Michelle Lasen

Potential of Service-Learning to Promote Sustainability Competencies in Pre-Service Teachers: A Case Study.

This research investigates the potential of service-learning to develop a situated, embodied and critically reflective human agency for sustainability. It employs document analysis to review the intended curriculum and the institutional contexts of national and international cases wherein service-learning is a component of pre-service teacher education. Exploration of intended learning outcomes and project and assessment experiences across three cases reveal the potential of service-learning to develop in pre-service teachers sustainability competencies involving participative action with community partners to achieve agreed-upon outcomes, as well as critically reflective capacities and understanding of how, in their future classrooms, schools and communities, they can serve as adaptive, lifelong learners and agents for social and environmental change. Findings also suggest that explicitly linking service-learning activities, guided by social justice and equity principles, with a (social) sustainability agenda may further validate the utilisation of and investment in service-learning and civic engagement in teacher and higher education settings.

A Systematic Review of Rural Development Research: Characteristics, Design Quality and Engagement with Sustainability

Rapid urbanisation, inequalities in income and service levels within and between communities, and population and economic decline are challenging the viability of rural communities worldwide. Achieving healthy and viable rural communities in the face of rapidly changing social, ecological and economic conditions is a declared global priority. As a result, governments all over the world, in both developed and developing countries, are now prioritizing rural and regional development through policies and programs aimed at enhancing the livelihoods of people living in rural regions. In recognition of the important roles that research can play in rural development, a range of systematic literature reviews have rightly examined key priorities in rural development including education, gender, economic development (especially agriculture), and health and nutrition (see Department for International Development [DFID], 2011). However, none of these works has systematically examined the extent to which rural development as a field of research is progressing towards facilitating sustainable change. This book evaluates trends in rural development research across the five continental regions of the world. Specifically, it assesses the total publication output relating to rural development, the types of publications, their quality and impact over the last three decades. Additionally, it evaluates the continental origins of the publications as well as the extent to which such publications engage with issues of sustainability. The aim is to determine whether the rural development field is growing in a manner that reflects research and policy priorities and broader social trends such as sustainability. Development policy makers, practitioners, those teaching research methods and systematic literature reviews to undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers in general will find the book both topical and highly relevant.

A Case Study of an Australian University Embedding EfS in a Pre-service Teaching Program

As part of a whole-of-program approach to embedding sustainability in a pre-service, 4-year Bachelor of Education program, academic staff at an Australian university engaged in collaborative projects to design dedicated sustainability subjects and embed science and sustainability principles, concepts, and issues across early childhood and primary subjects. This chapter examines aspects of learning, teaching, and assessment in a first-year core sustainability and science education subject, Foundations of Sustainability in Education; an embedded component in a third-year core professional studies subject, Early Childhood Education and Care; and a final-year elective, Environmental and Climate Change Education for the Tropics. The intent of these subjects is for pre-service teachers to develop understanding of the underlying science and complexity of key socio-ecological challenges, as well as the capacity to plan and implement sustainability and climate change learning experiences and actions in diverse school and community contexts. In order to promote pre-service teacher engagement and learning across multiple cohorts—including community-based Indigenous students and early childhood majors in online modes—the focus is on active and collaborative inquiry-based, technology-enabled, and praxis-oriented learning and assessment experiences.