BLOG # 6 Eco-Ed: What Austrailia Has That We Want

Education for Sustainability

What do we want, that Australia has? Is it great snorkeling, a cool opera house on the water, wild cockatoos? Australia has something we not only want, but need, and that is, a publicly recognized and widely implemented EfS.  EfS stands for Education for Sustainability.  Australia's EfS plan was created as part of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, otherwise known as UNDESD....and they take it seriously.

On January 1,  2005 the UN instated UNDESD,  defined as a complex, far reaching, enormous undertaking with environmental, societal and economic implications, that touch multiple aspects of life of the world's population.

Launched in April 2009, the second draft of the Australian government's EfS states that it's purpose is,  " To equip all Australians with the knowledge and skills required to live sustainably."

What a concise way of stating the importance of environmental education.

I was amazed to read such a bold proclamation. Does this mean no more plastic eating utensils? Are people still running their engines in the Walmart parking lot while Auntie does the shopping? Did Jamba Juice switch to recycled paper cups with no straws? It staggers the imagination.

Here is a brief outline of the framework the Aussies have adopted.

• The government takes a leadership role (enforces and supports) the Education for Sustainability plan, enacting change in policy, programs and operations at state, territory and local levels.
• Education systems are reoriented to sustainability and focus on achieving a culture of sustainability. WOW!
• On-going improvement and greening in campus management is reinforced.
• Sustainability in business and industry is fostered.
• The community is provided with tools and knowledge in sustainable education and living.

  Thanks to this government supported framework, the school children of Australia are connecting to place and becoming eco-literate.

As stated by our own former Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, "Historically the US Department of Education hasn't been doing enough in the sustainability movement. . . and need to commit to building a more environmentally literate and responsible society."

...and yet, here in the US, we are heading into 2016 with little to show that we got the memo.

What I am most impressed with is the fact that "sustainability" is treated as a core subject in Australian public schools and out-door, experiential learning are the order of the day. The government helps, Australian schools are supported to employ a wide range of curricula in order to reach EfS goals.  In the United States, environmental education may be connected through science and STEM, as an individual educator's decision, but EfS still remains largely absent from national level curriculum.

 Australia is an island nation, remote and dry. Perhaps that is why the necessity for sustainability is not lost on their people. If only we could all perceive our planet for what it is, Island Earth, a unique oasis of life in an ocean of space. Seeing through this lens may help  improve our approach to education for a sustainable future.

References

National-Action-Plan-Educating-Sustainability http://www.centerforgreenschools.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/National-Action-Plan-Educating-Sustainability.pdf.

Rafferty, J Laird, S. “Children’s Observations of Place-Based Environmental Education: Projects Worlds Apart Highlight Education for Sustainability Inherent in Many Programs « Journal of Sustainability Education,” Spring 2013.

Reading Response # 4: STEMS in the Anthropocene Epoch

"Right now in the amazing moment that to us counts as the present, we are deciding, without quite meaning to, which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed."
                                                                                                                        (Kolbert, E. 2014)

It's a Man's World

(but it wouldn't be nothing without plankton, pollinators and frogs)

The Sixth Extinction,  Pulitzer Prize winning book by Elizabeth Kolbert is a fascinating, account of how humans have affected the fate of virtually every other living species on earth... and that of the
planet as we know it.


This is a story of cause and effect, of evolution and discovery, and the rise of the human species above and at the expense of, all others, spanning eons.  This account opens our eyes to a larger reality, invisible to most, not just of our current situation but how our actions and the reactions within ecosystems, the biosphere, have put us on a precarious path to the future.

Like the documentary film,  Eleventh Hour,  co-produced and directed by sisters, Leila Conners Peterson and Nadia Connors, The Sixth Extinction is a wake-up call. Well researched and meticulously written, the importance of this book is one of scientific and scholarly revelation and a summons for environmental concern and social action.  When given this information we are forced to ask important questions about our own "species-centric" way of life and how it is altering the planet's environment.



Because for many middle and high school students, reality is no larger than their i phone screens, films and books like these are vital as educational resources.





These types of media can provide a "sense of place" that is wider than students are exposed to on a daily basis - wider indeed than most of our imaginations.  Educators and students alike can  recognize the importance of STEMS education, within the pages of The Sixth Extinction, because it is science, technology and engineering that have allowed us to come this far in "dominating" our environment and it is these three combined with social sciences and a strong sense of place, that will bring us back, to sensible and sustainable living.  The study, the research, the assessment and dispersement of information used in these media are all based in STEMS.

In a way, The Sixth Extinction, epitomizes the saying "Hindsight is 20/20" by tracing a path back through the ages, to discover an, often, minute incident, that has set off a chain reaction of environmental and/or evolutionary events, leading directly to present day dilemmas. It hints at ways we should be changing our thinking, our habits and our way of life, to address the colossal problems of, loss of biodiversity and "evil twins" ocean acidification and climate change. Part of the problem is that people don't know, or are unwilling to admit,  there is a problem -The Sixth Extinction doesn't allow for us, or our students, to stay in the dark.


This is a call for radical change in education.   STEMS and community-based learning is part of that change.  A high priority and interest in STEMS in classrooms, can be a starting point. If we are to help our students become "self directed, confident, participating citizens and environmental stewards" STEMS combined with community based project learning and a strong sense of place and belonging, is needed. (Smith, G. & Sobel, D. 2010)
People who possess STEMS skills, who are concerned with their "place" and about the living systems of that place, are the ones who will make a difference, for the future. It is these sorts of educators who will ready our children for issues they will be tasked to grapple with.  Our classroom STEMS should be steeped in what we know about the world around us and in our knowledge of the problems that need solving if we are to go on as a species, sharing a clean, beautiful, life supporting planet with other species.



Other Educational Media for STEMS Curriculum:

• An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore
• Queen of the Sun,  Taggart Segal
• Food Inc,  Robert Kenner
• Who Killed the Electric Car, Chris Paine
• Island Earth (film trailer)  Cyrus Sutton
• Videos on Vimeo by Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics

References

Kolbert, E. (2014). The sixth extinction. New York, NY: Picador.

Smith, G. & Sobel, D. (2010) Place and community-based education in schools. New York, 

             NY:  Routledge.