Despite repeated calls internationally, nationally and provincially to place the development of ecoliteracy as a curricular priority, there continues to be a lack of attention provided towards this goal, in particular opportunities for direct contact with the natural world in terms of fostering ecoliteracy in student teachers (Tuncer, 2009; Davis, 2009, Gough, 2009, Beckford, 2008; Blanchet-Cohen & Elliot, 2011). Teachers play key roles in advancing environmental education efforts and the environmental literacy of future generations. Insufficient teacher preparation has been identified as one factor in the weakness of environmental education efforts and environmental education curriculum (Beckford, 2008; Lin, 2002; Knapp, 2000). Furthermore, adequate environmental education preparation of students in teacher-training programs is essential for helping future teachers design and implement effective environmental education curriculum (Cutter-Mackenzie and Smith, 2003; Mc Keown-Ice, 2000; Spork, 1992)..Future generations of students need to begin to perceive themselves, once again, in terms of being connected to a larger story which includes the more-than-human world. I argue that education needs to play an important role in that re-connection, and that teacher education, as a fertile place of in-betweenness, can represent an important step toward that goal. Using a combination narrative and phenomenological inquiry, I explore the storied insights of ten student teachers as they struggle to navigate the tensions, disruptions and opportunities that form the waters between their nature-self and their teacher-self. Along with a questioning of current conventional approaches to teaching ecoliteracy in schools, the Aboriginal concept of “heart knowledge” (Aluli-Meyer, 2008) is provided as a way of knowing which is congruent with the aims of an holistic ecoliteracy within teacher education. / Graduate / 0727 / 0530 / cfiller@uvic.ca

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious social problem and a noteworthy health issue internationally. In the United States, approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men experience a combination of cruel and violent treatment by an intimate partner. This phenomenological study used lived experiences from both men and women ranging in various ages from 40-70 years to understand their coping and resiliency strategies post-separation from an abusive relationship for 10 or more years. The conceptual framework was guided by Lazarus' transactional theory of coping and psychological stress and the theory of psychological resiliency, which is linked to understanding the ways long-term survivors are able to master, minimize, and tolerate the events of a stressful situation. Data were gathered on 15 participants through semistructured, in-depth interviews using a series of open-ended questions that captured the details of the participants' lived experiences, and provided a textual description to understanding their coping and resiliency strategies after leaving an abusive relationship. Interviews were analyzed using a phenomenological technique by extracting themes. The central themes that emerged based on the 6 interview questions were encounters of physical and emotional abuse, passive and submissive behaviors, supportive services, becoming self-sufficient, and developing their self-efficacy. The findings and recommendations from this study can advance positive social change and interventions for mental health professionals providing services and enhance the IPV survivors' ability to find a continuum of care that could be effective in keeping a positive change while shaping the outcome of future life events.