanding. These findings suggest a need for the development of teachers' understandings of sustainability so that they can plan and teach effective sustainability education programmes.

Where Western Australian Graduate Diploma of Education Primary Students Source their Information on Sustainability

“…This limited knowledge affected their self-efficacy to engage in critical discourse about sustainability, consistent with the findings of Effeney and Davis' (2013) study. However, they showed metacognitive capacity that is beyond the recognition of teachers in other research (Birdsall, 2014), perhaps indicating a move towards growing awareness due to the implementation and expectations of the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2011).…”

“…The researchers maintain that if WA Graduate Diploma of Education pre-service primary teachers are not critically supported by appropriate sustainability pedagogical content knowledge at the pre-service level, or as part of an ongoing professional development program, sustainability as a cross curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2011) could become marginalised (Birdsall, 2014). In addition, it is suggested that the personal perceptions of sustainability that pre-service primary teachers hold will shape the way they interpret sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority.…”

“…The perception of sustainability as only linked to the environmental pillar is common among pre-service teachers, both in Australia and internationally (Birdsall, 2014;Dyment & Hill, 2015;Nolet, 2009). Birdsall's (2014) research provides an example of pre-service teachers' limited understanding of sustainability.…”

“…The perception of sustainability as only linked to the environmental pillar is common among pre-service teachers, both in Australia and internationally (Birdsall, 2014;Dyment & Hill, 2015;Nolet, 2009). Birdsall's (2014) research provides an example of pre-service teachers' limited understanding of sustainability. Not only does Birdsall argue that pre-service teachers have an environmentally-centred definition of sustainability, but also that less than 50% have an accurate self-awareness regarding the depth and breadth of their knowledge related to sustainability themes.…”

Systems Structure of Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education Institution

“…Therefore, there is a big gap in understanding between non-practitioners and sustainability practitioners (Birdsall, 2014;Garbie, 2015). According to L4, it is difficult to convince the academic staff members who are not in sustainabilityrelated disciplines to accept sustainability, because they perceive sustainability as irrelevant to their discipline.…”