Introduction to Education for Sustainable Development

Denise SummersAutumn 2009Adapted from presentation by Dr Stephen Sterling, Centre for Sustainable Futures, UoP, 20.3.08

Questions to ConsiderWhat is sustainability?Why should we bother with it?The challenge to educationThe implications of sustainable educationSustainability literacy and competenciesA wonderful world?

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)

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.

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)

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).

Climate ChangeImage: free.images.co.ukImage: free.images.co.uk

The Future isnt What it Used to Be stressesunsustainabilityuncertainty dense interdependenceglobalisationcomplexityecosystem degradation inequityinsecuritiesglobal warming peak oiloverconsumptionpopulation pressures

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

Aspects of Well-beingWorld Watch Institute

http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/parent/my_child/images/EveryChildMattersteenagerspiderchart.pdf

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

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

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

Decision-making at the Eden Project (talk given at Hestercombe, July 2009)The triple bottom line

A Environmentally soundB Socially acceptableC Economically viable

ABC

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

Thinking critically about ESDDo the ESD diamond 9 exercise in small groups.Share responses.

Is Education Part of the Solution ?

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

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)

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

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)

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.

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

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)?

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

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)

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