You Mean I Have to Teach Sustainability Too? : Initial Teacher Education Students' Perspectives on the Sustainability Cross-Curriculum Priority

This paper reports on an investigation into initial teacher education students' (ITES) understandings of sustainability and the Australian National Curriculum Sustainability Cross Curricular Priority (CCP). It also explores their willingness and capacities to embed the CCP into their own teaching practices. The ITES (N=392) completed a quantitative survey with a series of Likert Scale questions and were asked to list '5 words' when they think of sustainability. Analysis reveals that ITES have generally limited to moderate understandings of sustainability and education for sustainability, but lesser understandings of the CCP and the 9 organising ideas. Understandings of sustainability were dominated by an environmental focus. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of narrow environmental understandings of sustainability. It explores factors that limit and enable teacher educators to embed sustainability education more explicitly. It notes the important role teacher educators play in supporting ITES to better understand sustainability. [Author abstract, ed]