Engagement, self-efficacy and intention to teach Environmental Education in two pre-service primary teachers

Abstract

With specific reference to two final year student primary teachers, this paper explores three elements identified by Van Petegem et al. (2005) as useful constructs in the analysis of pre-service teacher education in environmental education. Engagement, intention and self-efficacy as identified by Van Petegem et al. (2005) are shown to be fostered in particular ways by a pre-service teacher unit designed to encourage implementation of environmental education. In particular, the two students remarked on the influence of new content knowledge and of pedagogical knowledge as building upon their own affinity with environment, and with their views of teaching as being important in shaping their efforts towards educating for a more sustainable future. At an international level there is agreement that environmental education (EE) should be developed in order to contribute to the conservation of nature and to the concomitant societal change towards more sustainable ways of living (UNESCO 2003). Associated with this is recognition that if EE is to become more prominent in school education, then it must also be a part of pre-service and in-service teacher education (Tilbury 1992; UNESCO 2005; Shallcross 2008). Although interest in this field is growing, there is limited provision of EE in teacher education (Tilbury, Coleman & Garlick 2005; Beckford 2008) and limited discussion of the manner in which EE in teacher education might best proceed (Scott 1996; Varga et al. 2007). A number of models describing EE in teacher education have been proposed (Ferreira, Ryan & Tilbury 2006).These describe broad scale organisation, as well as some elements of important content in teacher preparation in EE. Additionally, a frame of reference for teacher preparation courses has been provided by Van Petegem et al. (2005) wherein a set of criteria for implementation of EE in initial teacher education is described. Three criteria from Van Petegem's frame of reference will be applied in this paper to structure a profile of two pre-service teachers in relation to EE.