Teacher Training Curriculum on Environmental Issues | Page 13
also help us adjust our own thinking and action in relation to our role as educators.
Learning to live together – It is important that we, educators are able to actively engage
different groups irrespective of their age, culture and ethnicity. It is also important that we as
educators can challenge unsustainable practices across the educational system and through
dialogues encourage negotiations for an alternative future.
Learning to do – We, educators, must be able to create opportunities for sharing ideas and
experiences from different disciplines, places, cultures, generations without prejudice and
preconceptions. We must be able to connect the learner to their local and global spheres of
influence and help communicate a sense of urgency for change and inspire hope.
Learning to be – We, educators, must be able to develop our own personal attributes and
abilities to act with greater autonomy, judgement and personal responsibilities in relation to
sustainable development and should be willing to take considered action in situations of
uncertainty and be able to engage the learners to build positive relationships.
Finding sustainability in existing curricula
As mentioned earlier, one major obstacle, in teaching sustainability is “time”. We, educators, have a
mandated curriculum which is much larger than that which we can comfortably teach within an
academic year. This leaves us with very little time to integrate knowledge from one course to
another 17 , let alone add new topics. Since most teachers treat ESD as a totally new topic they
become reluctant to even consider the idea of including ESD in their courses. The Gotenburg
Recommendations on Education for Sustainable Development tells us exactly the opposite. It says
that,
“education for sustainable development should not be treated as a separate subject in the
curriculum but rather a way of dealing with all the curriculum subjects. Involving more than
content alone, it should encourage critical dialogue in the classroom by relating curriculum
subjects to wider environmental, economic and social issues.18”
If we educators take a second glance at the existing course curriculum we teach, we will realise that
many topics fundamental to sustainability are already a part of it. It is just that we have not been
able to identify them as yet. At the classroom level, we, teachers can begin by finding the link
between the topic in the mandated syllabus and sustainability. Education on Sustainable
Development Sourcebook, suggests that we look for the three pillars of sustainabilityenvironmental, economic and social as well as themes connected to sustainability which are
relevant to our local community or country. Identifying threads of sustainability in the subject we
teach, will not only make our job easy but also help us guide our pupils to a more sustainable future.
While reorienting our mandate curriculum, it is also important to remember that ESD is not merely
the knowledge of environmental, social or economic issues. It helps address learning skills, builds
17 Education on Sustainable Development Source book, Learning and training toll No.4, ISBN 978-92-3-001063-8,
UNESCO 2012. Further reference to this publication will be as Sourcebook and within brackets. For more concrete
example of how to re-orientate your existing curriculum see chapter Reorienting Curriculum to Address
Sustainability.
18 The Gotenburg Recommendations on Education for Sustainable Development, Chalmers University,
https://document.chalmers.se/workspaces/chalmers/gmv/dokument-till-webben/esd-publication (assessed 29th Dec
2015). Furtherreference to this publication will be within brackets and as Gotenburg Recommendations.
13