![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
Environmental and sustainability initiatives seek to respond to the challenges of ecological crises and ongoing environmental degradation by supporting students to develop knowledge and dispositions to respond to the challenges of and live in a climate changed world. However, these initiatives are often marginalised in curriculum and hamstrung by inherent tensions such as which worldviews should be prioritised, the incommensurability of some global and local values, and the pursuit of environmental needs in the age of neoliberalism. These challenges become more complex when considering contextual stakeholders. In this paper we focus on the ethical dilemmas associated with environmental and sustainability education in a coal town where mining company sponsorship heralds mixed community response. In doing so, we unpack the contextual and philosophical complexities which create the crucial conditions for a viable normative case study—genuine uncertainty about issues not yet at tipping point, differences of reasonable perspectives and recognisable local concerns. We argue that teacher educators, particularly those with interdisciplinary philosophical insight should look to their local contexts for pressing ethical issues and engage in the development and field testing of their own normative case studies. We make the case that the process behind developing a normative case study involves insight into the relationships between educational ethics, policy, context, and divergent community perspectives. We argue that pedagogy using normative case study to navigate these elements has the potential to develop world-reading teacher deliberation which surpasses proceduralist approaches in teacher education.
Acknowledgement
This paper developed from a joint presentation at the 2021 Australian Association for Research in Education conference: Gurr, Sarah K & Forster, Daniella J. (2021). Insights from Educational Ethics for the Sustainability Cross-Curricular Priority. Australian Association for Research in Education.
Notes
4 These were ‘School Walkouts as Civil Disobedience: How Should Districts Respond?’ by Nicolás Riveros and Nick Fernald (https://www.justiceinschools.org/school-walkouts-civil-disobedience) and ‘Seeing Green’ by Allison M. Stevens (https://www.justiceinschools.org/seeing-green).
5 The full case can be seen here: https://www.justiceinschools.org/high-school-coal-face
6 Sponsors must align with Departmental values. The Principal’s checklist can be found here: https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/about-us/business-engagement-and-development/resources/Entering_a_Sponsorship_Checklist.pdf
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sarah K. Gurr
Sarah Gurr is a PhD candidate, qualified History and English teacher, and research assistant in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her doctoral research explores philosophical tensions in environmental and sustainability education, and she teaches educational philosophy and ethics to teacher education students.
Daniella J. Forster
Dr Daniella J. Forster is a teacher educator in educational ethics and former philosophy teacher at primary, secondary school and tertiary levels. She uses the normative case study methodology, philosophies of education and analysis of professional codes of conduct in teaching to support teacher learning, practice and integrity.