This inquiry explores how eco-phenomenology reveals our relational engagement with forests inspiring a philosophy of education nurturing an ethos of mystery useful to teacher education, and the unsettling and decolonising of Western settler views of a Canadian forest. Through eco-phenomenological descriptions and interpretations, immediate lived experiences in a forest reveal three concepts: the sylvan fringe, the clearing and the care structure. Respectively, the ontological, epistemological and axiological domains of poetism, as a philosophy of education consist of physis (presencing-absencing), poetic knowledge (known-unknown) and dwelling (care structure). The relationship between Critical Forest Studies (CFS) and teacher environmental education is furthered by considering currents in environmental education and programming. CFS and poetism each resonate with the holistic current of environmental education and are well suited to the systematic programming of environmental education in teacher education.

AbstractAs science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education continues to increase in popularity, it becomes imperative that generalist preservice teachers (PT) have both strong concept knowledge and pedagogical skills to properly support its integration. However, generalist PTs do not have enough knowledge or skills possessed by those in STEM's respective disciplines, impacting their perceptions of how the framework is disseminated. The finger, then, is pointed at PT education to provide the necessary education and training that would allow for high‐quality STEM education beginning at the elementary level. One novel approach to mitigate this problem is to introduce Kieran Egan's education theory on imagination (mythic understanding) and the theory of integrated curricula to PT. Throughout this philosophical inquiry, we explore integrated curriculum models, imagination (mythic understanding) and storytelling, illustrating how they may appear in a STEM‐oriented lesson within an elementary science PT course, and attend to the need for approachable, evidence‐based interventions regarding generalist PT STEM education.

Purpose Halfway into the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) timeline, we deemed fruitful an injunction into current teacher education (TE) practices at higher educational institutes (HEIs). The scoping literature review used all known English nomenclature interrelating to environment, sustainability, development, and education as regards TE. We explicated and modelled the data through timelines favourable to UN initiatives within a spatiotemporal metric. Thematic research topics and research methodologies strictly pertaining to TE were rigorously researched and delineated. Our study aims to elucidate a grander picture of the trends-as-patterns of environmental and sustainability education in teacher education (ESE-TE) research in HEI and potential contributions to come. Design/methodology/approach The spatiotemporal study adopts a scoping review as an investigative tool to probe current research trends on ESE-TE in the academic literature with respect to thematic research topics and research methodologies midway through the SDGs. Findings A total of 2,142 research papers spanning five decades, 152 journals and 96 countries were screened equally by two researchers. Of the 788 papers deemed eligible (i.e. English-language, peer-reviewed, pre-service/in-service TE that explicitly mentioned ESE-TE research), data from 638 studies have been included in the authors’ study. Originality/value Comprehensive trends in the international literature of all known environmental and sustainable education nomenclature specific to international ESE-TE research throughout the time period (1974 – 2021) were identified. Value is accrued by illuminating international trends in research topics and methodologies, exposing gaps in the history of the subfield, and predicting future trends for Agenda 2030 (e.g. SDG 4 – education) to mature the field.

Environmental Perception: A study with IFRN-SGA students Os evidentes impactos das atividades humanas no ambiente têm suscitado debates acalorados sobre a importância da sustentabilidade e da preservação do meio ambiente, fomentando uma desejada conscientização ecológica. Apesar disso, muitas pessoas ainda não compreendem completamente os efeitos de suas ações sobre o ecossistema. Nesse cenário, é importante compreender a perspectiva dos jovens, pois eles serão responsáveis por moldar o futuro do planeta. Este artigo visa analisar os resultados de uma investigação sobre a percepção das questões ambientais por estudantes do ensino médio. Baseado na Psicologia Ambiental, o estudo adotou abordagem metodológica exploratória e quali-quantitativa, e aconteceu no Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte - Campus São Gonçalo do Amarante. A coleta de dados envolveu aplicação de questionários a 187 estudantes na faixa de 14 a 18 anos matriculados nos cursos técnicos de nível médio e a realização de rodas de conversa com 76 deles. Os resultados indicam que, os participantes compreendem as questões ambientais, porém não se apropriaram efetivamente desse conhecimento, de modo que ele pouco se traduz em comportamentos/atividades e relações afetivas consistentes, condizentes com os princípios de conscientização socioambiental, o que aponta a necessidade da educação ambiental estar mais atenta à percepção ambiental.

