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Introduction to Education for Sustainable Development
Denise SummersAutumn 2009Adapted from presentation by Dr Stephen
Sterling, Centre for Sustainable Futures, UoP, 20.3.08
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Questions to ConsiderWhat is sustainability?Why should we bother
with it?The challenge to educationThe implications of sustainable
educationSustainability literacy and competenciesA wonderful
world?
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What is sustainable development?Development which meets:
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.
taken from the influential Brundtland report Our Common Future
(World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987,
http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-ov.htm#I.3)
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However, sustainability and development are contradictory
concepts and sustainable development is just economic growth
dressed up in the language of deliberate obfuscation, used
knowingly or not by those who care nothing for the Earth in order
to fool us into thinking that they are taking her concerns
seriously. (Harding, 2006: 232)Selby (2007: 249) is also concerned
about the concept of ESD and argues that the heating is happening
and calls for education for sustainable contraction in which we
accept the climate change threat, move away from the current denial
or business as usual mindset (Selby, 2007: 265) and respond to the
need for transformation.
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Everything we thought was good turns out to be bad. It is an act
of kindness to travel to your cousins wedding. Now it is also an
act of cruelty. It is a good thing to light the streets at night.
Climate change tells us it kills more people than it saves. Climate
change demands a reversal of our moral compass,for which we are
plainly unprepared. (Monbiot, 2005: 23)
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In pursuit of happiness If I were caught in the trappings of
wealth and power, I would be unable to live a truly comfortable,
creative, and compassionate life. Much of my time would be absorbed
in taking care of houses, cars, household gadgets, furnishings,
paintings, silverware and china, computers, yachts and umpteen
other things. I would need to work hard to earn enough not to meet
my needs but to service these possessions. (Kumar, 2006: 302)As
Professor Daniel Kahneman of the University of Princeton suggests,
our standard of living has increased dramatically and happiness has
increased not at all and in some cases has diminished slightly"
(Kahneman, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk).
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Climate ChangeImage: free.images.co.ukImage:
free.images.co.uk
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The Future isnt What it Used to Be
stressesunsustainabilityuncertainty dense
interdependenceglobalisationcomplexityecosystem degradation
inequityinsecuritiesglobal warming peak
oiloverconsumptionpopulation pressures
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The Learning & Skills Council Strategystates that by 2010
all its providers
will embed SD skills in education and training programmes so
that all learners are able to acquire these skills
and remind us that:
Sustainability is a journey. If we wait until we understand
everything, we will never start out
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Aspects of Well-beingWorld Watch Institute
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http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/parent/my_child/images/EveryChildMattersteenagerspiderchart.pdf
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Our generation is the first to knowinglydegrade the environment
at the expense of children now and in the future a fact that
challenges much of our rhetoric about the importance of children in
society. The evidence suggests that it may not be possible to
deliver ECM at all unless the environment becomes one of its
leading considerations. Sustainable Development is not an optional
extra ; it is a necessary part of building a society that cares for
its children. (Sustainable Development Commission, 2009, p7)Five
guiding principles of SD
Living within environmental limitsEnsuring a strong, healthy and
just societyAchieving a sustainable economyPromoting good
governanceUsing sound science responsibly
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The Earth Charter: Four basic principlesRespect Earth and life
in all its diversity.
Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion,
and love.
Build democratic societies that are just, participatory,
sustainable, and peaceful.
Secure Earths bounty and beauty for present and future
generations.
Video link
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A Sustainable Society is one that can persist over generations,
one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not
to undermine either its physical or social systems of
support.Meadows et al, 2005
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Decision-making at the Eden Project (talk given at Hestercombe,
July 2009)The triple bottom line
A Environmentally soundB Socially acceptableC Economically
viable
ABC
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Daunting agendaexciting possibilitiesPower civilisation by
sunlightGrow food and fibre sustainablyDis-invent the concept of
wastePreserve biodiversityRestore ruined ecologiesReduce materials,
water and land use per headRethink the political basis of modern
societiesDevelop economies that can be sustained within natures
limitsDistribute wealth fairly within and between generations David
Orrs Nine Challenges
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Thinking critically about ESDDo the ESD diamond 9 exercise in
small groups.Share responses.
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Is Education Part of the Solution ?
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or Part of the Problem?Sustainability is about the terms and
conditions of human survival, and yet we still educate at all
levels as if no such crisis existed.
The destruction of the planet is not the work of ignorant
people. Rather it is largely the result of work by peoplewith BAs,
BScs, MAs, MScs and PhDs.
