Making Environmental and Sustainability Education Work Amid the Challenges of Climate Change - Report Example

Making Environmental and Sustainability Education Work amid the Challenges of Climate Change Environmentalism may be the hottest word in higher education nowadays, but as a new field in education it is yet to mature and extend beyond the classroom. Hence, the rush for educators to embed this in the curriculum arises as threats of the effect of climate change looms. Notwithstanding the efforts to integrate environmental education such approaches employed by practitioners in order to work remains to be seen. Thus, this paper explores several education practices for climate change, including the challenges and applications to make such reforms work. From this standpoint, we might also usefully ask which of these education practices for the environment will best advance sustainability and environmentalism, and which is most amenable to implementation. After critically discussing these issues, this paper ends with a short conclusion that takes aim at the dimensions of education and learning as keys in achieving the goals of environmental education. Education Practices for Sustainability Several different education practices for sustainability have been tried, driven by competing school of thoughts about how to achieve improvement in teaching environmentalism to engage students and educators to participate in resolving a social issue such as climate change. Those ideas in turn reflect distinct understandings of education as a key to achieving sustainability. Some reformers, such as the Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future: National Action Plan (2000) would make us consider that education should be extended beyond the classroom and must comprise programs that will involve all concerned sectors to make environmental education complementary with other sectors’ interests. The range of cooperation must be established with and among the education sector, government agencies, non-government agencies, corporate industry, the local government and the community. In its survey of environmental education program delivery in 2001, the NSW Council of Environmental Education listed the types of education practices employed by practitioners in conducting environmental teaching (2003). Remarkable in this inventory is how community education with advocacy topped the list, with 35 percent of respondents describing it as an approach they employed in teaching environmental education. On second place is information services (print, telephone), 26 percent; and, tied in third place, both with 20 percent, are General education curriculum and social marketing. In Champions for Environmental Sustainability, Flowers and Chodkiewicz (2008), as reformers of change would have us note that before efforts to change or improve the environment to occur, other aspects must change first such as that of learning’s dimensions. In the education discipline, Flowers and Chodkiewicz identify those that need to undergo the change process include awareness, knowledge, values, attitudes, language, skills and competencies. Education and learning dimension should be considered in order to draw a clear and useful picture of the balance between the different education practices. The dimensions shall include ways of rendering both informal and incidental learning opportunities. Informal learning according to Foley (2000) may be based on the learner’s grasp of new knowledge based on experience and not necessarily based on formal lessons; incidental learning, on one hand, that is “incidental to the activity in which the person is involved, is often tacit and is not seen as learning – at least not at the time of its occurrence”. Foley (1999) underscores that while both formal and non-formal education has defined curricula, the former’s difference is that it is credentialized and the latter based on sponsorship and setting (2006, p. 4, cited by Guevara, J.R., Flowers, R., and Whelan, J., 2003). Contrary to this however, Jeffs and Smith (1990) argue that the setting or sponsorship should not be used solely to characterize informal education but by means of pedagogy or a way of working. In Jeffs and Smith’s proposed seven features that should characterize informal education (1990, p. 6, cited by Guevara, J.R., Flowers, R., and Whelan, J., 2003), they highlighted that while setting or the environment is not a big factor and learning in an informal education may appear to be incidental, however, there is a high degree of regard to planning and collaborative form of working to take action. An example of this informal education is proposed by Flowers and Chodkiewicz (2008) through is called Education for Sustainability. With this kind of program, learning beyond the formal education sector – informal education, informal learning and incidental learning – becomes a necessity (2008, p. 9). With Education for Sustainability, Flowers and Chodkiewicz (2008) students will be encouraged take active role in civic activities that will provide opportunities. Since participants are given the opportunity to learn in the process incidentally, they are given the chance to develop their decision-making skills, motivation and capacity to take actions (Tilbury & Ross 2006, cited by Flowers and Chodkiewicz 2008). Flowers and Chodkiewicz proposed that such education practice will give participants the practical skills, knowledge and values that promote behavior in support of a sustainable environment. Along these lines, Tilbury & Ross (2006) agree that Education for Sustainability is the most effective learning opportunities to motivate and equip