AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE ROLE OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CONTEXT OF TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS.

The teacher is the most important element in any educational program. It is the teacher who is responsible for implementation of the educational processes at any stage. This shows that it is imperative to invest in the preparation of teachers, so that the future of the nation is secure. Also, this is a well documented fact that the quality of teacher education has a direct bearing on the kind of education their students would obtain. It is hence implied that how the teachers are educated has to happen through a considerate, well- supervised and well thought out programs and curriculum. We must create such teachers who can educate students and teach them to become what we foresee our children to be in the future. If we want our students to be skillful, having knowledge of sustainable development and adopting these values in real life too, we must have our teachers trained with this philosophy. This transformation may come about in young children when their educators, i.e. teachers are educated in a holistic manner so that what teachers do is a synonym of their belief system. This may have a deeper influence on the thoughts of young children. It is well known that the quality and extent of learner achievement are determined primarily by teacher competence, sensitivity and motivation. Also, when the goal happens to be sustainable development then training of teachers with this outlook becomes even more important. They ought to be trained and educated how to teach what they teach in a sustainable manner. Therefore, integration of values of sustainable development in teacher education program is the necessary demand to have aware teachers who would produce students fully aware of intricacies of economic, political, global and environmental aspects of the reality they are present in. Our students need to be trained to handle and have a dialogue about big issues such as inequality, public health, global consumption, biodiversity loss and the limits of natural systems. In this paper, we have made an attempt to establish the balance, if any, between the purpose of teacher education as envisioned in UNESCO document and what actually is followed and even mentioned in B. Ed curriculum and the training institutes. Also to explore is there any gaps? What is the nature of these gaps and what plausible steps as a collective response we all must raise? Our paper will shed light on these aspects.