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Primary education for sustainable development
John Huckle
Angela Walker lecture to Values Week at
Nottingham Trent University, December 14th 2005
My talk this morning
• Christmas: charity vs consumerism• The challenge of sustainable development• Education for sustainable development (ESD)• Sustainability as policy vs. sustainability as a
frame of mind• Sustainability values and consumerism• Children as consumers – teaching about toys• Christmas at Upton primary school
Christmas – a time of charity and joy?
Dickens describes the holidays as "a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys".
Christmas – a time of greed and waste?
• one billion cards and 83 square km of wrapping paper;
• 24 million jars of mincemeat, pickle and cranberry sauce;
• 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and 4,200 tonnes of foil;
• six million Christmas trees;• In all enough rubbish to fill 400,000
double-decker buses
Modern development:turning nature into money
• Between 1960 and 2000, gross world product increased from $4trn to $10trn
• World energy use has increased by nearly 70% since 1971• In the richest countries it takes 300 kilograms of natural resources to
generate $100 of income • By the time a baby born in the US in the 1990s reaches the age of 75, s/he
will have consumed 43 million gallons of water, produced 52 tons of waste and used 3,375 barrels of oil.
• 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals, and 34% of fish species face extinction.
• humans have destroyed more than 30 per cent of the world’s natural wealth since 1970. Between 1960 and 2000 marine fish consumption more than doubled; wood and paper consumption increased by two thirds; and carbon dioxide emissions doubled
Modern inequality
• The 225 richest people in the world have a combined wealth of more than $1 trillion – equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 per cent of the earth’s population, some 2.5 billion people.
• Among the 4.4 billion people in developing countries, almost three-fifths lack basic sanitation, one third have no safe drinking water, one quarter have inadequate housing, while one fifth are undernourished.
• 2.8 billion of these people live on less than $2 a day• 4.3 million children in Britain live in poverty (below half average
income after housing costs) – a third of all children, up from 1.4 million in 1979.
• 20% of children rely on income support, double the proportion in 1979.
Ecological footprintingFootprinting assesses the Earth’s available resource, or annual interest, made up of productive land and sea, and quantifies it as a single measurable unit, or currency, known as the “area unit”. An area unit corresponds to one hectare of world average bioproductive space. At present there are around two area units available per person on the planet. This is an individual’s “earthshare”.
More generally . . .
The average UK citizen’s annual footprint, for example, amounts to around 6.8 units, exceeding available earthshare by more than three times. On a global scale, humanity is currently eating into the Earth’s capital, annually consuming around one third more resource than the Earth produces. These are unsustainable situations.
A crisis of sustainability?
• Accumulation of economic capital
• Neglect of human capital
• Neglect of ecological capital
• Neglect of social capital
• Lack of trust in liberal democracy (cynicism, apathy . . .
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, 1987
The duty of care towards other human beings, future generations, and the rest of nature
• ecological sustainability• economic sustainability• social sustainability• cultural sustainability• personal sustainability
The goal of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising the quality of life of future generations.Securing the Future, UK Sustainable Development Strategy 2005
5 guiding principles• living within environmental
limits;• ensuring a strong, healthy
and just society;• achieving a sustainable
economy;• promoting good
governance• using sound science
responsibly
4 priorities for action• Sustainable consumption
and production• Climate change and
energy• Natural resource
protection and enhancement
• Sustainable communities
Education for sustainable development (ESD)
Education for sustainable development enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things, individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.
Seven key concepts for ESD: interdependence; citizenship and stewardship; needs and rights of future generations; diversity; quality of life and equity; development, carrying capacity and change; and uncertainty and precaution
DfES SD action plan, 20031. ESD: all learners will develop the skills, knowledge and value
base to be active citizens in creating a more sustainable society.
2. The environmental impact of the Department and its partner bodies: we will pursue the highest standards of environmental management across all. properties owned and managed by the Department and its associated bodies.
3. The environmental impact of the educational estate: we will encourage and support all publicly-funded educational establishments to help them operate to the highest environmental standards.
4. Local and global partnership activity. we will make effective links between education and sustainable development to build capacity within local communities.
