Brown, Sasha and Küçük, Zerrin Dogança and Rickard, Angela and Lonergan, James and Abernethy, Rachel and McNerney, Lorraine and McNerney, Eimear and Foley, Ronan and Behan, Avril and Byrne, Aengus and Essel, Bernard and Ffrench, Jack and Faull, Jonathan and Cahalane, Conor (2024) The role of teacher agency in using GIS to teach sustainability: an evaluation of a lower secondary school story mapping GIS initiative in Ireland. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 33 (1). pp. 56-71. ISSN 1038-2046

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Abstract

This paper investigates the role of teacher agency for those who were trained in using an innovative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach and incorporated GIS into their teaching. While national curricula increasingly emphasise STEM and sustain-ability approaches, there has been limited analysis of how teachers can bring new software, including GIS, and new approaches into the classroom. Through an evaluation of a teaching initiative “5*S: Space, Surveyors and Students – STEM and the Sustainable Development Goals” designed to bring GIS technology, satellite data, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into class-rooms as activities and resources for teachers and students in Ireland, we examine how teachers can introduce new teaching strategies and platforms into their classrooms. In interviews and a focus group, teachers expressed eagerness for GIS teaching resources for the classroom and identified effective ways they were able to draw on their own teaching philosophy in introducing new concepts around sustainability and STEM education in the classroom. We argue that teacher agency and autonomy play an important role in the ability and development of teachers, depart-ments, and schools to bring new approaches and GIS into the classroom, and we identify key learnings from teachers who were able to utilise the 5*S resources.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	GIS; Story Maps; Teacher agency; teaching SDGs;
Academic Unit:	Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
Item ID:	19003
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2023.2214044
Depositing User:	Dr. Ronan Foley
Date Deposited:	10 Oct 2024 09:06
Journal or Publication Title:	International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
Publisher:	Scopus
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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