APPENDIX 41
Memorandum from Teachers in Development
Education (Tide)
Tide [Teachers in Development Education] is
a teachers' network based in the West Midlands, which elects a
Management Committee to run a centre which is located in Birmingham's
Millennium Point. Tide is a registered charity, and has some 30
years' experience of work on Education for Sustainable Development,
Global Citizenship and related issues.
Tide made a submission to the previous inquiry,
Learning the Sustainability Lesson [recorded in its report as
Ev 283: Appendix 39].
On this occasion, we will particularly be addressing
Questions 1, 2, 2, 4, 6 and 7 from the Environmental Audit Committee,
as listed on 2 November.
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 it been
lost?
Progress has been made, but it has been slower
than we might have anticipated.
The term Education for Sustainable Development
is gradually gaining currency in the schools sector. There is
a growing recognition that sustainable development is a matter
of "everyday complexity," which balances environmental,
social, economic and political domains.
However, there is still work to be done in the
schools sector on popularising this understanding that sustainable
development is not simply synonymous with the environment. If
we are to understand sustainable development, however, we do require
basic knowledge about the environment and ecology.
The DfES said in 2003 that the Sustainable
Development Action Plan was supposed to signal the start of a
process of change, identifying the most powerful levers—what
can be achieved immediately and what can be built upon. More than
a year on can it be said that that process of change has begun
and have there been any immediate achievements?
The Action Plan, and debates arising from it,
have helped legitimise work in the schools sector.
Learning for sustainable development,
the proposed DfES framework for self-evaluation in schools, is
particularly helpful. It will provide space for creativity within
schools, while offering a defined framework compatible with schools'
other concerns. The framework will help schools build on the best
of what already exists, and will encourage further creativity
and mutual professional development.
2. 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?
It is essential that the Strategy clearly acknowledges
the importance of education.
In the context of schools, it is also vital
to acknowledge that education is not simply about campaigning
and awareness raising. To fail to do this would be harmful and
counter-productive to other emerging strategies.
There is a need for learning which engages with
the complexity of the issues involved.
4. In response to our last inquiry the DfES
said they recognised that more could be done to embed ESD in the
school curriculum and that they would lead on 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?
We are not complacent about the size of this
task, and a good deal of work is still needed. This includes the
further development of the QCA ESD website.
There is a need to build on a growing awareness
of the educational value of the seven key concepts at the heart
of that site [as originally described in the 1998 Holland Report].
The proposed DfES framework will enable local
ownership and exploration of this agenda. It will offer space
for teachers to think creatively together about the implications
of ESD and its relationship to the rest of the curriculum.
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 is much still to do, but clear evidence
that a wide variety of bodies are getting better at enabling people's
engagement with these complex issues:
— HTI and others have offered opportunities
for exploring leadership issues about ESD in schools;
— environmental education centres are
seeking ways of offering rounded programmes, which build out from
ecological concerns to a broader conception of local and global
sustainability;
— teachers have been working together
to develop appropriate curriculum materials and pedagogical approaches,
which are compatible with other curriculum work;
— local and regional networks have
come together to offer mutual support for teachers and educators;
— some local education authorities
[such as Worcestershire] have offered particular leadership in
this field by incorporating ESD in their Education Development
Plans.
6. Are there sufficient resources available
to deliver the government's commitment to education for sustainable
development?
We do not believe that progress in this area
is a matter of resources in isolation.
What is needed is a properly-resourced strategy
where an enabling style of leadership is matched to the need for
professional space where teachers can develop work and thinking
on Education for Sustainable Development.
As DfES are beginning to demonstrate, there
is a role for leadership which shares the fact that sustainable
development is a complex matter which requires not simple messages
but creativity, reflection and critical engagement at all levels
as part of a "learning society"—within which schools
play a pivotal role.
November 2004
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