Concepts of nature in the physical education and food and health curricula in the five-year teacher education programmes

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the decision that sustainable development is to be an interdisciplinary theme in Norwegian primary and secondary education and in the five-year teacher education programmes. As teacher educators and education researchers in the research group Nature in Children's Literature and Culture, at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, we are concerned about the environment debate and how nature is perceived in the plans for teacher education in two subject areas: Physical Education, and Food and Health. Our empirical material consists of the national study plans for 2017-18 and the course plans from five tertiary institutions. We have identified words and phrases related to the environmental dimension and nature using the analytical tool NVivo. The findings show that the words climate, people, nature, resource and outdoors are seldom used in these plans. Moreover, the contexts in which these words are used can be interpreted as indicating a human-centred view of nature, an anthropocentric view. The words sustainable and outdoor recreation (friluftsliv) occur numerous times in the plans, and represent both an anthropocentric view of nature and an ecocentric perspective, a more holistic way of thinking of life and the environment. We discuss our findings in relation to the Nature in Culture Matrix. The discussion concludes that there is a need for more research focusing on various teaching practices and on the experiences of teacher trainers, practice teachers and students in these subject areas, viewed from an environmental perspective. The objective of the article is to contribute to awareness raising and encourage reflection regarding strategies for more ecocritical teaching in the subjects Physical Education and Food and Health in Norwegian teacher education.