David Orr
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Is Education a Good Thing? the volume of education has increased
and continues to increase, yet so do pollution, exhaustion of
resources, and the dangers of ecological catastrophe. If still more
education is to save us, it would have to be education of a
different kind: an education that takes us into the depth of
things. (Schumacher, 1997)
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Goal of UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
2005-14 to integrate the values inherent in sustainable development
into all aspects of learning in order to encourage changes in
behaviour that allow for a more sustainable and just society for
all. This involves learning the values, behaviour and lifestyles
required for a sustainable future and for positive societal
transformation.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29008&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
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The Government Talks of the Crisis in Education and it: prefers
to stress ICT, literacy and numeracy on the grounds, perhaps, that
as the good ship Humanity finally steams into the icebergs, we will
at least be able to send grammatical SOS messages, read the
instructions on the lifebelts, and count the survivors. Of course,
if all the prognoses about global warming are correct, there wont
be any icebergs and we shall need a new set of metaphors. (Scott,
2002, p5)
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but David Orr suggests it is a Crisis of Education The fact that
we see social and environmental decay as disconnected events or
fail to see them at all is evidence of a considerable failure that
we have yet to acknowledge as an educational failure. It is a
failure to educate people to think broadly, to perceive systems and
patterns, and to live as whole persons.
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A Sustainability Literate Person would be expected to:
understand the need for change to a sustainable way of doing
things, individually and collectivelyhave sufficient knowledge and
skills to decide and act in a way that favours sustainable
developmentbe able to recognise and reward other peoples decisions
and actions that favour sustainable development
- Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability
www.heps.org.uk Forum for the Future
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Key Questions ??In what ways does our practice advance the kind
of learning, teaching, thinking and research that contribute to
unsustainability?
How do we balance practicability with urgency?
What kinds of learning would best equip your students for their
likely future(s)?
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Comfortable dealing with ambiguityWilling to take a risk to make
a differenceMore interested in solving problems than taking
creditBoth effective advocates and listenersEager to imagine and
implement daring multifaceted solutions together
Lawrence Bacow, President of Tufts University, Rappaport A and
Creighton S H (2007) Degrees that matter. Massachusetts: MIT
Press
Students as Active, Engaged, and Effective Citizens are
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ReferencesHarding S (2006) Animate Earth. Dartington: Green
Books Ltd.Kahneman D (2007) The Science of Happiness
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/
happiness_formula/4783836.stm (date accessed 22.2.08)Kumar S (2006)
No Destination an Autobiography. Dartington: Green Books
Ltd.Monbiot G (2005) A restraint of liberty, The Guardian, 24 May,
p23.Scott W (2002) Sustainability and learning: what role for the
curriculum? Inaugural Lecture, University of Bath, April 25.Selby D
(2007) As the heating happens: Education for Sustainable
Development or Education for Sustainable Contraction? International
Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, Vol 2, Nos 3/4,
pp 249-267Sterling S (1996) Education for Change in Huckle J and
Sterling S (Eds) (1996) Education for Sustainability. London:
Earthscan.Sustainable Development Commission (2009) Every Childs
Future Matters. www.sd-commission.org.uk (date accessed
7.12.09)
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New Sustainability Online Resource and Toolkit for Education
from the Environmental Association for Universities and
CollegesMainly aimed at FE http://www.eauc.org.uk/sorted/home
Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit Developed by the
University of Tennessee, www.esdtoolkit.org
Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future (A UNESCO site)
This is a multimedia, interactive professional development program
with materials, exercises, and links
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/
*Harding suggests that in order for development to be
sustainable then it is necessary to ensure that the amount of raw
materials used should either reduce or at least be at a
steady-state. Given the likely impending severity of global
heating, Education for Sustainable Contraction needs to address
despair, pain, grief and loss.*Global heating is beginning to turn
the world on its business-as-usual head, exposing the fragility of
the normal and the vulnerability of the taken-for-granted.
(Selby)*Raises question is teaching sustainable? Is the ed system
as we now find it sustaining of those involved?So Im going to talk
for about an hour, and argue that we need to think critically and
freshly about the purposes of education in the conditions of the
world both as we find it now, and as it is likely to be as this new
century unfolds. What I have argued in my book - based on over 30
years work in environmental education, as a teacher, NGO director,
and more latterly as an academic and consultant - is that we need a
change of educational culture away from managerialism and towards
what I call a culture of sustainable education, and I will try to
explain this as we progress.. Maybe this is a reclaiming of
education - David Orr, who wrote the Foreword in my book states, we
must take education back from those who would intend it to be
centralised, homogenised, standardised, technologised and
industrialised. Is he right? If so, what is the alternative? And
how can such taking back take place?One of the teachers on NFER
project a method of reintroducing awe and wonder into the
curriculum We could look at this from a philosophical or
theoretical stance - or a very practical stance; from a national
policy level to a classroom level, in terms of long term change or
immediate application. In the hour, I want to say something that
touches all these levels and hopefully will engage with your own
thinking.
*Reminding us there is a difference between intelligence and
wisdom