Integrating Sustainability Education into the University Pre-Service Teacher Elementary Education Curriculum through the Lens of School Gardens

Abstract

Sustainability is a major challenge the people of the world will need to address in the 21st century. Teachers play an invaluable role in preparing youth to address issues of sustainability. This project was developed to address the lack of training curricula available to educate pre-service elementary school teachers about how teach sustainability. School gardens are the lens through which this project explores sustainability education. The outcome of the thesis project is a curriculum consisting of four-lesson unit for pre-service elementary school teachers. This curriculum uses school gardens to educate pre-service teachers about methods to teach sustainability to their future students.