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Much research in Environmental Education and Education for Sustainability, likethat carried out by Alan Reid in his doctoral thesis (Reid 1998), proposes the necessityto analyse what knowledge the teachers have regarding these issues, in order to beable to establish a typology of Geography teachers in general. The methodology usedin these cases is based on personal interviews. In our case we felt it would be betterthat the teachers explain what they know and what they think about sustainabilityand Education for Sustainability and as a result we used two focus group interviewsto gather the information (in the line of Graham Corney’s research).FindingsThe first focus group interview dealt with the concept of sustainability trying toanswer three main questions:• What does sustainability mean to you?• What knowledge do you think you have on sustainability?• Do you think achieving a sustainable society is possible?All the teachers agreed, more or less, on the definition of sustainability. They usedthe Brundtland Report definition (“a process where the exploitation, the orientation oftechnological development and institutional change, are made consistent with futureas well as present needs”) as well as the one introduced by the UICN (“a feature of aprocess or a state that can be maintained indefinitely”). Once the concept had beendefined we asked the teachers to explain the meaning of the definitions. At this point,all the teachers noticed the difficulty and the vagueness of the concept and its definition.The debate brought out different perspectives of sustainability, as Dobson (1996) notesand this meant that some of the teachers showed their pessimism stating that: “sustainabilityis being ideologically instrumentalized”. But some of them stated: “independentas to how to do it, what is important is to work for sustainability”. As a result of thisfirst workshop, the teachers came to the conclusion that the knowledge they have thatrelated to sustainability was diverse, and those who have wider knowledge are thosewho had been involved in ecologist groups, those who belong to green schools or thosewho are personally implicated with sustainability. The group of teachers that confessedto have a more limited knowledge about sustainability claim that this topic isn’t theirmain worry, above all because they think that “the prevalent trend of today’s societyis unsustainable and sustainability is nothing more than an utopia”.The second focus group interview dealt with Education for Sustainability. Thequestions for the debate were: what does it mean to educate for sustainability? Is itnecessary? How should it be worked in schools? What kind of problems do you haveas teachers to teach for sustainability? In the beginning we started off by explainingand evaluating the characteristics of Education for Sustainability defined by StephenSterling (1996): “Education for sustainability is: contextual, innovative and constructive,focused and infusive, holistic and human in scale, integrative, process orientedand empowering rather than product oriented, critical, systemic and connective,ethical, purposive, inclusive and lifelong”.According to the teachers participating in the project, introducing Education forSustainability into the Geography curriculum with the frame developed by Stephen306
Sterling (2002) implies: “this kind of education has to develop skills to the studentsfor action and participation; it is necessary for teachers to have a wide knowledgeof the locality; it requires research on environmental problems that are takingplace in the locality, and the outcomes presented by the students must have socialrelevance, that is to say, it must be seen as service learning, because while formingthe students as critical citizens it helps the community to achieve sustainability,etc.” These teachers, in their majority, consider that Education for Sustainability isa good theoretical educational model, but it is difficult to put into practice becauseof the following factors: “because we are over worked we cannot produce teachingmaterials; we don’t have the proper tools to produce these materials; we find that ifoutside agents such as the council or private educational companies offered thesematerials, we feel it could be feasible: E S has to impregnate the whole school andthere must exist a project in common; we teachers need to have facilities to accessto professional development programs”.ConclusionsAfter working together, the teachers participating in this investigation reached theconclusion that the main factors that might influence Geography teachers in focusingtheir teaching on sustainability include whether:• they think this is important for them as Geography teachers and/or for GeographicalKnowledge;• they have been sufficiently exposed to Sustainability theoretical frameworks;• they think doing this is feasible, or they know how to do it;• the school context management encourages them;• teaching materials are related to Sustainability.• they are personally concerned about the need for Sustainability;• they are involved in external projects that provide motivation; and• they are involved in educational research concerning Sustainability.The teachers participating in this investigation agreed that most of Geographyteachers need training for their professional development on sustainability, and theyfound that a good way of training was the one conceived as a series of workshops ofcollaborative research where a final educational material is produced.References1. CORNEY G., SUMMERS M., CHILDS A. 2003. Teaching Sustainable Development inPrimary Schools: an empirical study of issues for teachers, in: Environmental EducationResearch, Vol. 9, № 3, pp. 327−346.2. DOBSON A. 1996. Environment Sustainabilities: an Analysis and a Typology, in: EnvironmentalPolitics, Vol. 5, № 3, pp. 401−428.3. HUCKLE J., STERLING S. 1996. Education for Sustainability, London, Earthscan.4. REID A. 1998. How does the Geography Teacher contribute to Pupils’ EnvironmentalEducation?, Doctoral thesis, University of Bath.5. STERLING S. 2002. Sustainable Education: Revisioning Learning and Change, SchumacherBriefings 6, Green Books Publishers, London.307
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Changing Horizons inGeography Educa
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ContributorsAnouk AdangFaculty of G
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Margaret C. KeaneSt Mary’s Univer
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Artur ReligaDepartment of Geography
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Contents1. Exciting Geography......