The purpose of this article is to examine how signifiers and empty signifiers may contribute to the mainstreaming of environmental and sustainability education in teacher education. We argue that the moniker of environmental and sustainability education is an empty signifier in that it fails to convey meaning about what it signifies. Tracing the history of the pre- sustainability, sustainability, and post-sustainability field signifiers, and their respective sub- field signifiers (e.g., environmental education and education for sustainable development), we conduct a philosophical inquiry, augmented by a modified form of semiotic analysis, to expose the degree to which these signifiers are empty. The limitations and benefits of empty signification are explored through philosophical interpretation. Implications of empty signifier limitations are considered in teacher education and the manner in which they may contribute to the unsuccessful mainstreaming of environmental and sustainability education in teacher education. We conclude that a core or compulsory environmental and sustainability education course should be mandated in teacher education to ensure that all teacher candidates receive the education they require to educate future generations of children to live well on Earth.

Special Guest Editoral for Volume 32, Issue 2.

To investigate how elementary science and technology (S&T) education experiences with hands-on experimentation and inquiry-based learning impact pre-service teachers’ attitudes and confidence to teach S&T, we used a cross-sectional survey. Our participants were twenty-seven pre-service teachers enrolled in an Ontario elementary S&T teacher education methods course. Those who were taught S&T through hands-on experimentation considered themselves more S&T literate and were statistically more confident to read, understand, and critically evaluate common S&T media reports; they were also more confident to teach S&T through hands-on experimentation and inquiry-based learning. In almost all cases, participants valued learning S&T by doing S&T (i.e. actively participating/interacting), which influenced their confidence, interest, and desire to embrace hands-on experimentation as future elementary teachers.

Research activities of the Canadian Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education Standing Committee are the focus of this paper. A history of the Standing Committee’s research activities, a comparison of Canadian with international approaches to ESE-TE research, the identification and prioritizing of a future Canadian ESE-TE research agenda, and a model for developing a research agenda amongst Canadian ESE-TE stakeholders comprise the work. A future research agenda may consist of re-defining ESE; conducting a literature review of Canadian and international ESE-TE research; and reviewing Canadian and international ESE-TE research topics, including: connections between the social and the ecological; teacher ‘identity’ and ‘agency’; urban, digital, interdisciplinary, community-based, and marginalized ESE; teaching/student learning and belief systems; and limitations and challenges in applying research to practice. Key words: Canadian, environmental and sustainability education, teacher education, research, Standing committee on ESE-TE.

To investigate how early elementary science and technology (S&T) education, with hands-on experimentation and inquiry-based learning, impacts pre-service teachers' attitudes and confidence to teach S&T education, we used a cross-sectional survey. Our participants were 27 pre-service teachers enrolled in an Ontario elementary S&T teacher education methods course. Those who were taught S&T through hands-on experimentation exhibited more positive attitudes toward S&T and were statistically more confident when reading, understanding, and critically evaluating common S&T media reports. They were also more confident to teach S&T through hands-on experimentation and inquiry-based learning. In almost all cases, participants valued learning S&T by doing S&T (i.e., actively participating/interacting), which influenced their confidence, interest, and desire to embrace hands-on experimentation for their future roles as elementary teachers.

Research activities of the Canadian Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education Standing Committee are the focus of this paper. A history of the Standing Committee’s research activities, a comparison of Canadian with international approaches to ESE-TE research, the identification and prioritizing of a future Canadian ESE-TE research agenda, and a model for developing a research agenda amongst Canadian ESE-TE stakeholders comprise the work. A future research agenda may consist of re-defining ESE; conducting a literature review of Canadian and international ESE-TE research; and reviewing Canadian and international ESE-TE research topics, including: connections between the social and the ecological; teacher ‘identity’ and ‘agency’; urban, digital, interdisciplinary, community-based, and marginalized ESE; teaching/student learning and belief systems; and limitations and challenges in applying research to practice. \r\nKey words: Canadian, environmental and sustainability education, teacher education, research, Standing committee on ESE-TE.

International advice on what teachers—including Canadian teachers—should know, believe and be able to do regarding environmental education (EE) was published as far back as 2005 in the guidelines and recommendations of the UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability. In Ontario, Canada, this became manifest in one of the few Canadian provincial EE policy frameworks, Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow. Though laudable, the framework provided minimal direction to faculties of education on the development of preservice teacher environmental education (PT-EE) capacities. (Preservice Teacher Environmental Education (PT-EE) is a term unique to the Ontario education context. The focus of the chapter is the “preservice teacher” and not teacher education, the more encompassing term. The authors have retained the original term as it appears in the CATE publication rather than applying the standardized term Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education (ESE-TE) used throughout the balance of this book volume). This chapter presents an argument for the development of PT-EE capacities, using a generic model of PT capacity involving PT “experiences/natures” and “competencies”. In particular, the chapter considers how PT-EE capacities may be described, identified and cultivated within teacher education programmes. The chapter also explores how PT-EE capacity may influence PT-EE programmes and how coordinated efforts at two levels of action—at the faculty level and beyond the faculty—may help institutionalise PT-EE capacities.

