| Education for sustainability refers to a process for reorienting human awareness, competence, values, and attitudes toward effective participation in environmental, economic, and community decision-making that promotes sustainability. The integration of principles of sustainability into teacher education is provided by the following three-part rationale: (a) the degradation of the earth's biotic systems, (b) the decline of sustainable human communities, and (c) the call by international agencies to advance the consciousness of sustainability through public education.;This study identifies principles of a shift in thinking referred to as ecological consciousness, to distinguish it from a Western mechanistic worldview. These principles are then used in a content analysis of introduction-to-education textbooks to determine the extent to which current texts integrate ecological consciousness into the foundations of Western education.;As no publishers have identified introduction-to-education textbooks currently in use that are structured within the ecological paradigm, sample texts were previewed to determine recording units that would provide evidence of the inclusion or omission of ecological principles. These recording units include current social issues and future issues that are mentioned as effecting education, how the content is prioritized, how process is represented, what is said about individual identity, how values and ethics are referenced, and direct references to ecological and environmental issues related to education.;Findings of the study indicate that .09 percent or less than one-tenth of one percent of total content of six best-selling introduction-to-education textbooks relate issues of sustainability to education. Those few references that are included are in the context of science education, the geography curriculum, internet lessons, or future concerns. Although the claim is made that issues of ecology and environmental education continue to influence today's curricular materials, nowhere is this evidenced in the textbooks that were sampled. Omissions of the language and issues of sustainability represent a perspective of denial in reference to a now-limited habitat and diminishment of species, and a false sense of a manageable and sustainable future secured through technology and progress. |
