Early Preservice Teachers’ Experiences of the Environment: A Case Study of Participation in a Community Outdoor Event

Clean Up Australia Day is the country's largest community-based environmental annual event when participants work in teams to remove rubbish from their local environment. This article describes an interpretive study in which a sample of preservice primary teachers’ (n = 30) responses to questio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian journal of environmental education 2017-07, Vol.33 (2), p.81-96
Main Author: van Rooy, Wilhelmina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case Studies
Colleges & universities
Community involvement
Community participation
Community Programs
Course Descriptions
Educational Environment
Elementary Education
Environment
Environmental attitudes
Environmental education
Feature Articles
Foreign Countries
Learning
Learning Strategies
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Preservice Teacher Education
Preservice Teachers
Primary education
Primary school teachers
Student Experience
Student Participation
Student teachers
Students
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Teacher education
Teacher Educators
Teachers
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Summary:Clean Up Australia Day is the country's largest community-based environmental annual event when participants work in teams to remove rubbish from their local environment. This article describes an interpretive study in which a sample of preservice primary teachers’ (n = 30) responses to questions about their involvement in the event were evaluated to determine their developing knowledge and understanding about environmental and sustainability issues. The study evaluated a university assessment task for its ability to identify and challenge preservice primary teachers’ views as consumers of manufactured products, environmental citizens, and future teachers. The data were drawn from students’ written work that formed part of the assessment task. Results indicate that students found participation in this community event to be a significant, valuable part of their learning about the environment that contributed to their understanding about sustainability and highlighted the power of positive community participation as a force for good.
ISSN:0814-0626
2049-775X
DOI:10.1017/aee.2017.21