A Model of Participation in Continuing Professional Develoment and Evaluation through Action Research in Educating for Sustainability

Abstract

This article examines the reasons for adopting a school-focused Continuing Professional Development (CPD∥ model in a European Project, Sustainability Education in European Primary Schools (SEEPS∥, funded by DG XI and DG XXII of the European Commission and Scottish Natural Heritage. The Appendix shows a model of sustainability education or education for sustainability. In the article we distinguish between centralised CPD; which involves individual teachers from schools and takes place at a teacher's centre, university or similar institution; school based CPD which is based on self help approaches or uses external resources which are delivered to the school and school focused CPD in which a teacher is trained in the use of a project and then provided with the support materials to assist individualised CPD programmes which take place in school. The SEEPS Project advocates a participatory, constructivist process of CPD which is contextualised at the local level. The article then goes on to outline an action research self-evaluation model for sustainability education or education for sustainability based on a pluralist research design which has a triangulation strategy. A distinctive feature of this research is its approach to the assessment and evaluation of pupils' participation in the culture of schools and the community education approach to research with and in the local community