Week Three: What does education for sustainability mean to the Otago Polytechnic?

 Image from A Simple Pledge 

The challenge for week 3 is describe what a sustainable practitioner might look like, or what characteristics they might have, within your school/department.
So naturally for me I start looking for a definition of "sustainable practitioner".  Hmm, you know it is going to be a challenge when you start reading about how these concepts cannot be readily defined and often a lot of waffle follows.


A 2009, SIGCHI Workshop Position Paper by Sam Mann did help me narrow the discussion down to the idea that a sustainable practitioner is someone who uses their understanding of social, environmental and economic sustainability to evaluate,  reflect on and act in a way that enhances a sustainable future. In other words a practitioner that questions what is, and takes responsible, well-considered action where and when appropriate.

The key to the actions of sustainable practitioners is their underlying knowledge and understanding, therefore the concept that education regarding social, environmental and economic sustainability is core to any programme has become an important focus for Otago Polytechnic. This is highlighted in the document A Simple Pledge. 



In terms of Otago Polytechnic the move towards sustainable practice has been in progress since at least 2004. "In 2004 the Otago Polytechnic Leadership Team made a commitment to become a sustainable organisation and a leader in the field of education for sustainability." 
The main strategic direction was to ensure that education for sustainability was woven into every programme offered. This has been the intent but it would be valuable to evaluate how effective this has been in practice. How many staff do have a good understanding of social, environmental and economic sustainability that they can then support the development of sustainable practice capability in students?


Otago Polytechnic is endeavouring to practice sustainably within it's own business context as demonstrated by the development and ongoing maintenance of the living campus  and also by recent initiatives such as the replacement of coal-burning boilers to wood chip boilers that reduce the particulate air pollution emissions to less than a third of the previous emissions.


 So to come back to the original question what characteristics would a sustainable practitioner have in my own area - the Educational Development Centre?


I believe one of the key characteristics needs to be critical thinking. That ability to effectively evaluate, reflect upon and choose actions wisely.


Because the majority of clients accessing EDC are staff, then social sustainability would have to be a major component. 
Espdesign.org identify several major factors to social sustainability:

• protecting the mental and physical health of all stakeholders
• encouraging community
• treating all stakeholders fairly
• providing essential services

Whilst EDC practitioners cannot necessarily protect the mental and physical health of staff through our interactions we can certainly encourage self-protection and build capability in relation to the work practices of staff to support this.
EDC staff certainly encourage community through networking, linking staff and Departments with a common focus, and development and support for communities of practice.
Treating all stakeholders fairly is achieved through identifying and responding to needs without bias, and with respect for cultural difference and through ensuring opportunities are available for all staff to develop their capability as required.
Providing essential services builds on a strong belief in life-long learning and the continued development of capability building. This largely focuses on but is not exclusive to the area of supporting and developing the facilitation of learning.


When looking at the bigger picture a sustainable practitioner needs to consider the full 'life' cycle of whatever they are engaging with.


A lovely example of this is the comment of the back cover of the booklet; A Simple Pledge. (Otago Polytechnic. n.d.)


"Otago Polytechnic has produced this book to share stories about its work with its community.   When you have finished reading, please pass this book to someone who will enjoy it, or return it in any condition to Otago Polytechnic." 

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)

Week One.  What is Sustainability?

I have found trying to get my head around the meanings and interpretations and implications of sustainability somewhat mindboggling. The wealth of information and differing viewpoints is overwhelming.

Reading through the course material there were some key definitions and ideas that stood out for me.

The first model I encountered was the Triple Bottom Line, which explores the interrelationship between social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. This definition was from Anna Hughes compilation of definitions of sustainability 

“ The triple bottom line focuses corporations not just on the economic value they add, but also on the environmental and social value they add – and destroy. At its narrowest, the term ‘triple bottom line’ is used as a framework for measuring and reporting corporate performance against economic, social and environmental parameters.” (Elkington, 1980 ) 1.49 Triple Bottom Line: " (Hughes, 2009).

Triple Bottom Line Model

So I began to build a picture of the potential inter-relationships and the implications of these.

Another definition that stood out for me was:

“ Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” Our Common Future, (Brundtland Report), 1987 (Hughes. 2009).

