Educating for a Sustainable Future

Educating for a Sustainable Future

Presenter: Jessica Smith

What is a sustainable future?

• Creating a future that includes favorable conditions for all systems to thrive indefinitely.

• These systems include healthy body system, healthy family system, healthy schools and communities, healthy local and global economics, social and ecological systems.

Three areas of sustainable development :

environmental, social and economics

(DEEWR, 2009)

Poll

Do you believe educators have an impact on creating a sustainable future?

• YES

• NOT REALLY

Educators for sustainability...

work to develop in young people and adults the knowledge , skills attitudes and enduring understanding required to individually and collectively contribute to a healthy and sustainable future

https://youtu.be/5G0ndS3uRdo

^{EfS creation}

• direction worldwide since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) in Rio Janeiro.

• The Earth Summit brought global attention to the idea that the planet's environmental problems are intimately linked to economic conditions and problems of social justice.

EfS Framework

• Cultural Preservation and Transformation - Preserving cultural histories/heritages, and transforming cultural identities contribute to sustainable communities. Students develop the ability to discern with others what to preserve and what to change to make future generations thrive.

• Responsible Local/Global Citizenship - Student know and understand the rights and responsibilities and assume their roles of leadership and participation to move toward a healthy future.

• Dynamics of Systems and Change - Students are able to apply tools and concepts of dynamics and systems thinking in present lives, to inform choices that will affect our future.

EfS Framework Continued...

• Sustainable Economics - Students will know and understand economic practices and will produce and consume in ways that contribute to the health of the financial, social and natural capital.

• Health Commons - (i.e. air, trust, biodiversity, climate regulation, our collective future, water, libraries, public health, heritage sites, top soil, etc.) Students value the importance of these commons and assume actions to care for them.

• Living w/in Ecological/Natural Laws - Students see themselves as interdependent with each other, all living things, and natural systems.

EfS Framework Continued...

• Inventing and Affecting the Future - Vision, imagination and intention are vital in creating the desired future.

• Multiple Perspectives - Students understand, value and draw from multiple perspectives to co-create with diverse stakeholders shared and evolving visions and actions in the service of a healthy and sustainable future locally and globally.

• A Sense of Place - Strong connection to the place in which one lives. Students value the interrelationships between the social, economic, ecological, and architectural history of that place and contribute to its continuous health.

Poll

In your own teaching, do you believe you are instilling some of this knowledge in your students?

• YES - ALL THE TIME

• YES - SOMETIMES

Cloud Institute

New York

The Cloud Institute works with educators and their communities to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future.

Poll

Lasting transformation in education requires innovation at the curricular, institutional, and community levels.

Do you agree?

• YES

• NO

The Learning Self

• The Learning Self encompasses the knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits of mind that make it possible to live well within the means of nature

Learning Classroom

• In the Learning Classroom, curriculum and instructional methodologies produce authentic and engaged learning.

Poll

Reflection Time

Do you feel you provide more student-centered instruction or teacher led instruction?

• Student-Centered

• Teacher-Led

Schools that Learn for EfS

In schools that learn, everyone is encouraged to keep thinking, innovating, collaborating, talking candidly, improving their capabilities, self-correcting, and making personal commitments

to a shared future…

Communities that Learn for EfS

Everyone

(businesses, local government, community members, etc.)

is encouraged to keep thinking, innovating, collaborating, talking candidly, improving their capabilities, self-correcting, and making personal commitments to a shared future…

Physical Plant, Procurement,

and Investments for EfS

Buildings, grounds, procurement, operations and responsible investments positively contribute to the long-term health of our economic, ecological and social systems.

Food for Thought

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller

How can I try to incorporate more EfS in my lessons?

The Cloud Institute offers a few free downloads for Grades K-12.

Poll

Are you educating for a sustainable future?

• Yes, but I want to incorporate more learning opportunities that improve our future.

• Yes, I am an expert.

Check out all these Resources for Lessons

https://cloudinstitute.org/terracycle

Another site for lesson resources https://www.efscollective.org/efs-reservoir

Video

https://youtu.be/5G0ndS3uRdo