A Holistic View of English Education Through the Lens of Sustainability

There is a growing movement in education to address concepts of sustainability across the curriculum. The English Language Arts curriculum is about reading the word and the world (Freire, 1993) and therefore is a natural place to begin reading, writing and discussing issues of global importance. A holistic view of English education through the lens of sustainability re-affirms curriculum design as living, organic, and in tune with our changing world. According to our university's Institute for Sustainability (http://www.uwrf.edu/sustain/overview.html), the core concept of sustainability moves from one that is solely environmental, to one 'Based on the collective data and trend analysis across ecologic, social, and economic contexts, it is now consciously more of an 'attempt to avoid unsustainability.' The interdisciplinary nature of this definition, makes it easier for educators to address this concept in curriculum. This year-long action research study traces the journey of two teacher educators working with both primary and secondary pre-service teachers to redesign curriculum with a focus on English education through the lens of sustainability. Findings suggest that integrating sustainability issues into the English curriculum empowers pre-service teachers with confidence and knowledge of best practices supporting an ethical stance emphasising the socially humane objective of teaching children.