This sat well with my notions of future impact and the need to look forward. It was also expanded upon in the 2^nd of the Top 10 Myths about Sustainability 

• Myth 2: "Sustainability is all about the environment."

The discussion around this explored the original intent of the sustainability movement  “to let poor nations catch up to richer ones in terms of standard of living.” But then moved on to look at the role of the economy and introduced the concept of the biosphere thus creating a more holistic approach to meeting current needs whilst respecting the future (Lemonick, 2009).

The 3^rd myth also had a strong connection for me

• Myth 3:“Sustainable” is a synonym for “green.”

Discussion here explored the concept that “there’s a fair amount of overlap between the terms, “green” usually suggests a preference for the natural over the artificial” but in fact it may be forms of the artificial that can actually enhance sustainable practices. This was particularly challenging for me when sustainability and nuclear power were aligned together (Lemonick, 2009).

So parts of the bigger picture were coming together for me, which was reflection in another of the definitions from Anna Hughes collection:

“ in scientific terms, it means a system state that can endure indefinitely” (AtKisson, 2001) “… has come to mean long-term survival and well-being in general, both for human civilization and the rest of nature” (AtKisson, 2001) 1.40 Sustainability: (Hughes, A. 2009).


This quote led me to a tribute by Alan AtKisson for a prominent sustainability thinker and doer. This helped outline the thinking behind and the process of sustainability and the potential for a sustainable future.

Then I came across the next model of strong sustainability:  looking at the same 3 factors as before but in a different configuration.

“Strong sustainability means the preservation of the integrity of all ecological systems in the biosphere.”   (Phase2. nd). 

Strong Sustainability Model

Ayres, van den Bergh & Gowdy (nd) offer a readable paper into the differences between weak and strong sustainability.

If I go back to my definition created prior to this reading:

For me sustainability is all about choice!  The choices we make around the careful and thoughtful use of resources to nurture and maintain ourselves, our environment and support a viable future.

I feel I was on track with this but now have more knowledge behind what those choices involve.

References: 

• AtKisson, A. (2001) The brightest star in the sky. Retrieved from http://www.donellameadows.org/the-brightest-star-in-the-sky/
• Ayres, R.U., van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. & Gowdy, J.M. (nd) Viewpoint: Weak versus strong sustainability. Retrieved from http://www.tinbergen.nl/discussionpapers/98103.pdf
• Hughes, A (2009) Definitions of sustainability. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/Annah/definitions-1391863
• Lemonick, M.D. (2009) Top 10 Myths about Sustainability retrieved from http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/2009/Myths-About-Sustainability9mar09.htm
• Phase2 (nd) What is strong sustainability? Retrieved from www.tinbergen.nl/discussionpapers/98103.pdf

Starting Out

A new blog has been created and now I need to make a start on the Education for Sustainability course. For this first blog post I simply wish to share my current thinking around sustainability and my plans for a sustainable approach to being a student undertaking this course.

It was great to see Peter's prompt to us on Moodle discussion as I had already been pondering my thoughts around what sustainability meant to me and I could draw rapidly on the notes I had already made around those thoughts.

For me sustainability is all about choice!  The choices we make around the careful and thoughtful use of resources to nurture and maintain ourselves, our environment and support a viable future. It will be interesting to see how my thoughts develop, shift or change through this course.

One of the choices I have made in relation to this course is the way in which I will collate and use my study resources. Usually when I undertake study I end up with sheets of A4 paper containing hand written notes all over the place and piles of printed readings heavily decorated with highlighter pens and sticky notes. Trying to find or remember something previously read involves much thumbing through paper or shuffling piles.

For this course I have decided to try a different approach; and explore how effective that approach is for me also whether it is or isn't a sustainable practice in our age of ever increasing use of and dependence on technology.

Here's my plan -

I will use:
• Evernote notebook as my learning journal (Evernote is cloud based and means I can access my notes from any computer or mobile device)
• Diigo to keep track of articles and webpages - this is a social bookmarking website that I moved to in preference to Delicious a couple of years ago as I preferred its functionality.
◦ - tag EfS
• Blog - Balance and Sustainability  - to share learning with the enrolled group
• Moodle - for other course communication
• Mendeley (perhaps) -a referencing and storage tool to keep, annotate and cite documents

I hope to provide some reflections along the way as to how this is working out for me. I'm looking forward to reading others blogs and hearing what others are doing.