Hiya! I’m Niamh- welcome to my blog. Over the upcoming months; this blog will help provide a deeper insight into my ‘Sustainable Development’ (LFS) journey.
Our first week contained a brief overview of the course and what we will need to do in able to succeed at this module. In addition, we discussed the benefits of this for children, our community and the global community. LFS is becoming widely recognised and promoted throughout schools in all areas of work. When a whole school gets involved, this can encourage skills, knowledge and confidence to make wise decisions to create a more sustainable, equity world. (General Teaching Scotland) For example: community litter picks/ beach or river clean ups etc is an excellent way to keep our community tidy where everyone can take part free of charge. I will also continue to encourage recycling more in the classroom (get rid of plastic!)
The Vision for 2030 is for all pupils to be familiar with ‘Learning for Sustainability’ in schools and appreciate the natural surroundings of their environment, culture and heritage. (Education Scotland,2019) When on placement, during inspections, we might get asked what is being referenced about sustainability in the classroom. I wasn’t completely sure what sustainable development actually involved until today. I was feeling a little apprehensive about how I would teach this to children. However, I was a lot more familiar with the concepts of this than I realised:
After today’s first lecture with Louise, I am very eager to begin this module – mindful of the fact science is not my area of expertise- I am keen to further develop my knowledge of all 3 areas interlinked: Science/ technologies and Social Studies. This module focuses on 6 main areas of sustainable development:
- Diversity
- Climate Change
- Interdependence
- Energy use
- Disasters
- The environments
Each area will be covered over a period of two weeks. Afterwards, we will then complete a blog post as a reflection of our knowledge on each theme.
In the workshop today, two ladies came in from WOSDEC to inform us about what they do in the workplace. They work alongside teachers in Scotland purely focusing on LFS. They discussed with us the importance of celebrating diversity and embracing everyone’s differences. In groups, we completed different tasks about poverty/ natural disasters/ climate change etc and had a plenary afterwards to identify what we learned. Using the ‘Graduate attributes table’ I feel after this lesson, I am more ethnically- minded of other cultures and have a clearer understanding of where our clothes and food actually comes from. This makes me appreciate what I have and feel very sympathetic for the people making a very low income for doing such complex trades. ‘The global goals for Sustainable Development’ is a plan set up that we want to achieve in the future to create a more stable, positive world for everyone where we value our planet more and treat it with a little more care.
Week 2
We were introduced to the controversial topic of ‘Diversity’ in today’s lecture. It is such a prevalent topic today in the classroom. It should not be something we avoid speaking about as everyone is entitled to freedom of speech (as long as they are still respecting others in the process.) ‘Rights Respecting School’ is reinforced throughout the curriculum to ensure all childrens rights are being considered.
‘Whiteness/ Values/ Gender/ Race/ Sexuality/ Religion’
It is vital, we as teachers, become more mindful of these factors within ‘Diversity’ as a whole. Notice the dominance of white people. I didn’t even realise ‘whiteness’ was a thing until it was mentioned. No person should be made to feel excluded due to the colour of their skin/ what they want to assign their selves as or who they want to be in a relationship with. Each individual is unique and that’s what makes our classrooms different.
‘Safe space’- we were made familiar with this term at the beginning of the lecture so everyone felt comfortable speaking aloud about their personal opinions. This is crucial as we need to be able to accept an opposing view, in contrast, to what we are familiar with. Our role as teachers in the classroom is to try remove preconceived opinions children have formed of specific religions. Allowing them to form factual opinions of their own without an input from someone else.
We should all appreciate the vast range of foreign languages spoken in Scotland as it has multiple benefits to our society: culturally, historically, socially etc. Encouraging a diverse nation is so vital in schools as everyone should feel respected and included even if their mother tongue is not English. ‘Respected’ and ‘Included’ are two indicators from the ‘Getting It Right for Every Child’ (GIRFEC) well-being indicators. I feel very passionately towards they two indicators specifically. In my classroom, I will always find a way to involve everyone and ensure everyone is being respectful. GIRFEC was implemented to ensure every child’s needs were being fulfilled and that is my main aim as a teacher.
Finally, in the workshop, me and my cohorts discussed various statements- put on the board- in a non biased form to raise topics for discussion:
‘In Uganda, it is illegal to be gay’
This makes me feel physically sick. As a teacher, it is crucial we erase all prejudices from our heads and look at everything with a non-biased point of view to ensure every child in our class is participating and feels welcomed by all.
I am keen to explore more of this module. It is very interesting and appealing to me as a student teacher. This is something I want to be confident teaching in the classroom as it is vital issues children need to be aware of.
Education Scotland (2019) A summary of learning for sustainability resources [online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/A%20summary%20of%20learning%20for%20sustainability%20resources
Scottish Government (2014) Getting it right for every child [online] Available: https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/
The General Teaching Council for Scotland (2019) Learning For Sustainability [Online] Available: https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-standards/learning-for-sustainability.aspx
