2
Fundisa for Change Teacher Development Research Symposium
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into
The School CurriculumPresented by Paul Goldschagg
School of Education
University of the Witwatersrand
Day 3 | 5 March 2015
Purpose of this presentation today twofold:
- Review where we are at
- To challenge our progress, stimulate debate and get action
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
The United Nations World Commission on Environment and
Development (WCED) in its 1987 report Our Common
Future defined sustainable development as follows:
"Development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own
needs."
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Two key concepts contained within it:
The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given;The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Common thinking about the nature of sustainable development
(reflected, for example in the 2011 UK Government’s Sustainable
Development Commission):
“… is an approach to development that looks to balance
different, and often competing, needs against an
awareness of the environmental, social and economic
limitations we face as a society;”
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Source: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/what-is-sustainable-development.html. Accessed on 23/02/2015
and
“The focus of sustainable development is far broader
than just the environment. It's also about ensuring a
strong, healthy and just society. This means meeting the
diverse needs of all people in existing and future
communities, promoting personal wellbeing, social
cohesion and inclusion, and creating equal opportunity.”
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
The way development is approached affects everyone. The impacts of society’s decisions have consequences for people's lives.
Poor planning of communities reduces the quality of life for the people who live in them.
Sustainable development provides an approach to making better decisions on the issues that affect people’s lives.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Recognising these fundamentals, the Curriculum and
Policy Assessment Statement (CAPS) designers
have taken on board a commitment to environmental
education with content focussing in a number of
subjects.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Environmental content knowledge is important for
processes of Education for Sustainable Development.
Environment and sustainability is in and across the
curriculum – horizontally across phases and vertically
through subject progression.
BUT…
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
It is fragmented in the topic-centred curriculum;
Teachers have differing understandings of sustainability
which vary by discipline.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Fundisa has attempted to address this deficiency by
producing core texts:
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
And subject specific topic units: for example, climate change, biodiversity, healthy living, indigenous knowledge, water etc.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
These are topics to links with subjects where there is a natural expectation that sustainable development will be covered, and there is a good, natural fit.
Universities are:
- using, or making students aware of Fundisa materials;
- running or planning short courses for in-service
teachers.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
But… what about appropriate materials for the other subjects?
In the Design subject, “sustainable” is mentioned 37 times – much
more often than Geography and Life Sciences, for example.
In the Economics and Management Sciences subject cluster
sustainability is important too, but in a context of sustainable
business activities with financial benefits for the company related
more to sound investments, markets, production costs etc.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Application of “sustainable” depends on the context of
the subject as well as other factors eg. School
socioeconomic status; rural or urban location etc.
Definition:
“…
pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by
using techniques that allow for continual reuse.”1
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
1 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sustainable
Sustainability strengths in the curriculum are currently in
Geography, Life Sciences, Life Orientation.
Going forward, we need to respond to:
- Post UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development.
- The coming to an end of the Millennium Development
Goals.
Acknowledge the imminent launch of Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
Ideas on what needs to be done:
Do Teachers have an interest in sustainability?
Link schools, families and communities through
education and outreach activities;
Emphasize experience-based and action-oriented
learning;
Address sustainability through the medium of their
subjects – not just leave it up to Geography, Biology;
How will learning about sustainability make people’s lives
better?
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum
How can Fundisa scaffold sustainability into the other
subjects?
Children often have the knowledge – eg from Social
Science. It needs to be uncovered and connected to
other subjects.
Reform this knowledge into new insights.
Apply sustainability throughout the curriculum.
Sustainable Development And How It May Be Incorporated Into The School Curriculum