Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Gardens at the University of Plymouth are being opened for environmental teachingand learning over recent years. Yet there is potential for confusionamongst those coming to it for the first time, given all the lists of keyconcepts, values and skills that various writers and bodies suggestare essential in learning for sustainable development. 5I would suggest that the newly interested policymaker or practitionerlook for commonality between the various frameworks,regarding them as indicative rather than prescriptive. They are thereto be used, edited, critically discussed and adapted as part of thelearning process, rather than adopted wholesale.Whilst lists of sustainability-related concepts, skills and values arebeneficial, at a more fundamental level, it is the change of perspectiveand learning culture which is key in order to move us away fromthe perspectives and culture that have supported unsustainability.In terms of educational practices, it means that curriculum designersand teachers develop learning situations where the potential fortransformative learning experiences, both for themselves and theirstudents, is made more likely. In essence, this shift can be expressedin terms of eight key questions that can help unlock thinking whenconsidering any issue:Holistic: “how does this relate to that?”, “what is the larger context here?”Critical: “why are things this way, in whose interests?”Appreciative: “what’s good, and what already works well here?”Inclusive: “who/what is being heard, listened to and engaged?”Systemic: “what are or might be the consequences of this?”Creative: “what innovation might be required?”Image: University of PlymouthEthical: “how should this relate to that?”, “what is wiseaction?”, “how can we work towards the inclusivewell-being of the whole system – social, economic andecological?”Practical: “how do we take this forward with sustainabilityin mind as our guiding principle?”Such learning will ideally be reflexive, experiential, inquiring,experimental, participative, iterative, real-world andaction-oriented. The sustainability learner will be characterizedby such qualities as resilience, resourcefulness,creativity, systemic and critical thinking, enterprise, cooperationand care. What is required is ‘learning as change’in the active pursuit of sustainability and in the design,development and maintenance of ecologically sustainableeconomic and social systems through changed lifestylesand innovation. Such engaged learning goes beyond mere‘learning about change’ or preparative ‘learning for change’which may be seen as rather more passive steps on the wayto a deeper learning response.This may sound far from the realities of everydayeducational practice, but experience in the UK, forexample, shows a rapid increase in interest and activityaround sustainability education and learning in recentyears. Thus, while there is still a long way to go in thehigher education sector, many universities – spurredon by funding council policies (not least relating tocarbon management) and increasing demand froman engaged student body – are recognizing sustainabilityas an imperative that needs a whole-institutionresponse. This has been supported strongly by suchorganizations as the Higher Education Academy 6and the Environmental Association for Universitiesand Colleges, 7 which play an important facilitativerole in developing and energizing networks of keyinstitutions and individuals, undertaking researchand spreading good practice. At the the same time,lead institutions are pushing the pace of change forthe sector as a whole. This includes the University ofPlymouth, where the whole-institution programmeworking on Campus, Curriculum, Community andCulture over the last five years now sees sustainabilitylinked strongly to enterprise as the touchstones of theuniversity’s identity and work. 8Last chance to make a differenceThe UK Future Leaders Survey 2007/08, which interviewedsome 25,000 young people in the UK, makesit clear that they are “intensely aware of the big challengesfacing the planet”, but also notes that they arethe last generation with a chance to put things ona more sustainable course. Given this critical challenge,learning for sustainable development nowneeds to be absolutely central to educational policyand practice and enmeshed with all other agendas.As a recent UK report on education for sustainabledevelopment in the UK shows, 9 at this point, we canbe cautiously optimistic – but the unsustainabilityclock is still ticking.[ 33 ]