Is it time for a new approach to education
for sustainability?
About
The Sense&Sustainability Team have been busy over the last six months - do go to the updates pages for more news!
And also look out for some future events. Ken Webster has been working with the Ellen MacArthur Trust as their Head of of Learning and will be launching some exciting new education for sustainability resources and ideas in September.
James and Ken have also co-authoured a book "Sense and Sustainability in the Classroom" and this will be appearing sometime after September, published by Optimus.
Sense&Sustainability are also awaiting the outcome of the Life Long Learning programme grant award process - the results are expected in min July. Sense&Sustainability are part of six bids and if even one of them is successful teh rest of 2010 and 2011 are going to be busy years.
A personal reflection on Sense&Sustainability
Hello - my name is Deniz Dincil from Turkey and I work as a freelance trainer about sustainable living and development. I took part in training led by James Hindson called training for Green Pack Trainers. This training was organised by the Regional Environment Centre (REC) for Turkey with the aim of training trainers to train teachers to use the Green Pack that the REC Turkey translated and adapted for use by teachers in Turkey. To be honest I was sceptical about the idea of sustainable development so I was not expecting that much from the training! But the training was absolutely fantastic and very inspiring for me. What was most inspiring was the idea that Sustainable Development is not about slowing down growth, or just using more green technologies or making less profit. It is about being independent from the cabon dependent economy and the idea of continued economic growth. I learnt a lot not just about sustainable development but also about how to be a good trainer, how to communicate a message effectively and in a lively and exciting way.
The Green Pack project aims to train primary school teachers about sustainable development and provides a multi media teaching kit to teachers which they can use in their schools. The Turkish Ministry of Primary Education and Ministry of Environment are partners in the project as well as REC Turkey. To date there are 25 Green Pack trainers in the country and regular trainings have been taking place since 2007.
This is one of the most successful projects that I have ever been involved in. there is at least one Green Pack teacher in every city of Turkey and we have been having hugely encouraging feedback from all the teachers. The content is important but so is the way it is delivered and I believe that part of the success of the project is down to how the group of trainers were first trained by James Hindson.
Is it time for a new approach to education for sustainability?
Climate change, the end of oil and a global recession are creating real uncertainties about the future for everyone. Is what we are offering though our education for sustainability really going to meet the needs we shall all have in a low carbon future?
The Sense &Sustainability Team think not - so if you’ve also been having doubts, then you are not alone!
Sense&Sustainability have some exciting new ideas about the next steps in education for sustainability. It’s an ESD that helps us all to see the bigger picture and engage with the exciting possibilities around a ‘bright green’ world.
Much of our education for sustainable development appears to be just “education for a slightly less harmful world” whereas what we need is a lifelong ESD that inspires people to be confident and positive the future!
This is where Sense&Sustainability Training can help – click on the Courses page for more information about the training opportunities.
Images
