Educational action research for sustainability: Constructing a vision for the future in teacher education

Abstract

This article discloses a fragment of a broader action research aimed to design the learning environment facilitating the research skills in teacher education. Presented case reflects the possibilities to construct a vision for the future in an educational action research in the context of four-dimensional model of sustainability. The next teachers used this model to structure their viewpoints on the sustainability situation in Latvia. They identified the most typical features of current situation and evaluated features worth to preserve and develop in the foreseeable future to reach the sustainability. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis endorsed to discern the common vision for the future ñ reflecting the features of sustainability and non-sustainability identified in each dimension of sustainability. Among the features singled out from the viewpoints of students, actions and action results prevailed. At the end of the action research the strategy employed in presented research was compared with one often employed in the public space to construct a vision for the future through community involvement.