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Environmental and Sustainability Education

This guide has been designed for all University of Toronto researchers, students and educators working at the intersection of environmental sustainability, climate change, and education.

Books for Educators - General

Teaching and Learning about Climate Change by Daniel P. Shepardson (Editor); Anita Roychoudhury (Editor); Andrew S. Hirsch (Editor)
ISBN: 9781138642614
Publication Date: 2017-02-20
Responding to the issues and challenges of teaching and learning about climate change from a science education-based perspective, this book is designed to serve as an aid for educators as they strive to incorporate the topic into their classes.
Educating for Hope in Troubled Times by David Hicks
ISBN: 9781858565538
Publication Date: 2014-07-14
This book explores three global issues - climate change, peak oil and the limits to growth. It sets out the facts about the inevitable yet still largely unknown changes, and examines the feelings and attitudes the coming changes engender. It offers teachers ways to engage with vital but too often avoided issues, and to share success stories and sources of hope for the future.
Place-Based Education by David Sobel; Orion Society Staff (Contribution by)
ISBN: 0913098558
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education by Douglas D. Karrow (Editor); Maurice DiGiuseppe (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030250157
Publication Date: 2020-01-02
This book was inspired by the National Roundtable on Environmental and Sustainability Education in Canadian Faculties of Education. Roundtable 2016 brought together over seventy participants from across Canada, including educators, researchers, policy-makers, consultants, and community organizations. Over the course of three days, participants took part in keynote addresses, research colloquia, networking socials, and collaborative inquiry activities focused on Environmental Sustainability Education in Teacher Education (ESE-TE). This volume concludes with a discussion placing current Canadian ESE-TE theory and practice within an international context.
Sustainability, Human Well-Being, and the Future of Education by Justin W. Cook (Editor)
ISBN: 3319785796
Publication Date: 2018-09-27
This open access book explores the key dimensions of a future education system designed to enable individuals, schools, and communities to achieve the twin twenty-first century challenges of sustainability and human well-being. For much of the twentieth century, Western education systems prepared students to enter the workforce, contribute to society and succeed in relatively predictable contexts.
Teaching Climate Change for Grades 6-12 by Kelley T. Le
ISBN: 1000402932
Publication Date: 2021-06-20
This timely and insightful book supports and enables secondary science teachers to develop effective curricula ready to meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) by grounding their instruction on the climate crisis. Nearly one-third of the secondary science standards relate to climate science, but teachers need design and implementation support to create empowering learning experiences centered around the climate crisis. Experienced science educator, instructional coach, and educational leader.
Advancing Environmental Education Practice by Krasny, Marianne
ISBN: 9781501747090
Publication Date: 2020
Turn the Tide on Climate Anxiety by Megan Kennedy-Woodard; Patrick Kennedy-Williams; Arizona Muse - Founder and Trustee of Dirt Foundation for the Regeneration of Earth (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781839970672
Publication Date: 2022-01-21
It's hard to watch the news, scroll through social media, or listen to the radio without hearing or seeing something disturbing about the climate emergency. This book shows you how to harness these emotions, validate them, and transform them into positive action. It enables you to assess and understand your psychological responses to the climate crisis and move away from unhealthy defence mechanisms, such as denial and avoidance. Ultimately, it shows that the solution to both climate anxiety and the climate crisis is the same - action that is sustainable for you and for the planet - and empowers you to take steps towards this.
Confronting Climate Crises Through Education by Rebecca L. Young; John Adams (Foreword by); David W. Orr (Afterword by)
ISBN: 9781498535960
Publication Date: 2018-10-15
Confronting Climate Crises through Education: Reading Our Way Forward envisions the responsibility of public education to engage a citizenry more prepared to address the challenges of a changing world. Young advocates a paradigm shift that positions ecopedagogy as the central organizing principle of curriculum and assessment design.
Engaging Environmental Education by Robert B. Stevenson (Volume Editor); Justin Dillon (Volume Editor)
ISBN: 9789460911606
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
The contributors to this book address the critically important dual challenge of making environmental education engaging while engaging individuals, institutions and communities. Rather than treating students and citizens as passive recipients of other people's knowledge, the book highlights the importance of engaging learners as active agents in thinking about and constructing a more sustainable and equitable quality of life.
Building STEM Skills Through Environmental Education by Stephen T. Schroth (Editor); Janese Daniels (Editor)
ISBN: 9781799827115
Publication Date: 2020-09-18
Environmental studies provide an ideal opportunity for children of any age to build critical and creative thinking skills while also building skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Exploring issues related to sustainability and environmental concerns permits learners to identify problems, develop research questions, gather and analyze data, develop possible solutions, and disseminate this information to others.
Occupy Education by Tina Lynn Evans
ISBN: 9781433119675
Publication Date: 2012-09-28
Occupy Education is motivated by the sustainability crisis and energized by the drive for social justice that inspired the Occupy movement. Situated within the struggle for sustainability taking place amid looming resource shortages, climate change, economic instability, and ecological breakdown, the book is a timely contribution to community education and action. It opens a whole realm of integrated theory to educators and sustainability activists - and demonstrates how that theory can be moved into practice.

