Sustainability and teacher education

Abstract

Sustainability is now a key concept in both government policy and wider global concerns. Issues of climate change and global warming can no longer be ignored in teacher education programmes in the post‐compulsory education and training sector. Government policy‐makers, notably the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Learning Skills Council (LSC) and the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) are all looking to educators to take the lead. This article proposes that sustainability needs to be embedded in a notion of professionalism that has a professional values framework at its heart. This framework should underpin all teacher education programmes and energise professional practice. A college in the south‐west of England is used as an example of how post‐16 institutions can embed sustainability, not only in teacher education programmes but the whole ethos of the college.