Browsing by Author "Laine, Emma-Lotta"

Themes of environmental education have become more visible in today’s educational institutes. While the Finnish curriculum highlights the importance of education for sustainable development, and as the concern of the state of the environment rises, the school system has to do its own part in building a more sustainable future. Knowledge-based in-service training for environmental education provides teachers with the skills to upbring environmentally conscious members of society. The purpose of this study is to map the thoughts of teachers on the role of environmental education in the day-to-day school life, and their dreams and ponderings on the future of environmental education. In addition, the interest of this study is to examine the meanings the participants give to in-service training for environmental education. The participants of study consist of six elementary school class teachers. Four of the interviewees were acquired from the Facebook page of Sykli, and two others from mailing lists. The study’s material was collected by using semi-structured interviews, which were then transcribed, and the transcripts were used for making a content analysis. The participants of the study comprised of class teachers of varying backgrounds, who were connected by the participation in the Sykli’s program of environmental education. According to the study’s results, the participants saw the role of environmental education as being very significant in the context of the school, and thus hoped for it to become a bigger part of the school culture. The role of the supervisor was seen as a significant factor when examining the school’s environmental education. The participants saw the role of environmental education to grow with the increasing knowledge of the state of the globe, and some already saw the change for the better coming. The partaking in the in-service training for environmental education was seen as an extremely positive experience. Furthermore, the participants thought the in-service training had an effect on multiple different parts in their teaching practices. For example they thought their courage to put environmental education more into practice increased. The participants also reported expanded understanding of the nature of environmental education.