Volume 14 (2012): Issue 1 (June 2012)

With regard to education, traditional environmentally-related issues have been intertwined with courses in natural sciences, which could entail opportunities as well as difficulties. The study concerns two knowledge matters that are usually divided into two different subject traditions - water and justice. In this article, we focus on the way teachers consider instruction within the frameworks of these two discourses and how teaching is related to sustainable development. The findings suggest that water and justice are two examples that are suitable for the problematisation of sustainable development with respect to holistic education. Current educational policies in Sweden advocate a tendency towards a more closed and subject-centred discourse, which means that the ability to successfully teach about sustainable development is made even more problematic.

In this paper, we consider the development of teachers' emotional skills by using arts and skills. In the theoretical background, we focus on the modern theories of motivation, learning and school culture and on cultural theories (Sapher & King, 1985) of school environments and views of learning. The main problem is to determine which skills the teachers can achieve during intensive training of emotional skills and arts. In the paper, we have used the course evaluations and post-evaluation material from one of the Comenius courses held in Cyprus in October 2008. The findings show that, in spite of the school culture, all the methods for teaching emotional skills can also be used for the personal and professional growth of teachers. Teachers' well-being and a positive school environment are essential in sustainable development and education.

Secondary school can serve as a time for youth to prepare themselves for the ‘real world’, and physical education can play an important role in this preparation. Yet in the past, secondary school physical education has not been very effective in preparing youth for life after secondary school. One area to help improve secondary school physical education is in the preparation of pre-service physical education teachers. It is during the preparation of pre-service physical education teachers that they will be taught and trained regarding appropriate instructional practices in secondary school physical education. The National Association of Sport and Physical Education created a document regarding appropriate educational practices in secondary school physical education. For this study, a survey was adapted from the National Association of Sport and Physical Education appropriate instructional practice document. Three hundred and thirteen pre-service physical education teachers from seven institutions of higher education throughout the United States were surveyed regarding their knowledge of appropriate instructional practices in secondary school physical education. It was found that pre-service physical education teachers inappropriately answered six of the 18 survey statements (33%) regarding appropriate instructional practices in secondary school physical education. When pre-service physical education teachers graduate and expose secondary school pupils to appropriate practices, there is a better chance the pupils will be prepared for the ‘real world’.

The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to juxtapose the praxis of mentoring with its domination and, second, to examine the praxis of mentoring. The rationale of the inquiry is based on social reconstructivist principles, recognising that relational structures and human experiences are both productive and reproductive in nature and in effect. The inquiry has pedagogical implications for institutional practices in education and political implications for individual voluntary versus institutional organising. It is potentially counter-hegemonic against the discourse of globalisation inevitability. Overall, the paper investigates the development and socialisation of human agency in institutional and social associations in which the praxis of mentoring intervenes.

This paper discusses the historic development of environmental education in Malta and identifies environmental non-governmental organisations as the main promoters of environmental education in Malta. Environmental awareness started to increase as a response to major environmental issues on the island, but was a long affair, hindered in its development by a number of factors, including the governments' non-committal policy, the colonial mentality and the highly competitive educational system. European Union accession had a positive impact on the development mainly due to the imposed requirements. Subsequent governments have realised the importance of environmental education as an effective solution to ensure environmental sustainability. Nonetheless, as environmental education goals take a long time to be achieved, the lack of short-term achievements may be somewhat hindering its development. A context-based environmental education development model was designed to illustrate the complex relations identified in the study. The study suggests a commitment towards locally produced materials, genuine environmental non-governmental organisations and funding up of a co-ordinating centre for the promotion of environmental education at all academic levels.

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.