Promotion of Sustainable Development within the school

community – have we done enough?

Presentation at 8th Asian-Europe Classroom Network (AEC-NET) Conference 26-30 October, Sønderborg, Denmark

BySoren Breiting

Research Programme for Environmental and Health Education, DPU – Aarhus University, Copenhagen

Photos: Breiting/ www.azfotos.com

In shortPromotion of Sustainable

Development within the school community – have we done enough?

Short answer: NO!!!

And we will in the coming decades (!) see a revolution in the educational systems as a consequence of

’The impact of Climate Change and Sustainable Development within the School community in Asia and Europe’ and elsewhere in the World

The main reasonBecause our children and

youngsters will grow up in a world

- With issues of development constanctly around them as a challenge (not only related directly to climate change)

- With all countries with a need for having empowered and critical citizens capable of engaging in small and large issues related to change also outside their immediate areas of material interests and able ’to think for themselves’

Not teaching the future - but teaching for the future

International Alliance of Leading Educational Institutions (IALEI)Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Korea, Singapore, UK, USA, South Africa

www.intlalliance.org Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from

Education

Recommendations and reports to be presented the 11. December 2009 in Copenhagen as a site event to COP15

Three overall recommandations, published in August 2009:

* To develop education that provides citizens with competences to actively manage sustainable development.

* To integrate climate change within Education for Sustainable Development

* To improve conditions for interdisciplinary learning, provide teachers with the necessary competences and transform Education for Sustainable Development from a low priority to a high priority dimension.

Læssøe, J., Schnack, K., Breiting, S. & Rolls, S. (2009):Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education

- A cross-national report from International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes

Climate Change Education is best viewed as an important part of ESD

A focus on the changing climate is urgent but it is also important to realize the full complexity of issues related to sustainable development

Climate change is fine to address in science but that isn’t enough

Climate Change Education (CCE) to support Science Education ?

• Absolutely a good idea.

• To focus on climate change can motivate students and help bring the teaching into a meaningful context.

• Students recognize the importance of the scientific concepts, data and scientific methods for their future living conditions.

Interdisciplinary Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and Geoscience

• The Changing climate and the mechanisms involved offer a rather unique opportunity to integrate difference areas of the natural sciences in a stimulating way for students

• The natural systems are connected

• This will strengthen the learning of SCIENCE

To know some of the basic mechanism are important for everyone

And this curve should be understood by all, too

- Not least couppled to the rising sea level

Many atempts to engage youngsters in such issues but people are failing

’Diagnose’

The students are forced to become involved by a catastrophy vision

The students are forced to solve problems of others

Their thoughts and concerns aren’t respected

Students aren’t getting insight into what people are concerned about

The students aren’t getting any experience in doing real actions (only in doing ’activities’)

But !!!!!!!!• If we want our students to grow up to be

knowledgeable and active, critical citizens we need

to convert • Climate Change Education into

• Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

• Education that takes up questions related to sustainable development to foster

• critical, engaged and responsible citizens capable of dealing with complex and controversial issues of importance for local and global development and for living conditions of present and future generations

• alone and together with others.

The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

• United Nations Decade for ESD 2005-2014 ( DESD)

• UNESCO is the responsible UN agency

• Mid-term conference in Bonn in spring 2009 with Bonn Declaration

• GOAL: a more sustainable and just society for all.

The role of the Government• The role of the government is to

provide clear guidance to the importance of ESD including CCE as ESD (Ref. Alliance)

• To fully support the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development

• To promote innovative teaching and participatory learning in ESD

• To understand the needed democratic perspectives of ESD

• To avoid seeing schools as rather simple systems to pull in a wished direction for issues the society and political system aren’t capable of solving !

We need independent citizens as a result of ESD…• Because the whole field of ’sustainable

development’ is a heavy complex (hyper complex) area with a lot of conflicts

• As already clear from any interpretation of the definition of SD:

• "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

Brundtland Commission (1987)

ESD is anthropocentric• Of cause education

for sustainable development has to be anthropocentric

• (having the focus on humanity)

• because it is about the stewardship of our home the planet for present and future generations

• BUT

• - ESD isn’t egoistic

Our growing population on the Planet

Unequality will always be an issue in development

Development has to build on local communities

Without a democratic basis for development it will not be possible to go for a more sustainable way

because the many choices are complex and with lots of conflicts between needs and wishes

Vulnarable ethnic groups and difficulties with integration often generate poverty, marginalization, prostitution and illegal affairs,

instead of respect and dignity

The market and economy – money is the measure

• The market forces aren’t as visible as in the traditional markets but the mechanisms are more or less the same and the power is enormous.