students achieve long-term results for sustainability since there is the presence of ‘active learning approaches that are process oriented’ (2006, p. 17-18). Learners along the way take active involvement in the ongoing process of learning and reflection not only as receiver of the information. Lastly, participants learn to make their own decisions, create critical and practical knowledge through these processes of sharing, and apply the knowledge in their daily lives (Tilbury & Ross 2006, p. 18, cited by Flowers and Chodkiewicz 2008). In this respect, another education practice would have us consider that learning about the environment will occur through active social action. The deeply-drawn concerns of a world in crises brought about by climate change, coupled with the urgency to act, effectively generate the imperative for social action to take place. In this scenario, students and educators, or those involved, are provided with the opportunities to learn, albeit informally, through the actions and participations they will take. People involved are brought together to reflect and share their insights and experiences, in turn, letting the exchange of ideas and experiences flourish. Finally, as the agenda for learning opportunities to flourish, Flowers and Chodkiewicz (2008) proposed the use of a Climate Change camp which can mobilize both the inactivated and activated sectors to take cooperative actions. Aside from being an open and less formal in its approach in involving participants to take action, this model is also flexible to let action occur among the participants. Its aim primarily is to mobilize people who are formerly uninvolved or inactivated to become activated thus, become as concerned and involved in taking actionable steps like the activated participants. Taking as inspiration the climate camp employed in the United Kingdom in 2006, the Australian Climate Camp developed a temporary community of activated and inactivated participants through combined workshops on addressing, reflecting and taking steps to address climate change issues. All in all, practitioners were able to identity the approaches to learning that allow participants to take in order to address climate change in the process. These types of learning are – a) experiential, b) dialogic, and c) action learning. These approaches that reformers propose are matched by an important discipline to look beyond the dimension of education and that is to weigh the value of developing student’s civic faculties. Boyte (2008) notes that as student’s civic faculties are developed their capacities for self-reliant civic action are greatly enhanced, which in the long-term can develop into collective and self-directed public action (p. 10). But such understanding needs to be aligned from how schools understand civic engagement to what it should really mean. In current practice, civic engagement is focused only on service learning and the link between what is taught academically to the community problems. By service learning, this means doing direct actions to where actions are needed such as serving food in shelters and tutoring and less on finding or resolving problems with groups to represent the interests of a community and avoid conflicting interests. Prospects for civic engagement, where derive To understand the concept of civic engagement, it entails that practitioners define the term clearly since such term is broad. Emirbayer & Ashe (1998) note that previous definition of civic engagement focused on the explicit rules of conduct that leave little room for situationally-based judgment to be exercised. Soon, their research ushered more and vibrant researches on this field (p. 994-95) Among them, Rao and Walton (2006) propose that civic engagement should shift from “equality of opportunity” to “equality of agency.” By these, Rao and Walton mean that for such shift to effectively occur, an enabling environment must be present to give opportunities for the poor with both the tools and the voice “to navigate their way out of poverty” (2006, p. 259, 261). This definition emphasizes the collective capacity, beyond differences, to act on common challenges. It will be argued that the limitation of such definition is the scope of problem it tries to solve than what we presently face, which is far-reaching and global such as climate change. Far austere and specific, an American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ definition of civic engagement attempts to separate whether participants are really doing engagement or not. AASCU cites place-related, interactive, mutually-beneficial, and integrated as key qualities that define what civic engagement really means (2002, p. 8). Being the most specific and detailed definition of civic engagement, AASCU soon describe this discipline as a two-way alliance between colleges and universities and the publics they serve. In recognition by educational leaders of the importance of developing student’s civic faculties, several reformers agree that such efforts be brought back. As part of the works of democracy, students should be empowered by taking bold steps to develop them in civic activities. In a world where everyone should play the role to protect our society and environment, by looking into the benefits that civic agency can give in order for change to happen, we are already recognizing a critical step that will bring sustainable change in people’s behaviors toward the environment. Thus, it is relevant to note that the public look up highly at schools as an important institution to do this role, than what other sectors of the society can do. Challenges The topology of environmental