APPENDIX 39
Letter and Memorandum to the Clerk of
the Committee from the Teachers in Development Education (Tide)
I am writing from Teachers in Development Education
(Tide). This is a teachers' network based in the West Midlands,
which elects a Management Committee to run a centre which is located
on the University of Birmingham campus.
I draw the attention of the Committee to the
attached leaflet, Johannesburg—a climate for change?
This outlines creative educational work developed in partnership
with West Midlands Local Education Authorities, and teachers from
those authorities. We have twelve teacher groups currently working
on the challenges of sustainable development education across
the region.
It is our experience that teachers (and, through
them, children) have much to gain from such opportunities. Above
all, we would identify the absolute necessity of giving teachers
space to engage in creative work on sustainable development education,
if its implicit challenges are to be met.
I draw this experience to the attention of the
Environmental Audit Committee in the hope that you will be able
to make use of it.
Memorandum from Teachers in Development
Education (Tide)
This submission is based on work we have done
in engaging the professional creativity of teachers in West Midlands
schools. There are many challenges facing the world. Teachers
have their part to play in responding to these, and in supporting
children's informed and empowered participation in the processes
of change.
By being offered space, a focus, and an opportunity
to share ideas, teachers have been able to respond thoughtfully
and imaginatively to the challenges of the sustainable development
education.
We believe that the success of sustainable development
education as a strategy will depend on some of these qualities.
Our work has been most successful where such an enabling environment
exists to support teachers' professional abilities, offering them
space to understand the issues for themselves, and to collectively
consider their educational implications.
We are anxious that any strategy that might
emerge should not inhibit sharing, creativity and professional
development. In that spirit, supporting frameworks such as the
"seven key concepts" from the 1998 Holland Report have
been of great value.
By way of an example, work we engaged in across
the West Midlands region in the lead-up to the Johannesburg World
Summit engaged 135 teachers (and about 4000 children) across 12
local authority areas. We are currently engaged in building on
that work as part of a regional coalition, the West Midlands Coalition
for Essential Learning.
The teachers engaged in the work leading up
to the Johannesburg Summit responded to its challenges with characteristic
professional enthusiasm, as witnessed in their statement on the
following page. Many other teachers are responding with similar
commitment. We welcome this new opportunity to enable them all
to meet their responsibilities in an effective way.
Teachers make the future . . . given the chance
Teachers have a particular role in building
the world that young people live in now, and will live in tomorrow.
We play a significant part in developing the
values, dispositions, understanding and skills which they need
in that changing world.
We believe that we are all entitled to:
— the opportunity for secure and fulfilled
lives;
— a just and peaceful world;
— a diverse and healthy environment;
— a future which offers hope and opportunity
for all.
Teachers have:
— a responsibility to the young
people we work with, to support their engagement in this complex
and changing world;
— an entitlement to carry out
that professional responsibility in a supportive environment.
Sustainable development, like citizenship, is
a debate. We get to it by engaging with the issues. Guidelines
and rules which tell us what to do, and what it is, can get in
the way of that debate. The same is true for the children we teach.
Teachers need time and space to be creative
about these challenges, and to develop fresh thinking about the
contemporary world.
Sustainability goes to the very heart of what
teaching is about.
We could and should be contributing to something
which so profoundly affects us, so that we can play our full part
in making that future.
We call on the politicians and decision makers
involved in the World Summit to take note of these ideas. Sustainable
development education in schools should be strengthened by the
summit. It should be followed by asking teachers for their support
to do the creative work necessary in meeting these challenges.
February 2003
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