The leadership role of teachers and environment club coordinators in promoting ecocentrism in secondary schools: Teachers as exemplars of environmental education

Abstract

This study of Naessian ecocentrism and anthropocentrism in three environment club coordinators/science teachers, their colleagues and some parents at three secondary schools uses deep ecology and relational fields as primary frameworks for open-ended interviews. The findings reveal new insights into the affective, cognitive and behavioural characteristics of coordinators who enhance environmental education in their schools. The work presents preliminary data on leadership among sustainability coordinators who run environment clubs. It fills a gap in the literature by showing that in addition to environmental educators requiring knowledge and attitudes regarding sustainability practices, affective qualities like connectedness and love for the environment may be important to their success as sustainability exemplars. Teachers emerge as sustainability exemplars in a relational field to implement sustainability across the secondary curriculum, galvanise students, teachers and parents to connect to the Earth, and help students, teachers and parents move away from anthropocentrism. Findings suggest that if schools commit resources and time to the coordinator’s role, students experience significant benefits by becoming closer to the Earth and more empowered to act for the environment in ways consistent with deep ecology.

Ecocentric leadership and voluntary environmental behavior for promoting sustainability strategy: The role of psychological green climate

“…Leaders that operate as ecocentric exemplars inspire their followers to live more sustainably by promoting self‐directed moral ideals, raising awareness, influencing others, and forging relationships and incentives. In Smith's (Smith, 2020) words, executives with an ecocentric mentality model behaviors support long‐term initiatives, such as reduced resource use, energy savings, waste avoidance, recycling, and water conservation are all supported by leaders with an ecocentric perspective (Araujo et al, 2021; Biswas et al, 2021; Bolderdijk et al, 2018; Das et al, 2019; Wesselink et al, 2017). The environmental norms of EL, as well as the leadership and pro‐environmental behaviors they exhibit, play a critical role in stimulating the VEB of employees (Uddin et al, 2021).…”

Teachers and students use of systems thinking about their participation in school environmental clubs

“…Club teacher coordinators also serve a useful role in modeling critical thinking for students and sharing their own activist stances and practices (Smith, 2020). In contrast to classroom instruction, in which teachers plan and initiate activities, club coordinators encourage club members to initiate their own projects, contributing to developing their sense of agency.…”

Effectiveness of "Greening" the Professional Education Courses in Teacher Education Program in the National Network of Normal Schools

“…Likewise, they mentioned that the teacher's love and genuine concern for the environment kept them engaged in the EE lessons and learning tasks. According to Smith (2020), for teachers to emerge as sustainability exemplars, affective qualities such as love for the environment are essential.…”