Towards Sustainable Education

By Andrew Watson

‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses’ (widely attributed to Henry Ford). Think about this in relation to education. Consideration of the nature, purpose and pathway of formal education over the past 150 years or so reveals a mainly repetitive pattern of ‘doing things’ the same way as they have always been done, mainly because they have ‘always been done that way’. Fuelled by technology, we have been able to do the same things only faster, and to bask, self-satisfied, in the reflected glory of technological triumph – or alternatively, as recent International Baccalaureate and UK examination systems suggest, stumbled into algorithmic confusion. Nevertheless, not much has truly changed. We have just turned education into a ‘faster horse’. Perhaps the departed and much loved Sir Ken Robinson would agree.

During Sustainability Education’s inaugural European summit in Berlin in May 2019, Climate Change expert Professor Johann Rockström talked of sustainability being ‘at a renaissance moment’. With the Covid-19 crisis still engulfing the world, it appears we all are. If Covid-19 has served a significant positive purpose, then perhaps it is to illuminate the extent to which we are all connected, interdependent and fragile and, ultimately, to remind us what it means to be human, with all our fallibilities, fears and endless hope. According to Rockström and Will Day of the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership, we have ten years to address the chronic emissions issues that threaten to, nay are about to, put our planet into terminal decline. Unless we immediately change the way we do things, we will soon have tipped over the tipping point. If ever there was one, surely this is an imperative for us all to begin to change.

If sustainability is ‘at a renaissance moment’ then so is education. As a key part of the system, the education sector needs to reflect hard, and fast, on its priorities: on what the experience of teaching and learning provides for young people: on the ‘where, what, how and why’ of education, as well as the standards it sets in terms of its culture, leadership and role-modelling, in pursuit of a better, more peaceful, more sustainable world. Now is the time to re-imagine, re-consider, re-think, and reboot how a vision of the future can be nurtured by an experience of education.

A simple definition of sustainability refers to ‘a set of conditions and trends in a given system that can continue indefinitely’ (Atkisson, 2013). It relates to interdependent systems of cause and effect between socio-economic, environmental, cultural and political activity around the world. Sustainability ‘thinking’ refers to the capacity to make connections and find enduring solutions which will allow the

organisation to ‘continue indefi nitely’. Sustainability becomes a connecting concept, a common ground which can help us to both understand the interconnectedness of problems and point the way to solutions that do the same.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework for action. We will all have to make material sacrifi ces. We will all have to change the way we do things. What does this mean for an education sector? What should our priorities be? In short, to think in sustainable ways. Here are fi ve priorities for the future. • Understand your ecosystem – comprised of evolving, interdependent parts • Put human relationships at your organisation heart – because schools are, above all, human organisations • Develop a prophetic vision – to be a change agent of society, rather than a mirror of it • Read the game – the ability to predict the shape of the future based on the shape of the present • Create a meaningful experience of education – one which serves ideas beyond the self, framed by the

Sustainable Development Goals

The ‘where, what, how and why?’

Where? Think ‘outside the building’. At this time our experience of moving teaching and learning online has, if anything, accelerated a dynamic that was already underway. Arguably the time for dependence on ‘bricks and mortar’ is coming to an end. A classroom is no longer confi ned to and defi ned by walls and rows of seats. And in the meantime, it seems like a good time to undertake a ‘Sustainability Audit’ of existing infrastructure. Becoming carbon negative, as school bursars should be able to tell you, potentially means an additional income stream.

What? Applying sustainability thinking entails ensuring that human beings are at the heart of systems, structures, policies and procedures. K-12 education has generally been divided into ‘curriculum’ (sub-divided by an assortment of disciplines) and ‘extra-curricular’ with associated value judgments, based on the assumption that what happens in a classroom is more important than learning that happens outside, a preconception bolstered by assessment systems. The link between formal education and a vision of the future has Andrew Watson has spent 22 years teaching in Jerusalem, become increasingly tenuous. Sustainability thinking Thailand, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy and Switzerland, working with the International Baccalaureate and the United World College in ecosystems considers, understands and is ready movement. He is currently Director of the Jerusalem American to respond to the entire web of relationships: School, Co-Director of Sustainability Education www.sused.org, it involves a whole community. Sustainability and Chair of the Board of Governors of Albanian College thinking does not entail the evisceration of www.acdurres.edu.al. ✉ a.watson@sused.org learning in disciplines. On the contrary, it means evolving, by becoming interdisciplinary, emphasising the importance of making connections, exploring the relationships between disciplines, and learning about the world in ways that reach beyond the scope of individual disciplines. Interdisciplinary, connected thinking becomes a habit of the synthesising mind. Sustainability, in its broadest sense, is the moral purpose that informs process as much as measurements of success. It is a means not just to survive but to thrive. How? Teaching and Learning. Covid-19 has accelerated the move towards a reconstituted balance between online and face-to-face learning. Now is probably not the time to be investing in new buildings. If we are really interested in anticipating the future and preparing as best we can for it, then we might consider grounding the experience of education offered to students in the Sustainable Development Goals, creating a shared understanding of sustainability and appreciation for the interconnectivity of systems thinking and practice. Motivation needs Put human to become intrinsic rather than extrinsic, student-led, teacher-guided, relationships at your with relative content organised to ensure young people emerge with organisation heart both the knowledge and the skills to – because schools thrive and to allow others to do the same. are, above all, human Why? Moral purpose. Schools need a prophetic vision of the organisations future that considers the dark clouds of the climate change crisis looming large on the horizon. The Sustainable Development Goals exist for a reason. The result of focussed, organised, inspired collaboration over time by experts from vital and interconnected sectors around the globe, they can be regarded as a pinnacle of human hope. Let us hope they are not the last vestige. Their achievement is something that is down to us all. The place of visionary speculation is central to ideas about education. What does our dream for education look like? What is the vision of humanity that you seek to nurture? If, as GK Chesterton suggested, education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another, then what kind of soul do we wish to nurture, cherish and inherit? ◆

References

• Atkisson A (2013) Sustainability is for Everyone. Lexington, TN: Isis Academy. • Ford L (2015) Sustainable Development Goals: All you need to know. The Guardian, 19 January. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/ on 28 August 2020