Student Teacher Ecological Self in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development: A Longitudinal Case Study

Abstract

In the context of teacher education (TE) for sustainable development (SD), questions related to a teacher’s values, worldview and identity present a particular interest and are of critical importance. In the present article, student–teachers’ understanding of Teacher self and nature is focused on through discussions of personal and professional settings. The perceived curriculum, that is, reflection on a formal curriculum of a particular TE programme, is discussed to investigate how existing TE curriculum supports the development of the ecological, holistic self of a future teacher. The longitudinal study of 9 student teachers attempts to illuminate the process of the development of their ecological self during the first 4 years of studies in a particular initial TE programme. Although literature stresses the need to begin TE with investigating teacher identity, the results show that according to student teachers’ opinions, the particular TE curriculum does not address the notion of teacher identity in a focused manner, and more prominently, it does not address teacher identity development in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).