education addresses the concern of sustainability while at the same time equipping students and educators become more involved in setting the parameters of what approach will be most amenable to implement. In the old-fashioned way that education for the environment is undertaken, educators clearly have not done the job. The rigid demand for credentials effectively constrained educations for the protection of the environment to really take full flight. Educational researchers often call this symptom as technocracy which in effect destroys confidence or trust by people to practitioners without credentials, degrees and university trainings. When such technocracy creeps in, talents and capacities of otherwise promising or qualified educators, accounting their experience in the field, are likewise devalued. Boyte (2008) blames this malaise to a highly-regulated world where hidden manipulation, agenda and bureaucracies abound (p. 10). Technocracy, which still creep in today at some institutions, will make environmental education practices difficult to put into operations. Among the students and educators, such “technocratic creep” makes people feel helpless or powerless to change norms or cultures (Mangcu, cited by Boyte, 2008, p. 10). Each practices faces huge systematic stagnancy, resistance, as well as mistrust and competition from other practices. Such symptom may calcify societies because instead of developing co-producers for change, people become needy and dependents for dole outs. In turn, schools, the community, industry and government turn into service providers than as sources of civic learning. When complex problems or challenges arise, public judgment and imaginative collective action will surely fail. Most teacher education curricula do not integrate courses that will involve collaborative works with parents and other stakeholders. Stakeholders who should be considered highly because of their far different backgrounds and interests are neglected in this action building. As such learning is absent, the result is that graduates become “detached experts providing service for people, not as citizens working with fellow citizens on public problems.” (Boyte, 2008, p. 5) However, reforms or practices will have another opportunity if and only such technocratic politics will be replaced with the development of civic agency politics. When societies are populated by people that are empowered by themselves and not by leaders, and by people whose skills and capacities for collaborative action, and confident of changing institutions and systems that address the development of civic agency as relevant in building action, change is expected to take place. Parallel to this effort should be to develop the education practices become more comprehensive that will ensure lasting commitment and capacity from institutions. Finally, educators should be recognized as agent of change in bringing back or rekindling students’ civic faculties that will make them be more engaged and committed in fostering change such as sustainability in the face of these climactic change. Moreover, education leaders may take years of efforts to sweep away the false steps taken by their predecessors to reengineer their schools around a new, “environmentally-conscious” flagship models. Another tough issue facing educational institution is that little regard is given to efforts that will align these institution’s capabilities to support public engagement. As a result, little output are produced, thus each practices remain fragile and person-dependent, and gravely, not deeply-ingrained in an institution’s culture. Most education researchers also recognize that deep civic agency can help solve people’s mounting problems, and in our society, what higher education can do is broaden students’ civic talents and energies, and even ways how to reverse patterns of technocracy, and revitalize civic strength. Its biggest challenge hence so far is how educational institutions will undertake deep efforts to inculcate or ingrain practices in education that will integrate public engagement concepts such as environmentalism and sustainability. Policymakers and governments should be counted as sponsors to put the education sector at the radar of the concerns it champions to encourage and facilitate the promotion of engagement of higher education in their specific region or areas. When coordinated and integrated approaches to public and civic engagement are seriously pursued, we can expect for real change to happen. With proper support and aid for such initiatives to transform deep-seated culture of desperation and malaise into agency, growth and hope, inspiration and guidance for us all will effect change. Mixed Results To date, however, none of these education practices has comprehensively proven itself as fit for adoption nationwide. Although there has been evidence of success in some areas (UK in 2006 and Australia), however, this is still sparse or spotty, and to some extent ambiguous. This may be accounted to the fact that the approaches in education and learning to address climate change tried so far have been limited in size or scope. The spotty evidence also reflects that simultaneous use of more than one practice has confounded data. Even with the foremost and old-fashioned approaches in education, formal education (credentialized and with specific curricula) showed that with its bureaucratic control, it does not deserve to be credited. Even when such institution implement approaches that yield positive results, however, such cannot fix the bad ones. If sustainability were the ultimate criterion of success, it would help that we embrace