Unesco’s decade of ESDEducation for sustainable development has come to be seen as a process of learning how to make decisions that consider the long‑term future of the economy, ecology and equity of all communities. . . . . . . This represents a new vision of education, a vision that helps people of all ages better understand the world in which they live, addressing the complexity and interconnectedness of problems that threaten our future. This vision of education emphasises a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to developing the knowledge and skills needed for a sustainable future as well as changes in values, behaviour, and lifestyles.Draft framework for the Decade of ESD, UNESCO, 2003
www.suschools.org.uk
Primary ESD: the curriculum
• Overcoming nature and society dualism (science and ICT)
• Basic ecology, ecological limits and ecological footprints (science, numeracy, literacy)
• Place of human beings in nature (humanities and RE)
• Global citizenship (geography, citizenship)• Consumerism and identity (PSHE and
citizenship)• Critical pedagogy (thinking skills)
Primary ESD; greening the school
• Eco Schools
• School travel and food plans
• School grounds
• School council – participation
• Local and global community links
• CPD
Education and sustainability: a choice
Sustainability as policy
Education serves policy by delivering knowledge, skills and values, and enabling attitude and behaviour change.
Sustainability as a frame of mindEducation develops a frame of mind or an awareness that being content is the result of creating the right relationships with nature (oneself, other people, other cultures, other living things, the Earth).
Michael Bonnett on ESD
Teaching that attempts to impose a view of a relationship with nature and the good life on pupils is simply self-defeating in terms of the development of sustainability as a frame of mind. P. 145In sum, the development of sustainability as a frame of mind is essentially a matter of coming to apprehend that which lies always beyond our authorship, analysis and management and yet is closet to us – a reciprocator in all our perception and interaction. It is the recognition of this reality that liberates us from stultification and that spiritually sustains us, and it is thus this reality that we have a special personal and cultural responsibility to reveal. P. 148Retrieving Nature: Education for a Post-Humanist Age, 2004
ESD as socially critical education
If we are to enable pupils to address the issues raised by sustainable development . . . . we must engage them in those kinds of enquiry which reveal the underlying dominant motives that are in play in society; motives which are inherent in our most fundamental ways of thinking about ourselves and the world. That such a metaphysical investigation will be discomforting for many seems unavoidable, but it promises to be more productive in the long term than proceeding on the basis of easy assumptions about the goals of sustainable development as though it were a policy whose chief problems are of implementation rather than meaning. Bonnett, 2002, p. 19
Values – moral principles or things we ought to doEarth Charter – a set of principles to guide humanity towards
more sustainable ways of living
• respect and care for the community of life;
• ecological integrity; • social and economic
justice; and • democracy, non-violence
and peace
Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings.
Protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.
Recognize that peace (contentment) is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other people, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.
The Earth Charter and consumerism
Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being (a principle under Ecological Integrity)
Reduce, reuse and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems ad ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems;
Internalise the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards;
Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.
The consumer treadmill
• Constant creation of new needs, products and services
• Planned obsolescence• Increased profits for
corporations• Increased taxes for
governments• Increased welfare & living
standards for citizens• Individualisation /
privatisation of provision
From modern to post-modern consumerism
• Increasingly differentiated products
• Shorter lifetime (more flexible production methods)
• More attention to presentation and style > content
• New ways of selling nature (eg ecotourism)
• Intensified consumption offsets cleaner production
Liquid moderns (Zygmunt Bauman)
• Suspect civilisation is frail – fear collective disaster (terrorism, flu, tsunamis, climate change) and personal disaster (of being excluded from friends, relationships)
• Have lost faith in the future – cannot commit to relationships, have few kinship ties
• Constantly at work reinventing themselves so as not to appear obsolete at work, friendless, unloved (Traditional sources of security and identity (family, career, loving relationships) are less secure
• Forever texting, chatting, phoning, messaging• Explains popularity of Big Brother, Weakest Link, etc
Children as consumers
The under 16s spend an estimated £30bn a year including £6bn on clothes and £2bn on toys.
8 in 10 kids have their own TV in their room, half have a DVD player or video
1 million children under 9 have a mobile phone
Average pocket money for 9 – 11s is £6 a week
Brands and identity
Today’s average child is familiar with up to 400 brand names by the time they reach the age of 10.69% of 3 year olds can identify the McDonald’s golden archesBrands enable children to announce who they are, display solidarity with others, differentiate themselves from others.
