Greening Our Schools Transformative Education for Sustainability
GreenHearted.org is a primer
on transformative education for sustainability.... Here you will find what you'll need in order to genuinely green
- your classroom,
- your curriculum,
- your students' learning,
- your school community,
- and your life's work as a teacher.
It's all here, for the sake of all the children, of all species.
"If there's no action before 2012 [when the Kyoto Protocol runs out], 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
As a teacher, are you feeling a sense of responsibility for your students and their future? Scientists report that we only have a few years left to transform our society to a renewable energy economy to avoid catastrophic climate change. What is the role of educators in creating this transformation?
(Hint: At the appropriate grade levels, our students need to develop a deep bond with the rest of Nature, learn how life works on Earth, work together on creative solutions to environmental problems, and become practitioners of sustainble development, with understanding of its principles and practice in its processes, if they are going to contribute to the necessary societal transformation. See Greening the Curriculum.)
"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
If you're a teacher of preschoolers, primary-aged children, middle schoolers or older students, or simply a concerned human being who has been following the news, you know that education has to help if humanity is to safeguard the future. How can schools contribute in deeply meaningful ways?
(Hint: Think Gandhi's maxim, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Children learn what they live. Give them a place to "live" their school days that teaches them by example how to be stewards of this Earth that sustains them. See School Greening.)
"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
If you're young enough, you might be feeling more than a little 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 is no longer relevant in light of 21st century realities just isn't part of the solution. And what if your curriculum doesn't include environmental education or education for sustainability? Or the powers-that-be keep tinkering with the curriculum you have to teach tweaking it without transforming it?
(Hint: First of all, if "doom and gloom" has you feeling down, envision and start working towards a zero-carbon future of safe, clean, healthy, peaceful and equitable renewable energy instead! Transformative education for sustainability can start with a simple change in your focus or context. What if everything you taught, you taught with the Earth, the future, and the children of all species in mind and heart? See Transformative Tools for Sustainability Education.)
"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
Perhaps 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 certainly concerned about them, and your grandchildren, as well. Furthermore, what must your students be feeling these days?
(Hint: Your students need to know that the adults who care about them are doing all they can to protect the natural environment and safeguard the future for them. Plus, they need opportunities for both hope and action. See Reasons for Greening Your Teaching.)
You care about children, 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.
Nature as Teacher...
Education for sustainability makes sense to you because you don't want to teach for UNsustainability. 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 today
- 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
(including colleagues, administrators, staff, students, parents, visitors)
And if you have questions or concerns, or ideas you'd like to share, please contact us.
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 pathto 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.
This is Education for Sustainability
Two of my favourite kids in a field of mustard, near our Pizza Garden
(Thanks to Wendi for these beautiful photos
of some of my students.)
Click on one of the tabs in the navigation bar
on the left or on a link below
to get started on this transformative journey that is greening the heart of education....
GreenHearted BlogCompassionate Climate Action
Share our experiences in transformative sustainability education and climate change activism pre-Copenhagen this December. Visit http://www.greenhearted.org/environmental-education-blog.html for more.
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Climate Change Primer
This climate change primer gives teachers what they need to know about global climate change, and offers resources for teaching it.
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School Greening
School greening means transforming your students' education, making sustainability the focus of curriculum and professional development, facilities and operations, and organizational behaviour.
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Greening the Curriculum
Greening the curriculum (using this green curriculum model) creates graduates for the 21st century
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Greening School Facilities
Greening school facilities is imperative because our students learn what they live. They should spend their learning time surrounded by energy efficiency indoors and naturalized playgrounds outdoors.
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Greening School Behaviour and Attitudes = Greening Our Ethic
Greening school behaviour means applying an environmental / sustainability ethic to all decisions we make within our school community.
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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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Transformative Nature Study
Transformative Nature study is experiential learning about organisms and natural objects, especially their origins and interrelationships, that helps students make friends with the rest of Nature.
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School Gardens
School gardens are a great way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, reconnect students with the natural world, and teach them valuable food production skills that integrate with several subjects.
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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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Greening Homeschooling
Greening homeschooling means allowing Nature to be a teacher in your child's education.
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Friday Fun with Nature
Friday Fun with Nature will collect heartwarming animal and other nature stories from the worldwide web.
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Saying Grace Together
Saying grace together at mealtimes is an excellent way to "practise gratitude" and grow closer together as a family, in a way that teaches children where their food comes from.
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Prayers for the Earth
Prayers for the Earth is a collection of graces and prayers from different cultures and religions around the world.
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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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Contact Us
Use this page to contact us at GreenHeart Education.
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