learning in social action model to realize fully involved participants for the goal of addressing climate change. But that is the wrong measure. The right measure is that the educational institution thoroughly set parameters that will make such educational practices last and it develop deep civic faculties of students for long-term vision, since the issue of sustainability is not an over-night problem. And on this question, the evidence remains incomplete. Critical Review of Civic Engagement Literatures With various interpretations and understanding of approaches taken by practitioners of environmental education, civic engagement ideologies show up as the most important faculty that educators must address. Remarkable however is the significant percentage in a study by the NSW Council of Environmental Education that accounted how respondents identify their practice as community education that integrate advocacy with 35 percent. But by implication, however, there is still a lack of evidence that will permit us acknowledge that said practices address how environmental education help channel ideologies of civic engagement to other relevant fields, most importantly in education, which is by far the institution that should be viewed central in shaping students’ civic awareness and participation in the long run. Moreover, as some researchers elaborated on developing the students’ civic faculties, there is however no clear program that will inspire change among the educators, or teachers who should be the primary agent for such change to happen. Educator’s role cannot be downplayed in inspiring, agitating or constructively challenging students to be better citizens of the country after graduation. However, this also pose a challenge for educators to be among the first to take a dip in experiencing change, or civic engagement orientations or trainings since they are looked up as role models for actions to take place. When educators are recognized as agent of change, the same level of proficiency, discipline and awareness will then be communicated to the students, not only through theoretical studies, but also by the model they see from their teachers. Students undeniably look up at their teachers for inspiration and hope for things to change. The eventual turnout is that teachers also become learners because they will learn from their students in the process. Other literatures reviewed also did not center on environmental education curricula that should also be developed to keep a clear vision of what it hopes that students or participant should learn or achieve. Since civic engagement of students cannot be simply measured tangibly, educators and institutions should notice that its goal of seeing a long-term, sustained change among the students’ attitude and engagement in responding to society’s challenges like climate change will need coordinated effort beyond the classroom. As a short-term relief, it should be established that curricula about environmental education, which contemplates civic engagement, must develop new and robust definitions of what democracy, citizenship and politics mean, and other terms that will come handy in helping students realize their role in society. In the final analysis, civic agency is both a great challenge and promise of the next century. Responding to the Challenges for Engaged Global Citizenry A concern as big and global as climate change needs worldwide, concerted effort. Education practices for the environment need to be established not only nationally or domestically, but also on a far wider worldview. With man’s consumptions of nonrenewable resources become more and more uncontrollable, and with population explosion and pollution at the sidelines, coupled with the environment’s growing health crises, these demands for actions to promote sustainability for future generations. Hence, some definitions put that sustainability mean a condition where society meet the needs of each generation without putting the prospects of future generations at risks. And not since the global war on terror, it is said there are issues that sparked and spurred worldwide threat, alarm and renewed vigilance from and among various sectors of our societies other than the looming array of environmental crises heading us a decade or two from now, such as climate change. In the old-fashioned way that people respond to crises or problems, challenges are confined in the domestic and local problems of a nation. But a seismic shift of ideologies should be expected as the world races towards the next generation, and as wide array of potentially disastrous calamities loom. Times now have changed and this also call for broader, wider spread of action from people of various nations, to be acting not individually, but as one, where country’s boundary is no longer constraining support or help to be rendered from one territory to next. Policymakers, together with non-governmental agencies, the community, industry, government, and the education sector should work together to act and make sure that it review and align the different environmental education practices that will be responsive to the call for people to be engaged and involved. To show its understanding and serious regard for this global concern, governments should see the urgency to allot funds for practices that are found amenable for implementation to be undertaken. Curricula for environmental education, aside from integrating civic engagement courses, must also adopt practices that will ensure that people adhere to ethics in achieving sustainability. In the face of crises, it will neither be known exactly nor predicted how people will respond