published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The focus of this research is to understand how different factors, such as state-level EE policies and institutional values, influence the inclusion of environmental education (EE) into pre-service teacher preparation programs. Institutional theory is the main theoretical foundation used for analyzing this issue. This is a mixed methods study with a sequential triangulation design (Morse 1991), using quantitative data from 50 states and 191 public universities to guide the selection process for seven qualitative interviews. While the impact of EE policies is evident, understanding the mechanisms that contribute to such things as political capital and how institutional value for EE is created is more nuanced. The findings from this research point to targeted EE policies, collaborative practices, and research on the development of institutional culture as strategies to bring EE in from the fringes of pre-service teacher preparation programs.

Science student teachers' participation with practising teachers in developing curriculum in environmental education for implementation in schools has been a neglected field. This study focuses on the collaboration of science student teachers with practising teachers in developing an alternative curriculum for environmental education compared to existing traditional practices in most schools in South Africa. The science teacher educator, as the researcher, used action research or elements of it to facilitate the process. The action research component served as an inquiry into, and improvement of, the PRESET/INSET curriculum development model for teacher development. This dissertation reports on four case studies of curriculum development and environmental education in science teacher education practised at the University of Durban-Westville from 1991 to 1996. Innovative strategies serve as the basis of interventions in four primary school contexts, each representing a case study on its own, yet sequentially linked as action research cycles. The case study approach served the purpose of illuminating the curriculum development process with the intention of generating grounded theory through action research or elements of it. The outcomes of a survey of the status of curriculum development in institutions offering science teacher education in KwaZulu-Natal are also presented to support the need for an innovative approach to the PRESET/INSET curriculum development model. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-202).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-106).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 120-123).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-54).