The teachers-researchers worked in four schools spread across the city of Toronto, Canada.
They were experienced educators, each with more than fifteen years of teaching experience,
who had taught in elementary schools for the Toronto District School Board. The TDSB has
had a growing Ecoschools program in place for over a decade, helping students, teachers
and their schools embed conservation, stewardship and sustainability practices into their
curricula and school culture7. All of the teacher-researchers were working in certified
Ecoschools at the time of the study. Dorie, an experienced teacher of thirty years, taught
grade five in a K-6 school on the east side8. As a generalist teacher, she had a love of art and
an interest in the environment but no special training in either; she was clear from the outset
that she wasn’t sure what she could bring to the team. Astrid, a primary teacher with a
strong track record of life-long learning, split her time between two classes (a grade one
class and a grade five special needs class) at a school just a few blocks from the edge of Lake
Ontario. As a dedicated leader of the school’s Eco-Club, she had a desire to learn more
about how the arts can help children learn about the environment, but didn’t know where
to start. Karen brought a deep dedication to the arts, outdoor education and environmental
learning to her grade 2/3 class in a west side school; this school was situated within walking
distance of one of the largest parks in the city. Karen had joined the research team to
explore how to integrate these areas of interest, as well as to find some moral support as she
was often teased about her involvement in environmental education by the colleagues in
her school. The fourth team member was Anne, whose love of art ensured that arts-based
learning was central to her grade five French immersion class. She articulated a desire to
integrate her love of and training in art with learning in the school’s extensive naturalized
garden, which she had helped to establish fifteen years earlier.
In addition to their desire to learn more about integrations of art and environmental
learning, what these teacher-researchers did share across their school sites was a lack of
support for their curricular interests amongst the colleagues at their schools9. While each
had one or two teachers at their school who shared an interest in environmental education,
they were often ignored or derided by fellow teachers for their own interests in this area.
Karen described her situation on this front by saying ‘…at school they're always teasing me
for bringing in more earth stuff, tying it somehow into the assembly that will affect the
whole school, the messages. And last year they were starting to call me the Earth Mother
and all these other things.’ Despite this lack of collegial support, each of the teacherresearchers
were dedicated life-long learners, and eager to continue their professional
learning so as give them new ideas to broaden and deepen their teaching about the
environmental with their students.