Books for Educators - Outdoor Learning

Nature Sparks by Aerial Cross
ISBN: 9781605540412
Publication Date: 2011-10-11
Nature Sparks is filled with inspiration and instruction to help educators and caregivers of children ages three to eight reclaim and strengthen connections to the outdoors.
A Pedagogy of Place by Mike Brown; Brian Wattchow
ISBN: 9780980651249
Publication Date: 2011-02-14
In this renewal of outdoor education philosophy and practice, the emphasis is upon responding to, and empathising with, the outdoors as particular places, rich in local meaning and significance.
Forest School in Practice by Sara Knight
ISBN: 1473948924
Publication Date: 2017-02-04
A beautiful full-colour book by Forest School expert and teacher Sara Knight that inspires and encourages individuals of all ages to take an innovative approach to outdoor play and learning.
Learning Outside the Classroom by Simon Beames; Robbie Nicol; Pete Higgins
ISBN: 9780415893626
Publication Date: 2011-08-16
Learning Outside the Classroom outlines theory and practice that will enable and encourage teachers to systematically and progressively incorporate meaningful outdoor learning opportunities into their daily teaching activities in a wide variety of environments and with diverse populations of pupils.

Books for Educators - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in ESE

Developing Place-responsive Pedagogy in Outdoor Environmental Education A Rhizomatic Curriculum Autobiography by Alistair Stewart
ISBN: 3030403203
Publication Date: 2020
his book is a rhizomatic curriculum autobiography that charts the author’s efforts to develop and promote Australian outdoor environmental education practices that are inclusive of, and responsive to, the places in which they are performed.
Contemporary Studies in Environmental and Indigenous Pedagogies by Andrejs Kulnieks (Volume Editor); Dan Roronhiakewen Longboat (Volume Editor); Kelly Young (Volume Editor)
ISBN: 9462092915
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Our book is a compilation of the work of experienced educational researchers and practitioners, all of whom currently work in educational settings across North America. Contributors bring to this discussion, an enriched view of diverse ecological perspectives regarding when and how contemporary environmental and Indigenous curriculum figures into the experiences of curricular theories and practices.
Engage, Connect, Protect by Angelou Ezeilo; Nick Chiles (As told to)
ISBN: 9780865719187
Publication Date: 2019-11-12
Building environmental strength through a diversity of youth Engage, Connect, Protect explodes the myth that environmental issues are primarily of interest to wealthy white communities.
Justice and Equity in Climate Change Education by Elizabeth M. Walsh (Editor)
ISBN: 1000517144
Publication Date: 2022-02-21
This volume looks at the ways in which climate change education relates to broader ideas of justice, equity, and social transformation, and ultimately calls for a rapid response to the need for climate education reform.
Towards critical environmental education : current and future perspectives by Responsibility Aristotelis S. Gkiolmas & Constantine D. Skordoulis
ISBN: 3030506096
Publication Date: 2020
This volume discusses theory, philosophy, praxis and methods in Environmental and Ecological education, and considers the junction with the main visions and issues of Critical Pedagogy.
Naturally Inclusive by Ruth Wilson
ISBN: 9780876599228
Publication Date: 2022-04-01
In this inspiring book, Dr. Ruth Wilson explores the great potential of connecting young children with special needs to the natural world. Drawing on her knowledge of research and her decades of work with children in nature, she weaves together advice, real-life examples, and testimonies from educators and families on the healing, nurturing power of nature in the lives of young children with diverse abilities.