Embedding education for sustainable development in Initial Teacher Training in the Lifelong Learning Sector

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, there has been growing international recognition of the importance of education in encouraging sustainable development. There is now a plethora of action plans and strategies from various Government departments expecting teachers to play an important part in this and, in the Lifelong Learning Sector, providers are expected to embed sustainability within their provision from 2010. This paper explains how the teacher education team at Somerset College, as part of the University of Plymouth partnership which provides the Professional Graduate Certificate in Education/Certificate in Education which incorporate the Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, embedded Education for Sustainable Development within these programmes. They used a co-operative inquiry approach to carry out the professional and curriculum development required and are now sharing this within the partnership and further afield. The main focus of this paper is the Education for Sustainable Development curriculum development undertaken; a forthcoming paper (Summers and Turner, in review) will explore the cooperative inquiry process and how this supported the development.