Greening Our Schools — Transformative Education for Sustainability
GreenHearted.org is a primer on
transformative education for sustainability ...
what you'll need in order to green your classroom, your curriculum, your students' learning, your school community, and your life's work as a teacher.
You're a teacher of preschoolers, primary-aged children, middle schoolers or older students, or simply a concerned human being,who knows that education has to change if we want to safeguard the future.
"If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."
—Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007
You feel a responsibility as a teacher towards your students and their future. Scientists and the media have been reporting that we only have a few years left to transform our society to a renewable energy economy to avoid catastrophic climate change.
"The Sixth Extinction is the next annihilation of vast numbers of species. It is happening now, and we, the human race, are its cause."
—Dr. Richard Leakey, Paleoanthropologist and Environmentalist
You worry — in between the planning, the marking, the report cards and the little bit of time you have for yourself and your family — about what kind of world we're leaving for our students. If you have your own children, you're concerned about them, too, and their children. But the curriculum doesn't include education for sustainability.
"We ... find ourselves continually trying to accommodate new realities within inappropriate existing institutions, and trying to think about those new realities in traditional but sometimes dangerously irrelevant terms." -Gwynne Dyer, Journalist and Author
You might be feeling kind of scared about a future defined by global warming, dwindling resources, war and injustice. Or perhaps you have a vague sense that what you're teaching isn't as relevant anymore, isn't part of the solution.
"There is virtually nothing in the literature addressing appropriate ways to deal with the emotions associated with environmental degradation." —Elin Kelsey, PhD, Environmental Educator and Communicator
You care about children (otherwise you wouldn't be in teaching), so your reaction to everything you've been hearing and learning about climate change and other global issues is natural, and heartfelt. And because you care about kids, you care about their future, and the future of their planet.
But where to start? Right here! You'll find answers, ideas, support — some online professional development — for greening your teaching.
GreenHeart Education gives you a starting place and a simple yet transformative model of education for sustainability.
Here's what you'll find on this website:
- the rationale for transforming our teaching to safeguard the future
- a research-based curriculum model for greening preschool to secondary school education
- simple transformative tools for making education part of the solution, starting tomorrow
- answers to your concerns about transformative education for sustainability and curriculum alignment
- ideas for greening your classroom and school facilities
- ways to encourage your school community to go green as well (colleagues, administrators, students, parents, visitors)
Even if you're not a teacher but simply a member of the human family who wants to put sustainability into action, you'll find here lots of beyond-the-usual ideas for greening your world and worldview, as well as support for advocating a transformation to sustainability-centered education.
If you care about the future of our species, our home planet, and the rest of life on Earth, then we're kindred spirits.
Teaching for a healthy, green future — that's what education for sustainability is — shouldn't be lonely and difficult, but it can be. Often, it takes courage and support to walk your own green path—to create your own gift to the future. GreenHeart can give you that support and encouragement. We've been working at "greening the heart of education" for almost 25 years.
Click on one of the tabs at the left or on a link below to
get started on this transformative professional development journey!
Greening the Curriculum
Greening the curriculum (using this green curriculum model) creates graduates for the 21st century
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Reasons for Greening Your Teaching
Educators who want to green their teaching need a transformative rationale to help them get "outside the curriculum box." Here are several reasons for greening your teaching.
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Integration as an Ecological Teaching Tool
Integration of sustainability learning into the rest of the curriculum is an ecological teaching tool that counters the dangers of reductionism.
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Transformative Tools for Sustainability Education
A paper on transformative tools for sustainability education, presented by Julie Johnston at the World Environmental Education Congress in Durban, South Africa, July 2007
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Barriers to Environmental Learning and Action
The many barriers that keep adults from environmental learning and action can be categorized as cultural, psychosocial, adult learning, and environmental adult education barriers.
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Enticements to Sustainability and Environmental Learning and Action
Enticements to sustainability are the cultural, psychosocial and educational ways to inspire and motivate environmental learning and action.
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References for Barriers and Enticements to Environmental Learning and Action
A list of the references for a literature review on barriers and enticements to environmental learning and action, as part of a master's degree in (environmental) adult education.
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The Future Generations Party — An Economic and Political Solution
Educational solutions to the sustainability crisis are important, but not enough. Our economic system needs transforming, and our political systems need to be reminded that future generations matter.
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Sustainable Family Development - Helping Families Go Green
So many environmental efforts are aimed at individuals, but isn't the family a primary unit of change in our society? Sustainable family development helps families develop "green" competencies.
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About Us
GreenHeart Education is Julie Johnston and Peter Carter, a teacher and a doctor, who together have over 35 years experience in the environmental / sustainability field.
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GreenHearted Blog
GreenHearted Blog provides links to the latest updates to the site. It will also offer links to interesting articles and blog posts about environmental and sustainability education.
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Contact Us
Use this page to contact us at GreenHeart Education.
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