REPORT OF UNESCO EXPERT MEETING ON - APCEIU

sustainable development. This involves viewing pedagogy as a process of encouraging students to explore
questions, issues and problems of sustainability, especially in contexts relevant to them and their
communities, and the development of student-centred and interactive enquiry-based approaches to teaching
and learning. Such approaches do not preclude the use of more teacher-centred methods such as exposition,
narration and demonstration where appropriate. However, it does mean that, wherever possible, student
learning will be based in the community, will use the environment and community as a resource for learning,
and will involve such activities as debating controversial issues, role play, simulation games, values
clarification and analysis, and discovery learning as well as a range of creative and experiential activities
(see Fien, Heck and Ferreira 1997). Naish, Rawling and Hart identify the characteristics of such an enquirybased
pedagogy by describing it as an approach to teaching and learning which:
• identifies questions, issues and problems as the starting point for enquiry
• involves students as active participants in a sequence of meaningful learning through enquiry
• provides opportunities for the development of a wide range of skills and abilities (intellectual,
social, practical and communication)
• presents opportunities for fieldwork and classroom work to be closely integrated
• provides possibilities for open-ended enquiries in which attitudes and values may be clarified, and
an open interchange of ideas and opinions can take place
• provides scope for an effective balance of both teacher-directed work and more independent student
enquiry
• assists in the development of political literacy such that students gain understanding of the social
world and how to participate in it. (Naish, Rawling and Hart, 1986: 46)
The focus on issues and problems in this enquiry-based approach to pedagogy may cause worry and concern
for students if not handled well. However, as evident in our country studies, young people across all
countries already are seriously concerned about the future of the environment and their place in it. Thus, in a
discussion of the importance of action competence in developing students’ capacities for environmental
citizenship, Jensen and Schnack (1997: 164) argue that, “It is not so much a question of creating anxiety
during environmental education. The problem is more [one of] how to handle the anxiety and worry which
students already feel”. Thus, they give primacy to the regular involvement of students in learning how to
resolve problems, developing and evaluating visions of alternative futures, and actively working in and with
the community on problems that are of significance to them. These three aspects of an action-focused
pedagogy emphasise the importance of actively involving students in projects to build sustainability in their
local communities which are discussed in he next section. Without regular experiences such as these, the
reorientation of objectives, curriculum themes, and concepts for sustainability will be in vain. Empowerment
to work for sustainability is the raison d’etre of reorienting formal education towards sustainable
development.
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