Concerns have been raised for some time about the preparation of Australian teachers in the area of environmental education. Few tertiary institutions that undertake teacher education in Australia have specifi c units or modules dedicated to environmental education. This article reports on an evaluation of such a dedicated unit recently introduced to the BEd (Primary) award at an Australian university. Students were surveyed pre-and post-instruction and the fi ndings indicate that most participants felt more confi dent about teaching environmental education. This was largely attributed to improved pedagogical content knowledge and an appreciation of how to integrate environmental education into the everyday learning of their students. The effi cacy of this unit in terms of the motivation and confi dence of studentteachers regarding environmental education lends support to those who call for more specifi c environmental education content in teacher education courses.

Although the need for education for sustainability in pre-service teacher education is well recognised, little has been published to indicate how this might be incorporated into university courses in Australia. This paper describes one attempt to encourage pre-service primary teachers to include education for sustainability in their future work. It includes a discussion about some of the choices made regarding teaching methods and content. The overall purpose of the article is to encourage others to contribute their ideas to the discussion over how best to incorporate education for sustainability in pre-service teacher education in Australia.

Increasing attention is being given to the inclusion of Education for Sustainability in pre-service teacher education. However, there is little research to explain why and how early-career teachers include Education for Sustainability in their work, or how teacher education providers can encourage and support them to do this. Through analysis of two interviews this paper examines the way in which a pre-service primary school teacher interprets her role in Education for Sustainability. Her personal reflections on the manner in which her life experiences, including her own schooling, have influenced her intentions as teacher are explored. Her university teacher education program in Education for Sustainability and her teaching internship experience also appear to have influenced her teaching goals. The profile presented in this paper outlines her intentions and sense of identity as teacher and how that has developed and is expressed. Conclusions centre on the relevance of her reflections for education for sustainability in pre-service teacher education. In particular, her example demonstrates how the development of pedagogical content knowledge relevant to Education for Sustainability during the pre-service years can play an integral part in an individual's decision-making when teaching.

A national curriculum is presently being developed in Australia with implementation due during 2014. Associated standards for the accreditation of teachers and for teacher education providers have been prepared with the standards describing skills and attributes that teachers are expected to attain. The developing Australian Curriculum, along with the teacher accreditation and initial teacher education program standards, claim to support guiding statements that describe aspirations for all young Australians. Those guiding statements acknowledge that ‘sustainability’ is an essential element of education for young people in Australia. However ‘sustainability’ is unconvincingly represented in the curriculum and is not visible in the standards. This could potentially result in its omission from teacher education and qualification at all levels. A similar situation already exists in New South Wales (NSW). This article illustrates the positioning of five freshly graduated primary teachers within the context of their five NSW schools and from this distils implications for teaching ‘sustainability’ within the developing national proposals.

Fiji is developing rapidly, and with an emerging middle class, more of its population are adopting a western lifestyle with its associate patterns of high consumption. This is inevitably having an impact on the country's environment with increased waste production and energy use, and consequently there is a need for effective environmental education to help alleviate these problems. Primary teachers will play a pivotal role in educating children for and about the environment in the coming years. This study reports the findings of a survey of pre-service primary teachers' knowledge and attitudes to the environment locally and globally. The findings indicate that although the majority of teachers interviewed had adopted an 'environmental paradigm' insofar as they wanted to protect the environment, many did not feel that it was necessary to modify their lifestyles in order to do so. The findings suggest that this might be addressed through improved professional development in environmental education and this would be timely given current reforms taking place in the primary sector in Fiji with the introduction of new curricula and assessment regimes.