Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Hurricane Gustav over the Caribbean, 29 August, 2008Literature through the lens of sustainabilityTeaching and learning literature is usually informed by the subjectspecifics (elements such as theme, setting, style etc.) as well as bythe subject’s core purpose (pleasure, beauty, development of theimagination, the experiencing of the other’s world, and the developmentof one’s identity). Incorporating a sustainability perspectiveand focus, we find that the way we read the text changes. The text‘opens up’ and is enlarged when read with a ‘sustainability lens’.Implementation of ESD in the literature classroom serves to:• Teach texts, paying attention to the specific demands of thesubject, for example, its elements (themes, characters, setting,plot and style)• Employ theories relevant to the study of the text, for example,eco-criticism, which is the study of the relationship betweenliterature and the physical environment 4• Have at the core of the teaching the knowledge/awareness of thesustainability concept, issues, principles and actions• Uncover the interconnections of social/cultural, economic andenvironmental aspects, enabling students to read their worldwith a different lens and encouraging them to take action tochange what destroys their world.There are changes in how the text is read and how the subject istaught. The result is a deepened classroom experience, one thatextends to the wider world and helps students engage at variouslevels with their world. The knowledge, skills, values, perspectivesand action 5 related to the study of the literature are grounded in anunderstanding of what it means to act in ways that will make for asustainable world.There are, of course, tensions between balancing the specificities of thetext and the ‘sustainability’ aspects (between keeping the text bound byImage: NASAthe classroom and situating it in the wider environmentwhere it truly resides).The basic principles for infusing ESD into literaturehold true for language: establish an ESD context, exploresustainability issues and themes in material used forlanguage classes, focus on a specific theme, relate thetheme to students’ real-world experience and take someaction to address the particular issue.A number of language education theories such as wholelanguage, the learning experience approach and communicativelanguage teaching emphasize the importanceof attending to the functionality of language. Keepingin mind, therefore, that language is basically a tool forcommunication, we can approach language education asengaging with real-world tasks, including ‘sustainabilitytasks’ – for example, reflection, advocacy, disseminatinginformation, problem solving and critical thinking.Teachers of language are usually required to developskills in reading, writing, comprehension and grammaras a means of aiding communication. To do this effectively,they will have to contend with the choice ofmaterial, the types of language tasks and the approachor teaching methodology.‘ESD-embedded’ literature can provide the content– the reading material for teaching language. Thismeans literature, in the widest sense of the word, thatis ‘sustainability indexed’. Here teachers identify theenvironmental, social, cultural and economic realitiesrepresented in the content. They examine the materialeco-critically, noting the interconnections of theenvironmental, social, cultural and economic aspects.Students are thus provided with material related to orabout the critical issues of our time.Learning and communityEqually important is the teaching approach. Focusingon one theme, teachers can engage students inlanguage learning by using it in a significantly meaningfulway. Linking learning with action projects inthe community will help to accomplish this. Imagineusing the story Limbo Island (mentioned earlier) toteach both literature and language. Through exploringthe theme of sustainable tourism or eco-tourism, theteacher can motivate students to become involved inresearch and reports on sustainable tourism, surveys,interviews and dialogue with tourist interest groups.Students can learn to write advocacy letters, compilestories of traditional practices and create photo stories.Students are now attuned to the functionality oflanguage and by engaging in project-based learninginterface with their community to improve its qualityof life, they improve their own.To implement education for sustainable developmentin language arts is to connect deeply withcommunity; it is to situate oneself and one’s studentsbeyond the boundaries of the classroom into the widercommunity and beyond the boundaries of the presentinto the future. To transform one’s world is to transformoneself.[ 101 ]