USC to help transform sustainable education
Student teachers at the University of the Sunshine Coast are part of a ground-breaking project to change the nation’s approach to teaching children about sustainability.
The project, operating in five Queensland universities, aims to support the vital role that teacher education plays in achieving a sustainable future.
USC Associate Lecturer in Sustainable Learning Lisa Ryan and Dr Julie Davis of Queensland University of Technology are jointly leading the project to merge sustainability into the teacher education curriculums at USC, QUT, James Cook University, University of Southern Queensland and the Australian Catholic University.
Ms Ryan said schools often considered teaching sustainability to be an optional extra, with the workload usually falling on one particular teacher at each school.
“Because teachers are the keys to change, we need to provide more opportunities for student teachers to gain greater understandings about sustainability – which is the challenge of our times – and develop skills in educating children for sustainability,” she said.
Ms Ryan said student teachers at USC realised that sustainability education involved more than just teaching about alternative energy sources, and they were interested in social sustainability issues like social justice and poverty.
USC Education student Kate Drexler said teachers were role models for their students, so it was vital for universities to teach pre-service teachers about sustainable practices.
“Environmental and social sustainability are important because we need to act immediately or we will be left without options,” she said.
Education students from USC and the other universities involved in the project recently used the social networking site, Facebook, to collaboratively develop a pre-service charter for sustainability. This charter was recently presented to State Education Minister Rod Welford and will be published soon.
— Kerry Brown