Maintaining our critical work : Stories of curriculum making in initial teacher education

In this chapter, the authors reflect upon the process of curriculum making in initial teacher education. Even though they work in different states of Australia, Donna at Queensland University and Jenny at the Australian Catholic University in Victoria, they draw parallels in their experiences of implementing critical approaches to science education with preservice teachers at their respective institutions. Donna reflects upon her experience of facilitating an integrated assessment task and the institutional practices surrounding the course implementation. The task was successful in providing preservice teachers with the opportunity to take community action for environmental sustainability and to experience science learning through enquiry. Jenny reflects upon preservice teachers’ use of an online journal or blog to relate their learning in science to caring for the environment, self and others and her experiences of a course review process. The online environment was successful in demonstrating preservice teachers’ engagement with scientific ideas. Donna and Jenny show through their stories some of the passion and labor involved in maintaining what we value in our work and clarify the relational nature of such work.