Week Two.  What does education for sustainability mean?

A key task for the week was to reflect on David Orr's article What is education for  in relation to the following questions:

What challenged you about the article?

Initially the largest challenge was the emotive way in which it was written. He creates a painful picture of loss and destruction then increases the painful imagery by drawing on an analogy of his beliefs in relation to what is wrong with educational approaches, identifying that it was intelligent people that created these problems in the same way "that the designers and perpetrators of the Holocaust were heirs of Kant and Gothe".

My second biggest challenge was the appearance that his recommendations almost contradict his initial criticism of educational process and almost perpetuate the same system.

The main criticism he put forward was that the education system  "emphasized theories instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience." 

He did propose 6 principles of education that were consistent with his main focus including that " the goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but of one's person, and knowledge carries the responsibility to be well used, the need to consider effects on people and communities, and the need for what is being taught to be role modeled. However he then goes on to state very specific knowledge areas that must be included in every education programme which appeared to suddenly be focussed again on theories, concepts, abstraction, answers, ideology and efficiency.

In fact it is not so much the subjects or the specific knowledge areas that are the key but the way in which the principles of thinking and processing in relation to those those subjects is facilitated and I believe that is what makes a difference in terms of education for sustainability.

What parts of Orr's article did you agree with?

I think Orr did try to draw out the importance of values, human consciousness,and the need to reflect on and cirque current approaches and I agree that these are very important components in building the capacity of a society to view current and future needs more sustainably.

A  Community Initiative

How do you apply any of Orr's ideas?

Orr's suggestion of looking at the sustainability of a campus is certainly something that has been a part of my consciousness for the last few years especially as Otago Polytechinic as an organization has made considerable steps in this direction. The ongoing impact of this has also been to look at sustainable practices in my own personal life.

I also incorporate Orr's beliefs around the approach that "the way learning occurs is as important as the content of particular courses" The process of learning is a key focus of my approach to facilitating learning.

I didn't feel that Orr's article gave me a strong grasp of EfS as an educational approach. I found the recommended chapter Explaining education for sustainability useful but the resource that I found most useful was the NZ Ministry of Education site

I liked the definition : 

"Education for sustainability (EfS) is about learning to think and act in ways that safeguard the well-being of people and the planet."

(Ministry of Education, 2010)  and the concept that "In EfS, students explore the relationship between people and the environment. They learn about the environmental, social, cultural, and economic aspects of sustainability. They learn to show leadership by example and to contribute to collective decisions that lead to actions for a sustainable future."

It is so much more than knowing or understanding, it involves aspects of action competence and more importantly responsibility for action.

"This is about getting involved in shaping the future. As understood in EfS, this concept points to having an action orientation, informed decision-making, citizenship, guardianship or kaitiakitanga, thoughtful consumption, enterprise and entrepreneurship, resilience, and regeneration." (Ministry of Education, 2010)