Holistic approach in reorienting teacher education towards the aim of sustainable education: the case study from the regional university in Latvia

The purpose of the article is to analyze the current debate on efforts of teacher trainers in re - orienting education towards the aim of sustainable education. This is a new challenge for teacher training institutions in Latvia that is being discussed and evaluated in depth and in detail in the context of global challenges in education. The examination of educational standards and programs for the primary school level teachers makes one to conclude that teachers who are not aware of the deeper meaning and the essence of sustainability perspective, encounter major difficulties in implementing pre-school curriculum since it does not offer ready-made answers to the current educational challenges and the debate, neither it offers a sample or a set of methodological handouts for teachers in regards to sustainable education. Therefore, teachers need to become agents and creators of their own materials grounded in the idea of sustainable education. The article comprises the results gained from the semi structured interviews with the primary school teachers and the data gained from the questionnaires on teachers' perception of reorienting teaching towards the aim of sustainable education. For the conclusions and recommendations, the authors highlight the major challenges and struggles of integrating sustainability perspective in teacher training programs as viewed from the primary school teachers' perspective as well as offer the guidelines for a more efficient ways of reorienting teachers' thinking and acting towards the aim of sustainable education. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.