Power relations are important:

For who shape the future ?

and

Who will benefit from the development ?

- Not all power relations are as visible as these

Keep a critical eye on the situation

Education or specific sustainable behaviour modification ?

• All kinds of general education should be seen in a long perspective – not as a solution to present days’ problems the society of adults isn’t capable to handle.

• Education has education as the short-term goal, but will benefit development in the long run

• For ex. more sustainable development

Education for empowerment

Unfortunately

• A goal of empowerment goes very badly together with a narrow behaviour modification approach in teaching

• But an empowerment strategy will be the winner in the long run

Empowering for more sustainable development through education

• In our Danish tradition we will call it to enhance the action competence of the students

And at the same time build

• A feeling of ownership to development issues (mental ownership)

Outcomes of The Action Competence Approach

• Enhanced belief in own influence and own capacity

• Optimistic view on life and the world

• Knowledge of problems

• Knowledge of approaches to solutions

• Exprience with becoming influential

• Knowing the strength of co-operation(= Enhanced Action competence)

Where to start? In Nature ???

Where to start? In the society ???

Where to start with an ESD sequence• Start with people and their

concern, wishes, expectations and ideas about the future.

• It can be other people or the students themselves, - or

• Investigations of other people ---------------------------------------------

• With Climate Change Education include the science concepts etc. when they become functional in understanding the situation and the mechanisms behind in connection to people’s concern etc..

Class work: Investigating the use of a local natural resource

Preparation in class:Focus on a ‘natural resource’

e.g. for ENERGY – prep for group work

1. Groups interview older people in the community about how

the resource was used in older days and their feelings

2. Interview active people in the community about the same resource: How is it used today?Which problems are there etc.

3. Ask all for their expectations for the future related to this resource:

What do people expect to happen?What would they LIKE to see happen?

Back in class:

Groups elaborate on their findings:Summarizing their interviews

Groups elaborate on their own observations:Summarizing their own impressions

Each student group prepares

4 big drawings / Posters

Outdoor in the community:

Back in class:

Back in class: Back in class: Drawing the communityDrawing the communityconcerning the selected resource through timeconcerning the selected resource through time

Before Now

Future 1We expect

Future 2We hope

(and might act for)

Development

Development

Pictures showing

The use of this resource in the community in old days

The use and problems with the resource today

Which future?

Development

Sustainable development is essential about:

• That actions and activities are influencing our future and • How other people's living conditions are now and in the future

But we have alternatives and choices daily and political

NowThe PastDifferent futures

Which future do we want ?

Sustainable development needs democratic participation

So does Education for Sustainable Development

Advantages with this approach. 1

• We are not telling youngsters what to think, but how to dig into problems related to development and use of resources

• We help youngsters to see the complexity of development issues

• We help empower youngsters for ACTION COMPETENCE

Advantages with this approach. 2

• The youngsters will get a lot of personal experienced information from the people (old and younger) they meet – supporting their ‘episodic memory’

• They will be able to link short-term and long-term effects of change (essential dealing with sustainable development)

• The results from their investigation are visualized in such a way to make it easy for linking the concrete content to conceptual development

Advantages with this approach. 3

• It generates plenty of possibilities for being in interaction with local people of different background and with different interests related to the natural resource in focus.

• It is a good background for learning to be influential related to own ideas

- supporting their action competence

Which teacher do you think will best be able to enhance the action competence of the students?

Results from this approach

• Youngsters’ real actions related to real environmental problems they have identified themselves are of immense importance

• They develop a higher level of interest in developmental problems

• They develop more belief in own influence

The role of the teacher

• Anyway the teacher has to see herself / himself as

• ’the organizer of the students’ learning processes’

Results from EE development in Hungary

• When students work without being ‘behaviour modified’ they become

– More optimistic

– More concerned about their own possibilities

– More participatory

From Breiting & Csobod

What is the most important ressource in education ???

