I recently had the pleasure of listening to an episode of ‘Recess Duty’ – a new podcast from Levi Allison (you can listen to the episode here.) His guest was Kevin O’Shae who has a passion for Environmental Education. It was a great conversation, and a timely one. I listened to it while the Glasgow Climate Change conference was winding up, the reports from which left me feeling that all too familiar sense of disappointment, frustration and fear. I listened to it as I walked beside my local Merri Creek, a place that became such a source of calm and beauty during Melbourne’s endless lockdown. Here I was, immersed IN the natural environment, listening to someone talking ABOUT it and worrying that it was all too little, too late to do anything FOR it.
In, about, for
This mantra was such a big part of my life in the 80’s and early 90’s when I was so actively involved in the environmental education movement here in Victoria. I was an enthusiastic member of the national and state associations, went to conferences, ran weekend workshops – I even wrote books about it “Springboards to Environmental Education” and “Integrating Naturally” and helped launch a beautiful Environmental Education Theatre Company – Vox Bandicoot, into schools. I introduced Environmental Education as an elective in the then diploma of primary teaching course at the University of Melbourne and sitting rather forlornly on a shelf in my study is a dusty, framed certificate with my name on it “Environmental Educator of the Year.”
So it was with a strange sense of shame that I listened to this podcast. The environmental education movement has been with us for decades. Why am I not as active in the field as I once was? Why have I let it slip? Why am I not using every opportunity I can to bring this work to teachers?
And, more profoundly, why have we not made more progress?
These days, the concept of sustainability is widely explored and often used as a driving concept for inquiries. Generally speaking, however, the inquiries that link to this concept focus on things like recycling, deforestation, climate….all vitally important issues but simply learning ABOUT these things is insufficient. In this post, I want to revisit the essence of a simple framework and share two additional elements I have been pondering. I hope this might form the basis of a conversation with your team about your inclusion of environmental education in your work. And I hope it will help me strengthen my own efforts to do the same.
When thinking about the environment in education, consider teaching and learning in, about, for, through and from ….
IN the environment
Many of us have discovered the joy being and indeed of teaching outdoors as a result of COVID. There is little point in learning about the environment if you are not going to spend time in it. That is where the emotional connection happens. That is where the caring grows. Forest kindergartens and nature play do appear to be having a renaissance, but we all need to commit to giving learners time to simply be IN nature with no other agenda than the feeling of connection and joy that brings. Get out there!!
ABOUT the environment
The big issues matter. And our kids want and deserve to know about them. But sitting beneath those issues are some critical concepts that help us all understand them better. Decades ago, the Earth Education Institute recommended these simple concepts as critical to our understanding: energy, cycles, diversity ,change, interrelationships, connection and adaptation. A concept-based approach to inquiring into the environment helps build a more robust understanding of the issues at stake. And parallel to this big picture thinking, let’s not neglect the importance of knowledge building. Here in Australia, the work of the Gould League founded by the wonderful Alan Reid played a pivotal role in the education of so many young people by helping them learn about the plants and animals of their local area. Some of my very, VERY best teaching moments have been in the context of a school yard bird study, ponding, locating and learning about the insects in the school garden. Nature offers us such powerful provocations for inquiry if only we stop to notice. I still have (and use!) my invertebrate identification cards and many other amazing resources from that time. Get to know your local animal and plant species. Learn their names and their role in the habitats around you. Knowledge is power.
FOR the environment
Ultimately, change happens not because of what we learn but because of what we dowith what we learn. Inquiry approaches have always championed action and environmental education depends on it. Learning IN and ABOUT the environment motivates us to want to protect and care for it. Working with schools like Howrah Primary school in Tasmania has reminded me of the empowering experience taking action brings to children. Throughout the year the children have been actively involved in taking action for a range of local, threatened species. You can read about it on their facebook page. Find out about the local environmental projects and issues you can get your kids involved in.
THROUGH the environment
By situating journeys of inquiry in the context of the natural world, the door to a meaningfully integrated curriculum opens wide. A group of teachers shared with me recently that the discovery of a tawny frogmouth chick who had fallen from its nest in the school yard led to an inquiry that naturally connected science, geography, maths, English, design and digital technologies! Use the environment as a context for inquiring across the curriculum
FROM the environment
Last weekend, I had an amazing walk along the Barwon river in Geelong, here in Victoria. At one point I noticed a ‘teenage’ magpie doing what they do at this time of year, nagging their mum to give them food (they even sound like they are saying muuuuuuum! MUUUUUUUM!). I stopped to watch them for a while, fascinated by the interactions between them, curious about what almost looked like a tantrum as the young magpie momentarily lay on its back (!), wondering what they were eating, where their nest was and allowing my thoughts to drift to the parenting of my own children and the relationships all living things have with their offspring. I was watching, listening, wondering, theorising, connecting, questioning … I was doing exactly what I would want children to do in an inquiry classroom. And here I was sitting by a river with not another human in sight. Nature, it seems, is a gifted inquiry teacher herself from which we can learn so much. When you take learners into the environment, don’t feel you need to teach/tell them too much. They will learn so much simply by being there and being encouraged to notice.
Environmental Education has been part of the learning landscape for decades. In the early 1800’s Jean-Jacques Rousseau urged us to ‘study nature, not books’ since then there have been many, many movements, programs and resources dedicated to the cause.
And yet here we are – our precious planet in such dire trouble.
Maybe that’s why I have ‘dropped the ball” in recent times. After all this time, all this work, all these incredible, passionate devoted environmental educators I have worked with for nearly 40 years … what can we show for our efforts? It is hard not to be despondent. BUT I take heart. Greta Thunberg gives me heart. My own children and their passionate, informed friends give me heart. Schools like Howrah Primary school give me heart, amazing brave schools like https://www.thenatureschool.org.au give me heart, the native regeneration acres of once industrial wasteland in my own suburb gives me heart. And listening to podcasts with teachers like Kevin give me heart. The work continues.
The recent UNESCO report “Reimagining our Futures” is blunt in its call to action:
“We need to take urgent action to change course, because the future of people depends on the future of the planet, and both are at risk. The report proposes a new social contract for education – one that aims to rebuild our relationships with each other, with the planet, and with technology.”
It is nearing the end of the school year here in Australia. A time for reimagining. For me, it feels like a time for rekindling the fire I had let cool. My passion for inquiry has no better home than learning in, about, for, through and from the environment. Time to take a deep breath and step, once more into the breach. I hope you will join me in thinking about your own connection to nature and the responsibility we all have to keep our children connected to the planet on which we all depend.
Surely as educators there is no greater moral purpose.
How do you help build your children’s relationship with the natural world?
Children at Auburn South getting curious in the amazing vegetable garden!
Just wondering …