Environmental education in a climate of reform: understanding teacher educators’ experiences

In a climate of national and international policy reform in environmental education this study is designed to examine the ways in which environmental education is implemented by teacher educators (n=11) in a particular teacher education institution in India. The rapid economic progression particularly over the last decade has led to environmental problems of an unprecedented level. India has struggled to keep pace with these problems resulting in the judiciary stepping in and ordering mandatory Environmental Education in the curricula for all schools and undergraduate programs. This study shows that while there has been development of policies, their impact on teacher educators’ practice, and therefore student teachers’ learning about Environmental Education is limited. This thesis is an ethnographic study of a Teacher Education institution in India. The data included public and private policy documents, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. These data sets helped to shed light on the work and lives of the participating teacher educators and how they understood, negotiated, determined and implemented Environmental Education. The study showed that while these teacher educators had a clear understanding of the environment and saw the need/importance of incorporating Environmental Education in their daily practices they had very little scope to do so. There were numerous factors that constrained implementation. This thesis argues that while policy reforms are a step in the right direction they need to be backed up with strong implementation systems in order to be successful.