Taking the global dimension further: exploring sustainable development
In earlier units we have seen that certain key concepts defined by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, 2000, pp. 2-3) form the core of learning about global issues:
- citizenship;
- sustainable development;
- social justice;
- values and perceptions;
- diversity;
- interdependence;
- conflict resolution;
- human rights.
In this unit we start by looking in more detail at the concept of sustainable development and then move on to consider how, within the global dimension, we can support and make links between education for sustainable development, global citizenship and the futures aspects of the global dimension in primary schools.
What is sustainable development?
In 1998, a report to the DfEE and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) from the Panel for Education for Sustainable Development gave the following comments on education for sustainable development, when contributing to the National Curriculum for England at that time:
Education for sustainable development is not new. It has roots in environmental education, which has evolved since the 1960s, and in development education which first emerged in the 1970s, and also links with a number of related approaches to education which stress the relevance to personal, social, economic and environmental change. In the past decade these approaches have increasingly found commonality under the label of 'education for sustainable development' and there is a strengthening consensus about the meaning and implications of this approach for education as a whole.
(Panel for Education for Sustainable Development, 1998)
You can explore some more definitions of sustainable development and education for sustainable development by looking at the Global Footprints website: Global footprints Click on 'Issues' and then click on 'Sustainable future'.
Read the definitions and decide which definition has most meaning for you. You may decide to use these definitions in the activity on the right, which explores how sustainable development can relate to your school community.
Activity Resources:
- Images
- Interactive
- Sound
- Text
- Video
Activity
Part 1: for teachers
This activity has been designed for INSET and will work best when a wide section of the school community, including support staff and parent governors, are involved.
- Click on the Text icon and print out the 'Sustainable development activity' from Global Citizenship: the handbook for primary teaching (Young and Commins, 2002, pp. 26-8).
- Decide if you are going to use the three quotations on sustainable development presented in the activity, or the definitions you explored in the Global Footprints website instead.
- Complete the activity.
Part 2: for pupils
You can modify the 'Sustainable development activity' from Part 1, above, for use with your pupils.
- Set the scene by guiding a discussion on what we mean by 'sustainable development'. You could use the three quotations on Worksheet 7 in the activity above as a starting point for this.
- Decide if you are going to use the three quotations on sustainable development presented in the activity, or the definitions you explored in the Global Footprints website instead.
- Click on the Text icon and print out the 'Blank version of the grid' (adapted from Young and Commins, 2002, p. 26). You may like to complete one or two entries to give your pupils a start. See what ideas your pupils have for promoting sustainable lifestyles in your school.
- Compare your pupils' ideas with the ideas raised by adults above.
- Can the ideas be combined to make a school action plan or policy for promoting sustainable development?
