Term

Spring 2024

Capstone

Thesis

Degree Name

MAED: NSEE

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Julia Reimer

Abstract

Odegaard, B. (2024). What are rural Minnesota elementary teachers’ views regarding their preparedness to teach environmental education. Research has been done on how environmental education (EE) is a positive for students, but not a lot of research has been done on how well the teachers understand EE. Specifically there has been little to no research on rural Minnesota elementary teachers. This thesis takes a look at how well prepared these teachers think they are when it comes to teaching EE in their classrooms. A survey was made using a mixed methods approach. Most of the questions in the survey consisted of two parts that had a yes/no question followed up by an open-ended text box for further explanation. Data collected from this research showed that teachers' perceptions about EE didn’t always translate into being knowledgeable about EE or being capable of teaching it. Some of the respondents were very prepared to teach EE, some could teach EE, and others lacked the skill set to teach EE. The findings also showed that those with more education in EE and those who had the proper resources around them had a larger chance of incorporating EE into their curriculum. Every answer is different because of how EE is perceived by each individual and what training and support they have. The goal of this thesis is to understand how rural Minnesota elementary teachers understand and use EE in their classrooms. It is also used to understand what may or may not help the development of EE for rural Minnesota elementary teachers.

Keywords

Curriculum, Environmental Studies

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

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