The National Roundtable on Environmental & Sustainability Education in Pre-Service Teacher Education, which took place in June 2016 at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, was a remarkable event in Canadian teacher education history. This National Roundtable brought together key educational stakeholders to discuss the state of Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in Canada and to create an action plan for enhancing ESE nationwide. National Roundtable participants, which included faculty, researchers, teachers, community educators, and policy-makers, engaged in a large-scale collaborative inquiry process in which they discussed, debated, and analyzed past and current pedagogical practices; structural, programmatic, and economic challenges; theoretical and other explanatory frameworks; and critical areas of the field in need of further research. This chapter documents and reflects on the National Roundtable as indicative of the growing interest in Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education (ESE-TE) and discusses some of the impacts this event may have had on ESE-PTE in Canada.

This chapter discusses the development, delivery, and outcomes of an Outdoor and Environmental Education course in Brock University’s Teacher Education programme. The course has been offered in a variety of modalities, both on and off campus. In this chapter, the instructors share their current practices from the course, with a focus on course assignments and student outcomes. Assignments offered opportunities for student introspection, reflection, and community connections. We share samples of student products, along with their anecdotal and formal reflections on course participation. We also include a reimagining of the course, based on research presented by Karrow et al. (2016). These recommendations include analysing the course through the competency categorisations of Learning to know, Learning to do, Learning to live together, and Learning to be, which were presented as a framework for educators in education for sustainable development (UNECE 2012). Despite some critique, these categories may, ideally, lead to a growth in the essential environmental education (EE) traits of holism, envisioning, and transformation. With these traits and categories in mind, we also present a renewed course for preservice teacher EE, which we hope will have local and global relevance.

This concluding chapter examines Canadian Environmental and Sustainability Education in Preservice Teacher Education (ESE-PTE) in relation to international ESE-PTE by considering a recent international study examining approaches to embedding ESE in PTE based on pedagogical and programmatic approaches, rationales and theoretical frameworks, and challenges faced by educators seeking to embed ESE into PTE. Contributing authors’ chapters are referenced in this cross-comparative analysis of research and secondary K–12 curricular/policy sources. And, while the curriculum/policy sources referenced oblige K–12 schools to integrate ESE into their courses and programmes, significant gaps in ESE-PTE persist in Canada. Additional empirical research is needed to identify specific factors—including approaches employed in Canadian and international PTE programmes, theoretical frameworks informing such approaches, curricular emphases and outcomes implemented in these programmes, and experiences of EST-PTE students, instructors, administrators, and policymakers—that facilitate or hinder the enhancement of ESE in PTE. Canada is poised to contribute to the emerging field of ESE-PTE beyond the descriptive empirical work highlighted in this volume. The challenge for future researchers will be to build on important work summarised here in the collective effort to realign the purpose of education to teach for a sustainable future.

The following paper is a curricular critique of an environmental education policy framework called Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow (2009). It is founded upon: (a) an examination of the conventional argument for integrated curriculum models and its relevance to K-12 environmental education; and (b) utilization of a typology of integrated curriculum models to analyze an environmental education policy framework within the jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada. In conclusion, Ontario’s environmental education policy framework tends toward an integrated curriculum model referred to as ‘selective infusion.’ The implications for integrated curricular practice are identified, with recommendations for improving the policy framework from an integrated curricular perspective. Key Words: environmental education, integrated curriculum, curriculum critique, education policy.

The title of this chapter: Pedagogically Succeeding in Life: Executing a Consequently Unprepared Program this has become the impetus to the tribute. It conveys the notion that "executing a consequently unprepared program" is essential to "pedagogically succeeding in life". This chapter considers one of the examples above: problem-solving. It describes the manner in which we and all other things in our world come to be present-a metaphysics. The chapter introduced to the works of Michael Apple, Henry Giroux, Kieran Egan, and Max van Manen, to name a few. During all-too-short pedagogical relationship with Dr. Geoffrey Milburn, there are many seemingly insignificant experiences that stand out, that in hindsight, epitomize the essence of Geoff's efforts to rally against the prepared program. The chapter reaches a seminal conclusion: in ontological education, learning culminates in teaching. It could only be so fortunate to pedagogically succeed in life, in the manner Geoff saw fit.