Education for Sustainable Development is an education that aims to help people to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions. ESD is hoped to meet the needs of the present without compromising those for future generations. It is a vision of development that encompasses populations, animals and plant species, ecosystems, natural resources and that integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty, gender [in] equality and human and animal rights are observed.
Published in Chapter:
A Teaching Philosophy: A Prerequisite for Effective Pedagogical Practices in Teacher Education
Anne W. Kanga (Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya)
Copyright: © 2016
|Pages: 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9948-9.ch007
Abstract
This chapter examines the importance of an educator's “teaching philosophy” as a major prerequisite for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Teacher Education. The critical need for this examination is guided by the complex nature of challenges that educational institutions are continually faced with such as, diversity, students' awareness of their rights, ethnicity and negative ethnicity, information technology, capitalism and commodification of the educational enterprise, international competitiveness in both teaching and learning among others. Further, quality driven ESD programmes are currently a global concern. To guide this study were the following research questions: What is Sustainable Development/ (SD) and ESD? What is a teaching philosophy? What is the purpose of a teaching philosophy? What should inform an educator's teaching philosophy? In which ways can an educator implement his/her teaching philosophy? And, what characterizes a clear teaching philosophy? Finally, recommendations that can inform theory, policy and practice are presented.