Last week’s input and this weeks directed study task had a focus on the Environment, both natural and urban. It’s crucial to note that while we covered both aspects, the inter-related nature of the two was also impressed on us throughout the inputs.

I can already tell that this sustainable development module is going to be an integral part of what I take from this course as a future teacher, and will inform the decisions I make in and out of the classroom, from the subjects I teach, to how I teach them, and how my own practice will enable me to model an environmentally-responsible worldview to the students I will teach.

 

Lecture and Workshops

Last week, we looked at what “sustainability” means. The One Planet Schools defines it as “using resources at a rate which can be replenished and is equitable between nations and generations” (Learning for Sustainability Report, 2010) It is clear to me, then, that teaching for sustainable development is much more than simply teaching children about the impact of human activity on the environment and what governments are doing to promote change, but about their impact on their own local, national and global communities and what they can do to change it for the better.

One of the most important things I have taken from last week’s input, I think, is the idea that we need to encourage our children to “look up”. As someone whose childhood spanned the 1990’s and early 2000’s, where I was actively encouraged to go outside, to play and explore, I think it is easy to forget that this is not necessarily the dominant attitude today. Not to decry new technologies or parents’ fears of the current social environment, these are both valid aspects of raising children today, but there seems to be much less encouragement for children to go out and experience the environment for themselves. In that respect, it is possible to find that often, children and to a degree, adults, are somewhat disengaged from the world around them, whether due to disinterest, the feeling of being politically disengaged, or simply unable to comprehend the impact of human activity on the world around them. I believe this is where outdoor learning and teaching for sustainability can intervene.

Alessandra Orofino, in her 2014 TED Talk (It’s our city. Let’s fix it.) talks about the necessity for human engagement, not only with their urban environment, but with their community on a local and national scale. Human engagement with the world around them is a necessary component of sustainable development, providing relevance and empathy for their environment and each other. Using outdoor learning as part of teaching for sustainability can encourage pupil engagement with the local community and urban environment around their school, but can also encourage them to take what they have learned and understood home with them to their own communities. Outdoor learning provides the engagement with their surroundings that children need to develop the empathy and understanding required to develop their own sustainable practices and care for their environment.

About engagement, in last year’s Mathematics for Understanding module we were taught that an important aspect of teaching maths is to make it relevant for children, to apply what we are teaching to familiar concepts and scenarios. I think this applies to other areas of the curriculum too. There is a plethora of ways in which the local environment can be used to aid understanding and while understanding of mathematics can certainly benefit from using outdoor learning as a teaching method, the outdoor environment can be used to inspire in other areas of children’s learning such as literacy and creative arts.

A useful part of the face-to-face input last week was the outdoor activities, getting to engage with the space around the university and trying to approach them from the mindset of a child – what they might notice, how I could use these activities in teaching, and what the potential risks and benefits were in using outdoor teaching methods.

In the first workshop, we undertook a few activities related to outdoor learning: looking for lichen and investigating what their colours mean, searching for insects and a scavenger hunt of sorts, trying to identify types of trees using their leaves. These activities were particularly useful in informing my own potential teaching practice and cause me to consider options for teaching about the natural environment outside a traditional classroom setting and allowing children to explore aspects of the natural environment around them in a practical, relatable way.

The snails and the tree rubbing activities were probably my personal favourites of the activities in the second session: Science Skills. The snails were interesting and a potential idea to take into a classroom partially because of the practical nature of the exercise, which I think would greatly appeal to children as getting to see and handle animals up close is generally more interesting than learning about them from a slideshow, as I personally found. It makes the learning relatable and frankly more enjoyable, which again was my experience. I thoroughly enjoyed handling the snails and talking about the ones I was holding, and it is an activity that will stick with me, as I hope it would for children.

The tree rubbing exercise was enjoyable too, but in a different way. It was fun working in a group, getting to explore and look around parts of the university space that we had never been to before, and having something to show for it at the end. It also inspired me to create a lesson plan for a potential group of science lessons that I would like to teach while on placement, if I am given the chance to. The lessons revolve around experiencing and learning about scientific methods and are framed around an experiment based on the exercise. It aims to combine learning about science skills with aspects of mathematics, literacy and art, again highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of outdoor learning.

I do not believe that my thinking around this area has changed, per se, rather that my knowledge and future practice has become more informed through engaging with the lecture, workshop and directed study task.

 

The directed study task has caused me to become more aware of my own urban and natural environment, and how the people in my local community engage with that environment. It has again made me more aware of how to bring learning for sustainability into the classroom, and how I might encourage children to engage with and reflect on their own environment and their impact within it. It has also encouraged me to reflect on my thoughts about what I want my teaching practice to be, and how I aim to model sustainability values in my classroom and daily life.

As part of the directed study task, we were asked to consider three questions:

How does increasing urbanisation impact on the world (positively and negatively)?

What other factors do you think are related to this increasing urbanisation? e.g. what factors drive the need for it, and what factors are influenced by it?

From what you’re learning, to what extent the political process can combat the challenges faced by urban environments?

Urbanisation has had a major impact on the world, particularly in recent years. The positive aspects relate towards interconnectedness and towards greater opportunities in terms of the creating and sharing of ideas and creation of new jobs as certain industries change and grow (notably those of a technological nature). Conversely, the negative impact of rapid urbanisation can be felt in areas where it has occurred too quickly, without the necessary structures and support in place to help it develop securely. This impact is felt in younger generations where rapid urbanisation coupled with a lack of work, social structures designed to support, and lack of access to education for all.

It is not simply the fault of urbanisation alone, however. Urbanisation merely implies growth and change of an urban nature, but it does not occur alone. It is accompanied by a myriad of social factors which will be encountered during the process: housing, unemployment, the changing nature of industry, and education. These factors both influence and are influenced by urbanisation, and for it to occur at a sustainable pace which does not negatively impact the population affected by it, human engagement with their communities on a local and national scale is imperative. Whether this is through use of technology, engagement on a face-to-face level, or both, it must take place.

As Alessandra Orofino said, “It is up to us to decide whether we want schools or parking lots, recycling projects or construction sites, cars or buses, loneliness or solidarity.” Those factors which impact negatively on urbanization and the people affected by it can be mitigated through people recognizing the impact it can have and taking steps to actively change the outcome, through social programmes, political engagement and taking steps to ensure that they have the power to influence their own outcomes, whether it is at a personal, local or national level, whether through their own ability to reach out, get involved in their local community and make their voice and the voices of others heard through advocating for themselves and others.

Those who possess the power to make those necessary changes at a policy level have a responsibility to do so to help develop an inclusive, progressive society that considers and supports everyone, not just a fraction of the population. Several aspects at a political level need to be considered in order to facilitate this. Whether this is through environmental policy or social policy, the political process can play a major role in combating the challenges faced by urban environments. Through my own personal experiences, I have witnessed a rise in online activism and inclusion (accompanied by some parties who hold opposing, negative views), which proves to a degree that people are willing to get involved with their local and global communities if given a chance, and the political process can provide them with that chance by taking on the views of their constituents, the people who rely on them to operate fairly and in their best interests.

If the political process provides the means for people to get involved with their community and support each other (e.g. through social programmes such as recycling, education and opportunities for work), then I believe that people will take that chance and use it to great effect. The real issue is in changing minds from a general sense of political disengagement – perhaps through the feeling of a lack of power outwith elections – to becoming more willing to get involved with their political environment as well as their urban and social environments.

 

Useful resources or links

https://www.ted.com/talks/alessandra_orofino_it_s_our_city_let_s_fix_it

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/ACE/OnePlanetSchools/LearningforSustainabilitReport