Integrating Sustainability Education Into A High School Earth/Environmental Science Course

This action research study investigated ways to incorporate sustainability education into a rural public high school’s Earth/Environmental Science course. State essential standards were organized around four sustainability themes with the goal to teach students to understand the interconnectedness of Earth’s cultural, economic, and ecologic systems. Student responses to the action were analyzed. Results revealed that sustainability-based thematic teaching allowed for space to explore complex sustainability content that interwove ecological literacy, economic system critique, and equity/social justice. It also allowed for diverse, critically questioning perspectives that were often rooted in a local context, encouraging students to become engaged, critical thinking citizens of their local and global communities. The restructured thematic course provided a more flexible curriculum that enabled more time to engage in a participatory and experiential teaching and learning process. The public action step involved the creation of a publicly accessible pacing and curriculum guide that can be utilized by other educators.