Pre-Service Teachers' Use of Images in Integrating Environmental Sustainability Lessons

Environmental sustainability is a topic widely discussed in the field of science education, yet, few entities have committed to developing environmental sustainability education standards. The Washington State Department of Education has created K-12 Integrated Environmental and Sustainability Learning Standards (IESLS, 2009), which align with current research and practices in environmental and sustainability education. This study focuses on the perceptions of secondary pre-service teachers about the use of images to teach environmental sustainability topics integrated in their content area. The research explores the question what secondary pre-service teachers' perceptions of sustainability and using images to teach environmental sustainability topics in their content area are. The participants were comprised of secondary pre-service teachers enrolled in an instructional methodology course from a small university in the Pacific Northwestern United States. Teaching environmental sustainability and integrating lessons using images had a noticeable impact on pre-service teachers' perceived future teaching practices. Participants also changed beliefs over the course of the study about using images to teach environmental sustainability topics.