“I’m Just Going to Buy That!”: Confronting Consumerism in Teacher Education

Abstract

As educators at a faculty of education, the authors found that teacher candidates (TCs) invariably purchased new materials whenever they had an assignment requiring some form of construction activity. They were concerned about this learned, consumer behavior; lessons of moderation in using the Earth’s resources are important elements of sustainability education. Humans are consumers in both a natural and an anthropological sense, but are capable of sustainable consumerism. Therefore, the authors wanted to promote moderation/sustainable consumerism through an educational intervention in their teacher-education classes. Inspired by Selby’s (2011) third proposition for education for sustainable contraction, they revised an existing art/science integration project where constructions would be created from recycled and/or natural materials. The TCs’ constructions, process work, and Reflection papers provided insight into their creative thinking, and learning, regarding sustainable consumerism.