APPENDIX 18
Memorandum from an individual in co-operation
with The National Association for Environmental Education UK.
Norman Farmer, Senior Education Adviser. Sheffield LEA
1. Has the term Education for Sustainable
Development lost its currency? Does it have any resonance with
the general public? Has the environmental message within been
lost?
I doubt whether the term Education for Sustainable
Development has ever had any widespread public currency as a concept
for education. Activities and programmes badged as "Environmental"
have more understanding and support from the public and educators
in general than the relatively new term of ESD.
As a former honorary chair and general secretary
of the National Association for Environmental Education I recall
government, civil servants, and others trying to direct their
grants towards activities labelled ESD at a time when the term
had little common parlance. The National Association for Environmental
Education lost out in this debate and lost its government grant.
It now struggles to survive and promulgate its messages to the
education world of which ESD was always a central plank. Using
the term environmental in the association's title has always resulted
in a clear understanding of its aims and purpose. In contrast
ESD would appear to exclude certain activities/ideas that are
essential to the education of children and young people if they
are to value and understand their surroundings. How can they be
keen to sustain their environment if they do not come to love
it along with the life they have?
As a local authority adviser for over 25 years
(including being an Ofsted inspector since 1993) I have never
heard the term Education for Sustainable Development used in a
classroom during what must be many thousands hours of observations
in schools and their classrooms
2. The government is currently reviewing
the UK Sustainable Development Strategy. What should the strategy
include in order to significantly strengthen the role of learning
within it?
In my opinion the strategy for learning should
include:
(1) Experiences in the early years of learning
that families, voluntary groups, and schools can plan which provide
fun and enjoyment but not rampant consumerism.
(2) Be more developmental and less preaching.
(3) Allow room for ideas and initiatives
as well as planting trees!
(4) Don't bamboozle the public with short-term
targets for recycling and ignore the underlying issues.
3. Does the 14-19 Working Group report, "14-19
Curriculum and Qualification Reform", go far enough. Will
ESD be adequately represented if this report is used as the basis
for the forthcoming White Paper? What must be included in the
White Paper if progress is to be made to fully integrate ESD into
all aspects of learning, formal and informal?
The classic dilemma for most curriculum planning
is whether to designate a particular area of study as a distinct
"subject" and assess and test it as you would any academic
subject or to try and ensure it is included in all relevant areas
of a curriculum and taught and tested within those academic subjects.
The 14-19 curriculum with both "academic"
and "vocational" elements should be able to accommodate
both parts of this dilemma with some students choosing to study
aspects of sustainability/environment in depth and others meeting
ESD issues in the curriculum most suited to them.
My interpretation of the report is that not
enough consideration is given to ESD issues and in reality there
is more about qualifications than curriculum content.
4. In response to our last enquiry the DfES
said they recognised more could be done to embed ESD in the school
curriculum and that they would lead on the strengthening ESD links
within geography, design and technology, science and citizenship.
Has there been any discernible improvement in these areas? Is
there evidence that this work has been taken forward by the DfES
and its agencies?
DfES are locked into a curriculum designed to
last from 2000-07 based on content and not process. Teachers are
locked into a system of curriculum planning from the statutory
programmes of study that are normally narrowly interpreted. Often
there is little enthusiasm for experimentation or innovation and
to succeed ESD requires commitment from the whole school and not
just a few sticking plasters from staff that have any energy left
after a full working day.
In secondary schools there are some pockets
of ESD in the subjects mentioned there is no joint planning and
little that would indicate a coordinated approach.
The two major government curriculum initiatives
The Primary Strategy and the Key Stage 3 strategy completely ignore
any contribution from ESD.
The specialist schools initiative again has
completely ignored the possibility of establishing specialist
secondary schools with an environmental/ESD curriculum bias.
There has been some window dressing by the DfES
and its agencies with a quite useful Internet web site on sustainable
development constructed by a member of staff of QCA. Many teachers
are unaware that this site exists.
5. The role of informal learning including
youth work, work based learning and adult and community learning
in taking the environmental education agenda forward is key. Is
the government doing enough in these areas?
The easy answer is to say no because we have
no measure of enough or insufficient. The lack of government policy
and strategy that acknowledges the proper role of the voluntary
sector in ESD is apparent.
Undoubtedly there is some sterling environmental
work by all the bodies mentioned in the question and by their
very nature environmental work will always be dependent on the
interests and enthusiasm of their clientele at the time. However
piecemeal progress is to be encouraged as the process is often
cumulative and moving forward on a broad front is vital to ESD.
6. Is there any evidence to suggest that
the government, through its stewardship of education, is getting
better at getting the environmental message across to the general
public? And is there any evidence to suggest that sufficient work
is being done at regional and local levels to support environmental
education?
There appears to be a conflict between the drivers
that support the national and local economies and the environmental
messages for ESD. Recycling is a case in point. Local councils
are encouraging recycling with household collections etc but the
root cause of over packaging, thick news papers that no one reads
from cover to cover, spam post through the letter box etc is not
included in public awareness programmes.
Often NGOs are the main drivers of hard environmental
messages and the government only becomes involved when the problems
are almost overwhelming and nationally less controversial. Global
warming being an example.
Councils to a point do their best through Agenda
21 officers and the like but their role can be unclear and often
appear to be working at the margins of the problems and often
there is no linkage between departments in their public awareness
programmes.
The out-sourcing of council services also causes
problems. In one council I know well the council "Street
Force" deals with litter and anti-litter publicity and a
private company who empties the dustbins deals with recycling
publicity.
7. Are there sufficient resources available
to deliver the governments commitment to education for sustainable
development?
If resources are to be added on to what we already
do educationally the answer is no. More importantly what is required
is a refocusing of existing programmes/curriculum in both the
formal and informal structures and organizations. More emphasis
should be placed on process and less on content. NGOs should be
enabled through modest grants to provide encouragement and support
to work with the formal education structures in developing meaningful
Environmental Education. At present there appears to be plenty
of grants for planting trees which delights planners in DEFRA
but few grants which promote ESD in schools and with the public
in general. There is little real linkage with DfES objectives
and targets and ESD objectives and targets.
November 2004
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