Sustainable Development- "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Brundtland Report, 1987)
- However often sustainability is narrowed down to look at just the environmental perspective. The diagram created by Barry Law (2006) below shows a view of sustainability to consider not only environmental factors but also social and economic factors. I would agree with this view of sustainability but would suggest that individual or self development factors also be included. I view this as separate to social factors - as it may be factors that are unique or individual to a person. Such as values, views of the world or spirituality; all of which can be linked or impact sustainability.
Within the Outdoor setting there are several principles or philosophies that are encouraged to ensure protection of our natural environment.
1) The Environmental Care Code which has been created by the Department of Conservation uses 8 key points to instil good practise when venturing in the outdoors. http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/plan-and-prepare/care-codes/nz-environmental-care-code/
2) The other is an organisation called Leave No Trace, whose philosophy and mission is becoming increasingly well known within the New Zealand outdoor sector. Their mission is to "Promote and inspire responsible travel and outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships. "http://www.leavenotrace.org.nz/
How can you become a more sustainable practitioner?
- Walk the Talk - get out there and role model good practises e.g. Taking public transport or cycling in to work rather than driving where possible; voting and encouraging the students to have a voice for what they believe in; helping out with community projects such as tree planting (I am hoping to get involved with the Harbour Cone replanting); all the little things like shorter showers, turning off lights, recycling; wider community education like our plan to create more awareness of pollution on the Waikato river - all these ideas however are easy to talk about but work on putting this into action!!
- Continue to develop, reflect on and improve the two environmental science courses that I am running. One of the questions that I could relate to in the presentation was - How do we engage the students? I believe that education is really important in ensuring a sustainable future. So creating a student orientated learning environment could be critical in getting the most out of these courses. Also continuing to develop new projects, such as this year we have got involved with the living campus program, Orokonui wildlife sanctuary and also hope to head out to Quarantine island to do some tree planting there. Already I have had students showing interest in doing some more conservation related work in their own time. These papers are also very environmental focus (not surprising though being an environmental science paper), but I also hope to included the social, economic and individual factors that may effect something. This is particularly relevant with their action projects.
- Keep using the outdoors as a way to encourage people to have a greater appreciation and understanding of the natural environment. In our technologically busy world we are often removed from being out there and experiencing the wonders of nature. The mountains will often speak for themselves in encouraging those who venture into them to have a greater respect and motivation to sustaining them.
- Sustainability is obviously something the polytechnic has identified as being an important aspect of their values. But as I was sitting in a room full of polytechnic staff today, with heaters pumping and no double glazed windows, I thought there are also some ways in which the polytechnic can "walk the talk'. There has been some awesome initiatives going on, such as Living Campus, which I am super proud of as a member of staff. However I think there is still room for improvement and I hope I can make some difference here in the future.
What sort of learning and teaching strategies meet your philosophy of sustainability?
- Giving the student the autonomy in their learning has worked really well - but also taking the time to guide them and set them up well for this. One example of this is using presentation topics in pairs related to global issues such as genetic engineering, sustainable housing, global warming, globalisation etc. We had done several other presentations using various mediums - and I was amazed at the quality and improvement in their presentation skills and information sharing.
- I also believe that it is important to be creative, be interactive and open minded in our teaching. One area that I hope to develop within our course is using creative mediums particularly in debriefing. Skits, dressing up, face painting, sculture, drawing/painting, interactive mediums, sock puppits can all be used to reflect on or celebrate different experiences.
- As Sir Ken Robinson identified in the u-tube video "Do Schools Kill Creativity" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtYe creativity can be a great tool to engage students and is often undervalued. He identified that children are encouraged to value certain subjects more than others, and are steered away from the subjects they enjoy because they may not get a job.
- This is often the case with outdoor education where I believe it is not considered a subject of as much value as others. This can even be seen in our funding where we are given less money for courses that are not scientific based. Why is it that sports courses get more funding that outdoor courses?? This has major implications for our program, and has caused us to re-think and ironically get creative with what and how we deliver our course. But at what effect - will the have major implications to the integrity of an outdoor program and will it be watered down as a result of economic sustainability.
- Values could also be considered when looking at sustainability. There is often values conflict that can go on, such as for myself I often travel to have adventures (both in nz and overseas) but this has negative carbon impacts on the environment which is also something important to me. So considering not the right or wrongs but the best solution to these conflicts or issues that arise.
I agree Julie it would be a great idea to have "individual or self development factors ... included". A person's values will determine how successful or engaged they are with the concepts of sustainability. You are certainly heavily involved and "walk the talk" through your teaching and the practices you are modeling and the activities in which you get students to engage.
ReplyDeleteReflective practice is also an important component for sustainability through helping people revisit their assumptions and to become more aware of what they are thinking and doing.
How is reflective practice integrated into your courses?
Also think about workload issues for your self and for your students, and the ways in which you encourage students to take charge of and monitor their own learning and the development of knowledge. Open education practices also sit nicely alongside sustainability - fostering collaboration and sharing of resources and ideas to contribute to society, and to support each other and to keep workloads manageable.
I agree, the funding models can appear unfair - unfortunately industry drives education, but it sounds like you are doing your best not to let it totally drive the learning experience for your students.