Biology and geology teachers and ecoethics education: From the guidelines and training offered to the training needs felt by teachers

Abstract

Ecoethics studies the moral relationship among human beings, the environment and its non-human components, whereas education for ecoethics involves a reflexion on how to live, how to make environmental choices and how to think about the consequences of human activities. To promote this reflexion, teachers must be able to teach subjects related to ecoethics, having adequate teacher training in the field. Thus, it was considered pertinent to investigate if and how ecoethics appears in the guiding documents for teachers' practices and in initial and continuing training courses for Portuguese biology and geology teachers, as well as whether these teachers feel they need training in ecoethics. To achieve this, document analysis was carried out, and a questionnaire with both close- and open-ended questions was applied at a national level. The main results show that little emphasis is given to ecoethics both in the guiding documents and in initial and continuing training courses for Portuguese BG teachers; most teachers say that they have not dealt with ecoethics issues in their initial and ongoing teacher training but consider them essential. Given the teachers’ influence on students, a focus on teacher training in ecoethics is essential so that they can contribute to solving environmental problems.