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Barbara Katharina Mayerhofer, Teach
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How to design and implement excitin
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only increase their motivation to l
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Ministry of Education. Having in mi
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eEurope and the Bologna agendaIn hi
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The main learning approachesencoura
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as a vibrant exciting subject at un
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include ICT as part of the educatio
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19. RICHARDSON J. A. 2001. Collabor
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class using identical instructions
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ability to hold and move a load is
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the range of practical activities.
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Multimedia learning of geographical
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• an organizer and manager of a l
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Geographical fieldwork in forestsJa
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One of these field study laboratori
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learning“, to develop and then in
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egin). It is referred to the inter-
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overruled by the judge and some sus
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esses or their reciprocal relations
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formulated one of key principles in
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Dress rehearsalHow should a present
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of the world, but multiple maps of
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focused on landscape, climate, popu
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ments in academic geography, could
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Training geography teachers in Pola
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a series of intellectual as well as
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• optional subject (30 hours) use
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of the lower levels of education. H
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• the one-subject model: the cont
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delivery, and the methods of the pa
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• Pathways signal important tasks
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Geography competitions as stimuli f
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Figure 1. Changes in the structure
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Challenges for the futureNowadays t
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A perspective from the United State
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The process of GIS inquiry - Thinki
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Remote Sensing in Geography Educati
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IntroductionThe Democratic Republic
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images visualise the “tree vegeta
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PART TWOProfessional Developmentand
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Key elements of an introductory stu
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Some textbooks also provide self-le
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Geography programs and BolognaThere
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equirements. In the faculties of Ar
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Even though this only is a short an
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Background of international student
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students in their language skills.
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International collaboration in dist
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Designing and teaching the distance
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audio lectures - one for presenting
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enrolled in geography courses at po
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development experience. Whilst Craf
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Networking and social diffusion of
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is mistreated, the culture is a-cul
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3. ABALAR. 2004. “Editorial”, i
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to gather process and store spatial
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1. Fundamental to understanding GIS
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The Future of Geography and Geograp
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of geography. In Singapore Social S
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geography should become much more s
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the handful of disciplines that has
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and respected and the institutional
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3. The strength of school and unive
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It is quite clear that Vidal de la
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Effective Practices in Distance Edu
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on to the other satellite school. O
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4. Ministry of Education. 1999. The
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schools is the result of the role e
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• A statistically significant dif
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Charles University geography gradua
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Table 1. First job in studied field
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importance in geography study progr
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The Anglo-Saxon model was collectiv
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academic science. I do believe that
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can convene. Details of these modul
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preparation and to some extent, tea
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The assessment must form the basis
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The teaching shall build on the pup
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The Relationship between Geography
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Geography and Territory Planning ha
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we wished, of course we have obtain
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Why Managers from Multinational Com
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able to have training in different
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ContextUtrecht University is a larg
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Typical is the very open atmosphere
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Times of Change for Geography Educa
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where it is divided into specific b
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• traditional versus progressive
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on European Dimension of Teaching g
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With the ongoing development of tel
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Figure 2. Present at Annual Congres
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It is expected that the more active
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An evaluation of geographyand geogr
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The problems of geography and geogr
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Europe in geographical education -
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Then these results were compared to
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Figure 9. Countries mentioned by th
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Internationalizing geography in hig
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nationalize their undergraduate and
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Groups also focus on international
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The Position of Geography Graduates
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have also affected the number ofGeo
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The majority answered that they wou
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In the Primary school curriculum, G
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the efficacy of the teaching and le
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228
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What Europe do we teach?A view from
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The regional approach is used in on
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The syllabi reflect mainly that the
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Geography Forum: Intercultural Lear
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Was Intercultural Competence promot
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of geographical education in our un
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Higher education (University) as a
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This table shows the importance of
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the studies on what exists, to cons
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248taught in the foreign language e
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as K. De Bot calls it, is a variety
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Do you speak European? or: Why even
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Years’ Religious War in the 17 th
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Page 268 and 269: 3. Dziennik Ustaw nr 61 z dnia 19 c
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Page 272 and 273: dropping litter. There is circle ti
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Page 278 and 279: ole: they form attitudes, views, pr
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Page 284 and 285: Some backgroundFor a number of year
Page 286 and 287: issues that will shape the future g
Page 288 and 289: Geography and Environmental Science
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Page 292 and 293: Geography and Languages in Intercul
Page 294 and 295: Table 1. The most widely taught for
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Page 298 and 299: References1. CALVET L. J. 2002. Le
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Page 310 and 311: includes geography. The context is,
Page 312 and 313: • protected areas8. Landscape sec
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Page 322 and 323: By signing and ratifying the Kyoto
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Page 326 and 327: 8. UNITED NATIONS 1997. Kyoto Proto
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