Understanding sustainability pedagogy in practice

Initial Teacher Education students and Early Career Teachers can find pedagogical understanding in relation to teaching about sustainability difficult. This chapter explores how classroom research based in a higher education institute (and used in Initial Teacher Education) can contribute to discussions on the nature of sustainability pedagogy. An example of this research is provided using a short transcript from a UK primary school Religious Education lesson on ‘Creation Stories’. The analysis uses detailed video-based observations to identify the interaction and decision-making process in relation to young people’s understanding of sustainability. A ‘sustainability pedagogy’ will be presented as a type of ethical pedagogy that informs; how sustainability can be taught, the implications of children’s understandings of the concept of sustainability on classroom practice, and the challenges of accommodating diverse ethical assumptions that can be encountered in the classroom in relation to issues of sustainability.