Today, sustainability and being a part of the world is more important than ever. With social media connecting us to the world there is no excuse for ignorance of the global issues that are occurring such as global warming, marine plastic pollution, animal poaching and deforestation. According to the Environmental Investigation Agency (2019) just one of the many environmental issues include the unprecedented growth in the production and use of plastics is triggering a global environmental crisis. Each year, at least 8,000,000 tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean, an amount set to quadruple by 2050 unless major reform is put in place. Here’s a video about how we can stop using plastic bags as just one form of reducing plastic.
How can all of these environmental factors be taught in primary school?
In the new Successful Futures curriculum (Donaldson, 2015) one of the purposes of the curriculum is that all our children and young people are ethical, informed citizens and show their commitment to the sustainability of the planet and are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world. It is important that sustainability is promoted by teachers in the school as this example will encourage the children to do the same. The Earth Day Network (2019) say for every annual Climate Education Week, we help educators to teach climate change with our Climate Education Week Toolkit, which includes a range of curricula, lesson plans, educational activities, and films. For 2018, the Earth Day week’s theme was end plastic pollution. It educated the children about how they can be more responsible with their waste and how they can continue to use what they’ve learnt in the week and implement it to their everyday life.
Some of the things that could be promoted in primary school are recycling. The Young People’s Trust for the Environment (2019) provide lesson plans and people can come into the school to teach children about recycling. They also have resources for endangered species, plastic pollution and sustainable development . There are many different activities that could inspire children to be sustainable. For example, re-usable shopping bags. Rather than telling the children to buy a reusable shopping bag, maybe the school could provide a plain reusable shopping bag and decorate it and paint it in class as part of being the citizenship purpose of the curriculum and also for an expressive arts lesson. There are many ways in which learning about the environment can be transformative into lessons. Another lesson could be a science lesson to learn about the solar system. This could then lead to a lesson about the use of carbon dioxide and how this effects the planet.
The Young People’s Trust for the Environment (2019) has a lesson plan for sustainability. This links to science and geography. It shows how the activities incorporate into the national curriculum and what key stage the activity is for. This lesson plan also connects to citizenship as it is connected to the wider world. Here’s a photo of the beginning of the plan.
We could argue should it be parents’ responsibility or the school’s responsibility to teach children about sustainability? A study by Borg, Winberg and Vinterek (2017) says that “Although parents and preschool play important roles in developing children’s behaviour and attitudes, little is known about their influences on children’s learning of environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability.” It is also said in the article that sustainability means that a school is supposed to incorporate teaching and learning for sustainability not only through aspects of the curriculum but also through sustainable school operations such as integrated governance, stakeholder and community involvement, long term planning, and sustainability monitoring and evaluation” (Hargreaves, 2008, p.1). Therefore we could argue that Borg, Winberg and Vinterek (2017) believe that sustainability should be incorporated throughout society meaning both in school, at home and in the community.
What is your opinion on sustainability? Do you believe that school incorporate it enough? Do you remember learning about sustainability in primary school or do you think that it should be your families job to teach you about how to live sustainably?
References
Borg, F., Winberg, M., &Vinterek, M., (2017) Children’s Learning for a Sustainable Society: Influences from Home and Preschool, Education Inquiry, 8:2, 151-172, DOI: 10.1080/20004508.2017.1290915
Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales, Welsh Government: OGL
Earth Day network (2019) https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/education/climate-education-week/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7YblBRDFARIsAKkK-dKCUqgxekQqcmgYUqEBwh350GOpWvVV9YmH5f3vpY40yaJiCWbuGYgaAh-gEALw_wcB(Accessed 30 March, 2019)
Earth Day Network (2019) Climate Education Week Toolkit, 2018 https://160g7a3snajg2i1r662yjd5r-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Education-Toolkit-022718.pdf(Accessed 30 March, 2019)
Environmental Investigation Agency (2019) https://eia-international.org/our-work/climate/(Accessed 30 March, 2019)
Hargreaves, L. G. (2008). The whole-school approach to eduation for sustainable development: From pilot projects to systemic change. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review,6,69–74. Cited in Borg, F., Winberg, M., &Vinterek, M., (2017) Children’s Learning for a Sustainable Society: Influences from Home and Preschool, Education Inquiry, 8:2, 151-172, DOI: 10.1080/20004508.2017.1290915
Young People’s Trust for the Environment (2019) http://ypte.org.uk/lesson-plans/sustainable-development(Accessed 30 March, 2019)
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