Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

this transnational commitment is fragile, and must be maintained and enhanced.
In this context, what role can education play? Answering this question requires
examining the values and attitudes imparted by science as a school subject.
The early years of primary education are the time when the young are mentally
most disposed towards forming or acquiring preferences, stances and criteria
of judgement. Taking this into account, it is worth considering how curricula
and textbooks at this level have tended to approach topics related to climate
change. Let us take the topic ‘Means of Transport’ as an example. Many
curricula make this the focus of a unit or lesson in science texts designed for
use by students of around 8-9 years old. The staple lesson on this topic covers
different types of vehicles, typically arranged in order of speed. This ordering
is also usually presented as paralleling chronological order, demonstrating the
progress of science and technology since ancient times. The source of energy
used by speedier vehicles cannot be meaningfully explained to an 8- or 9-yearold.
But the formation of an association, in the child’s mind, between ‘speed’
and ‘progress’ can hardly be avoided. Later instruction concerning the role of
fossil fuels in climate change may prompt anxiety, but will struggle to unsettle
the basic mind-set linking speed with progress. This illustrates the importance
of coherence in the treatment of environmental concerns in primary science
curricula, and of attention to the value-forming aspects of science learning.
Another example that can deepen appreciation of this aspect of science learning
in primary classes is the topic ‘Living and Non-living’. It is taught in order to
encourage children to be observant and capable of noticing the ways in which
life-forms co-exist in nature with other kinds of objects. In this respect the
curricular emphasis should be on understanding the concept of an ecosystem
(or at primary level the ‘environment’). 5 This encourages the appreciation of the
fragility of the balance between all species and resources, and the realisation
that non-human life does not exist primarily or purely for our enjoyment and
exploitation.
With respect to topics such as ‘Means of Transport’, ‘Climate Change’ and
‘Global Warming’, curriculum development needs to shed the assumption that
science can be separated from technology, or that science and technology will
invariably supply solutions to our environmental challenges. Such a technocentric
rather than eco-centric stance (Gorobets, 2014) underlies the prevailing
view that gradual replacement of fossil fuels by cleaner sources of energy will
permit us to avoid any trade-offs in terms of technological convenience — or,
with respect to transport, speed. For example, ‘clean’ or ‘green’ energy are often
touted as solutions to our environmental problems that will allow us to have
our technological cake and eat it. However, some technologies associated with
5 An ecosystem may be summarised as a biological community of interacting organisms
and their environment, including the biotic (living) and abiotic (physical and chemical)
components of the immediate environment which form a self-contained self-sustaining unit
(Odum and Barrett, 2005, p. 36; Odum, 1971, pp. 8-36; 1975, p. 25).
Rethinking Schooling for the 21 st Century:
The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia
21