when faced with scarce food, and basic needs. In order to prepare people in these trying times, a deep sense of self-restraint as part of sustainability ethics should be cultivated through education curricula. When practiced, this will mean that courses will be developed to teach people how to limit consumptions and the search for non-material enrichment. For such ethical practice to succeed, the courses should integrate lessons that will renounce greed, envy and avarice. The practitioners of such sustainability ethics should expand and grow so that those practicing voluntary simplicity should be realized. The best environmental education practices will integrate in its curricula all courses about civic engagement, ethics in sustainability, and finally the lessons about learning in social action without regard to boundaries or national limits. The educators are role models and the different sectors of the society are work harmoniously and take part in achieving global sustainability. The government and the people trust the educators to do its job in educating students and equipping and empowering them become civic agents of change, and vice versa. Alas, such educational discipline are yet to materialize, and at this point in the evolution of the environmental education, it is not clear yet how many of them can we reasonably expect to deliver. To create such educational scheme from scratch is truly laborious. From educators having to contend, negotiate and compromise with lawmakers, policymakers, and even local governments to receive support to people’s general lack of concern and mistrust that society can still stop such looming global chaos to happen, the challenges will continue to pile up. In one perspective, however, climate change education to be addressed should also be looked up as an opportunity. As much as an opportunity to implement changes to take place, this should also help educators to review the wrong lessons for policies that were previously or currently in place. But there is a warning. Several researchers noted that as societies become increasingly inured to stories or accounts of conflict, famine and death brought about by climate change, it can go worse the point that nations will become desensitized. Such fears may result in that scenario when first few words and images what at first look brings change, might soon lose their impact. In sum, all ideologies for environmental education are an ideal but daunting task to establish and propagate globally. However, it cannot be denied that efforts that aim to integrate education and ethics for sustainability, civic engagements, learning in social actions, and more, lead to only one thing – cooperation, participation and unity. Where people or civic actions are derived from people, actions for challenges take less time and resources to accomplish. This follows that civic engagement, when practiced as habit or embedded as part of a global culture, will definitely not produce small but big, giant leap toward greater milestones. The list of challenges, apart from climate change, will go on and increase. Promoting to live in a sustainable way, to be had by future generations, should be started in the educational institutions. The role that educators will play concerns fostering deeper civic engagement among students in the long run. Coupled with the combined efforts by other inter-sector agencies towards change, the efforts in higher education will run smoothly and can expect visible change in the future. To conclude, the interpretations about the practices employed in environmental education continue to evolve, with some extolling it and some damning it; with some crediting it to a world of reality in restoring sustainability or developing student’s civic faculties. Whatever interpretations we may finally derive, the fact is that it came through beyond any one man’s control. It is a warning that the deepening crises and challenges cannot be changed by society by taking chances, but through concerted and committed effort, first in the education sector, and by developing policies that will last, can we really expect change to happen. Cited References American Association of State Colleges and Universities. (2002). Stepping Forward as Stewards of Place: A Guide for Leading Public Engagement at State Colleges and Universities. Retrieved 27 October 2008 from http://www.aascu.org/pdf/stewardsofplace_02.pdf. Boyte, H. (2008). Against the Current: Developing the Civic Agency of Students. Change, May/June Boyte, H. (2008). Civic Driven Change and Developmental Democracy. Retrieved 25 October 2008 from http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/cdc/pdf/Civicdrivenchange.pdf Emibayer, M. and Mishe, A. (1998). What is Agency? American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 103:4, 1998, pp. 962-1023 Environmental Education Unit. (2000). Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future: National Action Plan. Canberra: Australia. Retrieved 27 October 2008 from http://www.environment.gov.au/education/publications/nap/pubs/nap.pdf Flower, R. and Chodkiewicz, A. (2008). Champions for Environmental Sustainability: How should they be involved and supported? Sydney: University of Technology. Guevara, J.R., Flowers, R., and Whelan, J. (2003). Popular and informal environmental education: The need for more research in an ‘emerging’ field of practice. Retrieved 10 November 2008 http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/cee/whelanflowersguevara.pdf Vijayendra R. and Walton, M., eds. (2006). Culture and Public Action. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press/World Bank, 2006 Read More