Abstract
This chapter provides a brief historical overview of initiatives to educate for sustainability in the province of Nova Scotia. The central premise of this chapter is that teaching for the values of sustainability cannot simply be teaching “about” sustainability; it must be about teaching and learning that is, at its heart, relational. The institutions responsible for teacher education are central to efforts to educate for a sustainable future. This chapter describes the challenges resulting from one Nova Scotia teacher education institution’s commitment to reorient teacher education for sustainability. Reorienting a teacher education programme requires time for faculty and staff to explore and theorise relationships and issues among social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Through dialogue and reflection, it was determined that efforts to foster the requisite skills, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in preservice teachers to teach for the values of sustainable development must be firmly grounded in the relational. Nel Noddings’s care theory, Max van Manen’s interpretation of the pedagogic relation, and Catherine O’Brien’s concept of sustainable happiness offer teacher educators and teacher education institutions a deeper understanding of how to structure learning opportunities and reorient curricula to foster the values of sustainability in preservice teacher education.
Résumé
Ce chapitre donne un aperçu historique des initiatives en éducation au développement durable en Nouvelle Écosse. Il se fonde essentiellement sur le principe que, pour promouvoir les valeurs du développement durable, il ne suffit pas d’enseigner des notions liées à l’écologie et à la viabilité, il faut aussi se concentrer sur un apprentissage et un enseignement qui sont relationnels en soi. Les institutions responsables de la formation des enseignants sont au cœur des efforts visant à promouvoir l’éducation au développement durable. Ce chapitre décrit les défis qu’a présentés, pour une institution de la Nouvelle-Écosse, la volonté de réorienter la formation des maîtres vers l’enseignement au développement durable. Il va de soi que, pour modifier l’orientation d’un programme de formation, il faut donner au corps professoral et au personnel enseignant le temps nécessaire pour explorer et analyser les dimensions sociales, économiques et environnementales impliquées par ce virage. Grâce au dialogue et à la réflexion, il a été établi que les efforts qui favorisent l’acquisition des compétences, des connaissances, des attitudes et des croyances nécessaires pour former les futurs enseignants aux valeurs du développement durable passent nécessairement par des critères relationnels. L’éthique de la sollicitude de Nel Noddings, l’interprétation de la relation pédagogique de Max van Manen, ainsi que le concept de bonheur durable de Catherine O’Brien, fournissent aux didacticiens et aux institutions de formation des maîtres de meilleures pistes pour structurer les occasions d’apprentissage et réorienter les curriculums de façon à favoriser, chez les futurs enseignants, les valeurs liées au développement durable.
Permission to republish this manuscript has been granted by the Canadian Association for Teacher Education (CATE).
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Notes
- 1.
See transcript of the declaration at http://www.iau-hesd.net/sites/default/files/documents/rfl_727_halifax_2001.pdf
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Howard, P. (2019). Re-Visioning Teacher Education for Sustainability in Atlantic Canada. In: Karrow, D., DiGiuseppe, M. (eds) Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education. International Explorations in Outdoor and Environmental Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25016-4_11
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