• The teacher

• The text books

• TV and other media

• The computer and computer programmes

• The classroom and its atmosphere

• The pedagogy

• Time

When less is more in education• We can drown our students and youngsters in

information about all kinds of aspects related to what sustainable development could mean – and what isn’t sustainable.

• But this will easily function as information overload

• Conclusion: Work more in depth with a real issue and give time and space for all the complexity and the helpful stimulants to excite the students in this issue by having time to investigate reality and to act upon their findings and goals

Sunset or sunrise for Sustainable Development in Education ?

Perspectives for ESD, based on ourexperience• In short-term-perspective ESD is best

seen as a 100% educational challenge

• In the long run ESD should become an important contribution to less un-sustainable development

• In the ESD approach: Easier to identify what is not sustainable than what is sustainable

• How to see Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as more than just ‘learning something’

– Democratisation – Action competence /empowerment

– Renewal / innovation– Mental ownership to development

issues

How it worksThrough the focus on working with real participation

related to development issues the participants:

• Improve their understanding of the issues, their complexity and urgent matters

• Improve their action competence related to such issues

• Develop mental ownership to such kind of issues

Mental Ownership• “… the more involvement and effort to achieve a certain change, process or

outcome in a situation, the higher the level of mental ownership (is) possible for those involved.

• Theoretically, we can imagine a full continuum of levels of mental ownership, from very low by not having being involved at all, to very high by being the sole person that has decided everything and done everything alone.

• Furthermore, it is assumed that the level of mental ownership influences a person’s future engagement and motivation in situations involving the ‘thing(s)’ or situations, to which the person feels ownership.”

(Breiting 2007)

List of aspects to take into account to support ownership

• If all involved participate in the goal setting or strategy formulation, etc.

• If all concerned are regarded as “equal” partners in the process.

• If all have a direct interest in the changes.

• If those involved give input to the process.

• If they can find their “fingerprint” in the final outcome.

• If they receive some form of recognition for their contribution to the process.

(After Breiting, Imene & Macfarlane: Life Science Project Midterm Review. 1997).

How to create engagement

• Participation (generates) Ownership

• Ownership (generates) Participation • --------------------------------------------------------

-

The self-enforcing mechanism:

Participation Ownership Participation Ownership Participation

Outcomes of a participatory approach that generates high levels of mental ownership

• The participants are much more satisfied with their involvement and the process.

• The innovations are much more sustainable because all stakeholders will tend to care for them in the future, including being able to adapt them to future changes and feel proud about them in general.

• The innovations are much more relevant and well adapted to local concerns and circumstances and become integrated in stakeholders thinking and doing.

In addition we might expect• That innovations are more diverse.

• That the innovations are less complicated.

• That people’s empowerment in general is strengthening with a transfer effect to other matters/issues.

• That people’s co-operation around similar future problems will be more probably.

• That the innovations strengthen local self-esteem and ‘survival skills’ and make people more robust to future challenges.

Quality Criteria for ESD schools• Inspiration for schools that want to take

sustainable development seriously

• Helping to avoid serious mistakes forgetting real participation

• Making a focus on ESD as a way to develop the whole school

• Download publications:

www.ensi.org/Publications/ENSI_publications/

Useful web addresses for ESD and CCE• Teacherscop15.dk is the teachers' website on climate issues

http://www.teacherscop15.dk • Climate Change Education – a web portal

http://www.climatechangeeducation.org• Global Worming Kids net http://globalwarmingkids.net

• Quality criteria for ESD schools: http://seed.schule.at/uploads/QC_eng_2web.pdf From http://seed.schule.at

• HSBC Eco-Schools Climate Initiative http://www.climatechangeeducation.org• ENSI.org• ActionCompetence.com •   Environmental-Education.net

•   EducationForSustainableDevelopment.com • Consumer Citizenship Network: http://www.hihm.no/concit/

• FOR DANES: Report from 4 schools working with ESD, see www.TUBU.dk – KlimaUndervisning: http://klimaundervisning.dk

We can all learn from each other!