Ecologising Education: Teaching Sustainable Perspectives

Introduction: Education, Environment, and the Stakes for Future Generations

Undoubtedly, for some people, the future teems with choices, exciting opportunities, and enhanced comfort. But the children of today, even those from affluent homes, already face a world characterized chiefly by environmental destruction, alarming ill-health, and societal inequality — a world in which the modern lifestyle and current actions obstruct future options geared toward leading just, sustainable, and healthy lives (Scott and Gough, 2003). Twenty-first century children have the greatest stakes in the world's future and will bear the repercussions of current environmental, economic, and social actions and decisions.

Consequently, equipping children with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values required for reconsidering and altering existing trends — thereby securing a healthy, sustainable, and just future for humanity — counts among the biggest responsibilities of present-day society (Sterling, 2002). To achieve this, environmental education and sensitivity are imperative. Yet early childhood educational curriculum, including the policy, practice, and theory of approaches that emphasize environmental perspectives, is seriously lacking.

The 1978 Tbilisi Declaration outlines several principles and objectives demonstrating that ecologising education must promote students' understanding of their natural environment, engage them in critical thinking and active participation, and help them recognize and balance, within their respective communities, the impacts of societal and economic needs on ecological relationships (Tbilisi Declaration, 1978). Beginning with one's personal community during early education, the declaration called for the development of problem-solving ability, knowledge, and environmental sensitivity through value clarification. It also addressed environmental problems from global and regional standpoints, enabling students to understand environmental challenges in other areas around the globe. This would help cultivate empathy, cooperation, and responsibility in effecting environmental improvements and conservation. The premise of ecologising education is that global and local, human-made and natural environments are inter-reliant and involve interactions among economic, biological, cultural, and societal influences (Locke, Russo, and Montoya, 2013).

Benefits and Limitations of Eco-Literacy for Teachers and Young People

Benefits

The concept of ecologising education has a directness that enables the inclusion of a broad array of subjects and supports creativity. Its effects can be observed in various areas: evolving teaching techniques that lead to increased social learning and project work; consideration of building layout and design (such as school yards); school energy optimization; and enhanced health education integration — for instance, by including current social and ecological problems in everyday lessons and providing healthy snacks. Engaging in the ecologising education approach also enhances school image and furthers external relations, including community relations (Rauch and Dulle, 2011).

Adopting ecologising education within schools that practice sustainability can positively affect students' environmental competencies and awareness — for example, by demonstrating sustainable resource utilization. Ecologising education brings about improved self-reflection and awareness in students in the area of sustainability, including healthy eating, changing shopping habits, and increased awareness of resource use (Rauch, Pfaffenwimmer, and Dulle, 2016). Focusing on the interlinking of values and knowledge is of particular importance. That said, one must bear in mind not to overvalue the school's significance, since it is merely one of many influencing factors. Successful parental engagement in sustainability practices is another important factor — and this was adopted by more primary schools than secondary schools (Rauch and Dulle, 2011).

Limitations

Popularity is probably the hardest barrier to overcome with regard to ecologising education. Although many nations acknowledge that the ecologising educational approach is vital, sustainability is not yet a dominant theme in government policies or mainstream culture. For instance, one sustainable development principle states that renewable resource utilization rates must not exceed their regeneration rates. Despite this, many communities have already adopted, or are considering, "disposable" practices. Disposable food wrappers, utensils, beverage cans, and plates are encountered frequently and on an everyday basis. These single-use articles are dumped in water bodies, buried, or incinerated (Scott and Gough, 2003). Such a culture consumes resources like fossil fuels and trees more swiftly than it can replace them. Because sustainable development principles are not yet woven into governmental policy and everyday life, eco-literacy can grow into a key "bottom-up" factor in ensuring community-based sustainability. Ecologising education can shape and inspire ethics and behaviors, supporting a well-informed public with a political desire to attain long-term sustainability (Wals, Shallcross, Robinson, and Pace, 2006).

Refocusing education to encompass sustainability requires additional funding. A central challenge involves maintaining continuity in current education while a new curriculum is being planned and formulated. In reality, teachers' extremely demanding daily schedules — encompassing lesson planning, teaching, assessing students' progress, and completing progress reports — leave little time or energy for researching and developing a new curriculum. One cannot expect educators to teach and redesign the curriculum simultaneously. While current educators must serve as advisors, the bulk of design work should not be assigned to them, as they already carry more than their fair share of responsibilities. New human, material, and financial resources must be offered at the outset. Governmental bodies must not rely on in-kind donations from educators and local administrative institutions to accomplish this central task.

Sustainability education continues to present difficulties for countless schools and governments. Governmental bodies, educational ministries, teachers, and school districts have stated their readiness to implement ecologising educational programs, yet an effective working model has yet to be developed (Scott and Gough, 2003). In the absence of an adaptable model, schools and governments must develop a process for defining "sustainability education" in a local context. This is a challenging process that demands public engagement, wherein every community stakeholder carefully considers what they want from their children — in terms of values, knowledge, and action — upon exiting the formal educational system. In other words, communities must endeavor to forecast long- and short-term environmental, societal, and economic conditions.