Integrating Mathematics and Sustainability: Preparing Preservice Teachers through an Interdisciplinary Online Professional Development Program

This study explores to what extent and how Environmental Mathematicians (EnviroMath), an interdisciplinary online professional development program, serves as a bridge between mathematics and sustainability. The analysis draws on lesson plans developed by twenty-nine preservice mathematics teachers who participated in the program. These lesson plans were analyzed to determine the extent to which participants employed the descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive roles of mathematics, as well as the degree to which they addressed sustainability-related objectives, including teach in context, using real-life place-based examples, designing the future, addressing ethical and emotional dimensions, and fostering transformative skills. The analysis revealed that lesson plans could be categorized into five hierarchically ordered categories representing different levels of mathematics and sustainability integration: Nominal Integration (17.2%), Emerging Integration (10.3%), Sustainability-driven Integration (37.9%), Mathematics-driven Integration (13.8%), and Mathematics and Sustainability Integration (20.7%). An illustrative lesson plan example from each category is presented in detail. We discuss the ways in which this integration can be made more effective and present corresponding implications for future practice.