Growing Our Own: A Case Study of Teacher Candidates Learning to Teach for Sustainability in an Elementary School with a Garden
This case describes how four teacher candidates, placed for a year-long
internship in an elementary school with a garden, learned to teach for
sustainability. Evidence from the interns’ Teacher Work Samples, survey
data, interviews, and observational data are used to assess the extent to
which teacher candidates demonstrated the knowledge, skills and
dispositions to teach for sustainability. This study suggests some of the
factors that may increase or decrease the likelihood of preservice teachers
incorporating sustainability into their practice: methods courses that model
appropriate strategies and materials, field placements where sustainability
principles are enacted, and standards that target higher-level thinking and
the application of learning.
Joanne Carney, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University. She teaches in the Elementary Education Department and the Instructional Technology Program. Her research interests include teacher education and professional development, with a focus on preparing teachers to teach for sustainability and for the integration of technology into instruction. 
