Biodiversity and Education for Sustainable Development in Teacher Education Programmes of Four Jamaican Educational Institutions

Abstract

This article presents an account of biodiversity education in a national teacher education project in Jamaica. Four case studies are examined here. Document analyses and interviews of educators and student teachers are used to explore how biodiversity was addressed in teacher education curricula, the processes and outcomes of learning in education for sustainable development (ESD) and how learning contributed to sustainable development. It concludes that the project facilitated ESD through whole college, cross-curricular, collaborative, thematic, active learning to varying degrees. Interdisciplinary approaches were achieved in extra-curricular clubs, but rarely in the discipline-bound college curricula. Few colleges included valuing or explored the controversial nature of biodiversity. Ecological, social, cultural and economic outcomes are identified; however, systemic interconnections of these dimensions are limited.