Selling to children
• Cartoon character• Celebrity
endorsement• Big movie tie in• Fun foods• Conspiratorial
relationship between the brand and the child
Children as liquid moderns
Children ‘market’ themselves to one another, schools ‘market’ themselves to parents, parents ‘market’ children to schools.
Many children wish that they or their parents had more money to spend.
Their vulnerabilities are sold back to them through magazines and marketing.
Poorest most aware of branding
Are children content?
Today’s children unhappier than any generation of the postwar era
Rising incidence of mental illness, anxiety and depression amongst the young
Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 25 years
70% of 7 year olds girls say they want to be slimmer
Bratz Stylin Salon "n" Spa Pamper your Bratz in style! Includes hair salon, cosmetic counter, manicure and pedicure station, smoothie and cafe bar and real working beauty jacuzzi, plus tons of stylin' accessories! Comes with Bratz doll in spa outfit. Colours and styles may vary. For ages 6 years and over
Toys of Misery: a report on the toy industry in China,
National Labor Committee, 2002
More than half the toys sold in the
US are made in China.
This is not a boycott. It is a call for Mattel, Hasbro, Disney, McDonald’s, Toys ‘R’ Us and Wal-Mart to do the right thing. Do not cut and run from China. Rather, work with your contractors to clean up these factories and guarantee that China’s labour laws--including wage, hour, overtime compensation and health and safety laws--are strictly adhered to.
‘Typical’ toy factory in China
Mandatory daily shifts of 15 to 16 ½ hours, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. or 12:30 a.m.Some 20-hour, all-night shifts required, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.Seven-day workweekWorking 30 days a monthAt the factory 103 to 112 hours a weekWorkers fainting from the long hours and exhaustionTwelve-to-14-cent-an-hour wages$8.42 for a 72 ¼-hour workweekWorkers cheated of $20.79 a week—70 percent--of the legal minimum wage owned themHandling toxic chemical glues, paints and solvents. Workers do not even know the names ofthe chemicals, let alone their health hazardsWorkers constantly dizzy, nauseous and on the verge of throwing up from the strongchemical paint odor which hangs thick in the factory air.104-degree factory temperatureSick workers fired16 workers share one small dorm roomWorkers have never heard of, let alone seen Mattel’s, Hasbro’s, Disney’s, McDonald’s,Toy’s ‘R’ Us or Wal-Mart’s so-called Codes of Conduct.Freedom of Association absolutely repressed.
Toy worker 1
“I’ve worked for more than a year now. The highest wages I’ve gotten was 700 rmb ($84.57) a month. I make an average of 500 to 600 rmb ($60.41 to $72.49) and 300 rmb ($36.25) during slack season. My husband also works in Shenzhen. He’s a driver and earns 1500 rmb ($181.23) a month. My kids are left with my parents at home. My husband I come from a poor village where nothing grows on the land. We had to leave. We live separately because we can’t afford to rent a flat. We meet every Saturday. I can’t save much on my salary. In toy factories, you get a better income only during peak season. When the slack season comes, you can’t even survive with what you get, never mind saving anything.”
-A worker in Company B
www.ethicalconsumer.org
. . . and the ultimate answer?
Poor kids will stop wanting Nike trainers only when they have another way to prove their own worth, another way to show they are valued. In other words when society itself is changed.
Greg Rowland
Here at Upton Cross we aim to find every opportunity within the curriculum and beyond to reinforce and extend our school communities thinking about their role as global citizens.
We empower our children with the belief that they really can make a difference and help change the world making it a fairer and more just world for everyone.
Recycled Christmas
Class 2 made pom poms from carrier bags and decorated their hoop with strips of red bags.
Our Christmas tree was grown sustainably and decorated using strips of coloured plastic bags. We use half an oil drum as the container. Everyone was really amazed by how beautiful this simple tree looked. After Christmas it was collected by the council and shredded to make mulch for gardeners.
Harriet’s nativity scene made from corks was a real work of art.
The reception class made angels from white carrier bags and a spectacular wreath by tying strips of bags to a cycle wheel rim.
Recycled Christmas is becoming a bit of a tradition
and we’ve now got the parents involved! Families used a
range of materials from the scrap store to make
decorations for the tree.
http://john.huckle.org.uk