Abstract
EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY: AN EXAMINATION OF
IDEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES IN INTRODUCTORY TEACHEREDUCATION TEXTBOOKS
Hollace Lea Bristol
Education for sustainability refers to a process for reorienting human awareness,
competence, values, and attitudes toward effective participation in environmental,
economic, and community decision-making that promotes sustainability. The integration
of principles of sustainability into teacher education is provided by the following threepart rationale: (a) the degradation of the earth’s biotic systems, (b) the decline of
sustainable human communities, and (c) the call by international agencies to advance the
consciousness of sustainability through public education.
This study identifies principles of a shift in thinking referred to as ecological
consciousness, to distinguish it from a Western mechanistic worldview. These principles
are then used in a content analysis of introduction-to-education textbooks to determine
the extent to which current texts integrate ecological consciousness into the foundations
of Western education.
As no publishers have identified introduction-to-education textbooks currently in
use that are structured within the ecological paradigm, sample texts were previewed to
determine recording units that would provide evidence of the inclusion or omission of
ecological principles. These recording units include current social issues and future issues
that are mentioned as effecting education, how the content is prioritized, how process is
represented, what is said about individual identity, how values and ethics are referenced,
and direct references to ecological and environmental issues related to education.
Findings of the study indicate that .09 percent or less than one-tenth of one
percent of total content of six best-selling introduction-to-education textbooks relate
issues of sustainability to education. Those few references that are included are in the
context of science education, the geography curriculum, internet lessons, or future
concerns. Although the claim is made that issues of ecology and environmental education
continue to influence today’s curricular materials, nowhere is this evidenced in the
textbooks that were sampled. Omissions of the language and issues of sustainability
represent a perspective of denial in reference to a now-limited habitat and diminishment
of species, and a false sense of a manageable and sustainable future secured through
technology and progress.