A while back, The Guardian carried a brief feature titled: \"A sustainable school succeeds\". \u00a0It was a rehearsing of opportunities for institutions wishing to be a 'sustainable school', and was an endorsement of Eco-schools, SEEd, and the Sustainable Schools Alliance.<\/p>\n
The piece\u00a0included this:<\/p>\n
\"You are probably already halfway to creating a sustainable school if you do any of these: save energy; recycle; have a school garden; teach about societies less fortunate than ours; teach about climate change; or are registered with EcoSchools ... as 17,000 schools in the UK already are. \u00a0If so, you are ready for the next steps.<\/p>\n
First, run an audit. \u00a0Auditing helps you build on your strengths and identify where you can add new projects. \u00a0...<\/p>\n
Second, transform the curriculum by asking new questions. \u00a0You can turn any topic into one that leads to sustainability competencies. \u00a0Ask what is the difference between \"needs\" and \"wants\". \u00a0What is the energy consumption of our homes? \u00a0Why do we have waste? \u00a0Who doesn't have waste? \u00a0What will the homes of the future look like? \u00a0Where do the materials for our homes come from? \u00a0These questions provoke critical thinking and help students understand change and interrelationships.<\/p>\n
Next, engage the students with your local school curriculum in advance of the new national curriculum rollout. \u00a0This is your opportunity to embed sustainability into the timetable. \u00a0Turning the students on to lessons from their locality will not only engage the community with the school, it will also improve behaviour, attendance, and learning outcomes. \u00a0... \"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
All\u00a0positive stuff, though the \"halfway\" there point is surely wishful rhetoric. \u00a0Further, whilst having a focus on sustainability issues in what a school\u00a0does is desirable, being<\/em>\u00a0a 'sustainable school'\u00a0through<\/em> what the school\u00a0is,\u00a0<\/em>is a different thing.<\/p>\n
Clearly,\u00a0doing sustainability things is good, but not enough. \u00a0Something else is\u00a0needed; that\u00a0is,\u00a0a framing of the whole institution and its vision within a set of values and value-informed practices, which give meaning to what that institution does \u2013 and is. \u00a0<\/em>With this in place, all the separate\u00a0activities (recycling, charitable good works, organic gardening, energy conservation, farmers' markets, fair trade purchasing, etc, etc), and associated curriculum activities would amount to more than their sum because of the coherence of vision, values and practice embodied within the institution and in what it does. \u00a0\u00a0Without this calculus, the separate activities remain\u00a0just that \u2013 separate.<\/p>\n
This is something that Eco-schools has not yet\u00a0understood, but I have\u00a0hopes for SEEd \/ SSA. \u00a0However, judging by the Guardian piece, this is still work in progress. \u00a0What is on offer cannot lead to an institution's becoming a 'suatainable school' because an appropriate framework is nowhere in sight. \u00a0I say 'an', of course, because\u00a0there are many possible ones. \u00a0One\u00a0such is set out\u00a0in:\u00a0Scott W (2013)\u00a0Developing the Sustainable School: thinking the issues through; The\u00a0<\/em>Curriculum Journal<\/em> 24(2) 181 \u2013 205<\/p>\n
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