{"id":6224,"date":"2015-02-02T07:46:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T07:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6224"},"modified":"2015-02-02T07:46:11","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T07:46:11","slug":"sustainable-schools-seven-propositions-around-young-peoples-motivations-interests-and-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/02\/02\/sustainable-schools-seven-propositions-around-young-peoples-motivations-interests-and-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Schools: seven propositions around young people\u2019s motivations, interests and knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sustainable Schools: seven propositions around young people\u2019s motivations, interests and knowledge<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Policy and practice around sustainable schools, and ESD more generally, tends to be based around largely tacit assumptions about young people\u2019s motivations, interests and knowledge.\u00a0 In this brief paper I shall examine a number of these, and the implications for the enhancement of the learning we shall all need to do.\u00a0 I start from the notion that it is learning that matters above anything else.\u00a0 The seven propositions are that \u2026<\/p>\n

Young people:<\/p>\n

1) \u00a0come to learning contexts with experience, knowledge, understanding and concerns.<\/p>\n

2) \u00a0don\u2019t learn what teachers teach.<\/p>\n

3) \u00a0are rarely eager to absorb other people\u2019s preoccupations and prejudices.<\/p>\n

4) \u00a0never respond well to pessimism and tales of looming disaster and dread.<\/p>\n

5) \u00a0are not there to cure their parents\u2019 bad habits.<\/p>\n

6) \u00a0rarely judge lessons \u2013 and school \u2013 in terms of how interesting or relevant the content is.<\/p>\n

7) \u00a0aren\u2019t fully able to develop social and citizenly skills until they can practice these for real.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are now examined in turn.<\/p>\n

Young people come to learning contexts with experience, knowledge, understanding and concerns<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We know how true this is, and how significant young people\u2019s networks, families and the media are to who they are, and to their learning.\u00a0 So why is it that we tend to discount all this and behave as if it\u2019s just what we know that matters, and spend so much time second guessing issues of relevance and interest?\u00a0 Mark Rickinson\u2019s book on environmental learning from the students\u2019 perspective illustrates the pitfalls of getting this wrong, and the subtle ways in which students manipulate and manage the learning context \u2013 and teachers.\u00a0 As Mike Hulme writes in an\u00a0RSA Journal article, we need the spaces to argue fearlessly with one another about issues that demand we take a position on.\u00a0 Sustainability generates lots of those issues, and schools are one of the spaces.<\/p>\n

Young people don\u2019t learn what teachers teach<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This follows from the last proposition, and is always true at every level.\u00a0 What we learn, what it means to us, and what sense we make of it, depends on what we bring to the table in relation to knowledge, interests, concerns, questions, values, etc.\u00a0 What we learn either reinforces or changes what we know, feel, think, and value, and the skills we have.\u00a0 Thus it is, that no matter how social a process education and learning is, at heart it leads to individual change and difference.\u00a0 This means that starting from local, neighbourhood issues, which young people often know more about than teachers do, is fundamental in developing the sort of citizenly skills which we need.<\/p>\n

Young people are rarely eager to absorb other people\u2019s preoccupations and prejudices<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Put like this, it seems self-evident, so why do we try to do this?\u00a0 An advisor to Kofi Annan once said that a key purpose of ESD was to give young people perspectives other than their own \u2013 and he might have added add: other than their teachers.\u00a0 But why do we persist with crude behaviour modification programmes around fair trade, organic food, recycling, climate change, etc?\u00a0 Why is fair trade shamelessly promoted rather than critically examined, when it\u2019s a highly contentious commercial enterprise?\u00a0 Why do some NGOs have non-negotiable issues that learners seem to have to accept, and why is there so much reluctance to have open-minded discussion?\u00a0 Young people say preaching is counter-productive, and Chris Gayford\u2019s research for WWF found clear evidence from young people that telling them what to think and do about the environmental is not effective.\u00a0 This and other studies, for example our own work for DCSF, demonstrate that using active, participatory and collaborative learning approaches helps young people to enjoy what they do, and helps the transfer of learning to everyday life.<\/p>\n

Young people never respond well to pessimism and tales of looming disaster and dread<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Research shows that young people become increasingly worried and disinterested when schools place too much emphasis on problems.\u00a0 Research for the Cambridge Primary Review noted that \u201cpessimism turned to hope when young people felt that they had the power to act.\u00a0 The children who were most confident that climate change need not overwhelm them were those whose schools had decided to replace unfocused fear by factual information, and practical strategies for energy reduction and sustainability\u201d.\u00a0 So, we need to be wary of painting too gloomy a picture for young people; the feelings of hopelessness that this can engender will not help them play an active, positive role in their \u2013 and everyone else\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Young people are not there to cure their parents\u2019 bad habits<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Young people tend to compartmentalise school and home \u2013 and see their parents\u2019 habits (bad or otherwise) as their parents\u2019 concern.\u00a0 Gayford found the greatest learning gains occurred where there was close agreement about sustainability between the school and young people\u2019s families \u2013 hardly surprising really.\u00a0 But research also shows that very exacting conditions need to be in place before this reverse inter-generational learning \u2013 the sort mediated by young people \u2013 will be effective.\u00a0 And attempting to have young people do this can lead to their being caught between conflicting school, parental or community values.\u00a0 In any attempts to do any of this, it\u2019s what young people learn through doing it that has to matter.<\/p>\n

Young people rarely judge lessons \u2013 and school \u2013 in terms of how interesting or relevant the content is<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Young people tend to judge these things by the quality of personal relationships that are developed with teachers and peers rather than in terms of content.\u00a0 The Rickinson book has a lot to say about relevance and interest \u2013 reminding us that these are difficult things for teachers to guess. \u00a0Paul Vare, has argued that pedagogy that promotes the building of relationships needs to be given greater stress, because in this sense the teacher can be a role model of excellence where a critical competence is the capability to build positive relationships.\u00a0 He says that these require a degree of teacher self-awareness and self-confidence, a willingness to be seen to be an imperfect human being doing their best \u2013 less all-knowing, and inevitably changeable with circumstances.\u00a0 And, as Vare notes, all this cross-references well with the need for engagement in practical citizenship and action-competence.\u00a0 Here, as the outcomes are unknown, the teacher becomes a facilitator with the learners as fellow explorers.<\/p>\n

Young people aren\u2019t fully able to develop social and citizenly skills until they can practice these for real<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Clearly, these are important, and schools are right to put stress on them.\u00a0 However, there are limitations about what can be achieved if the context is not realistic. \u00a0Andrew Stables writes about schools\u2019 roles as nurseries of responsible citizenship.\u00a0 He argues that students in school are only ever likely to pick up a general, rather diffuse, sense of concern about, and for, the world\u2019s problems that is either led, or reinforced by any involvement they may have in the overall public debate in the media.\u00a0 For Stables, this implies that the curriculum focus should be on the development of skills of critical thinking, dialogue and debate, with environment and sustainability only one of many possible foci to enable this.\u00a0 It is, essentially, an education for life-long, open-ended, open-minded, participatory citizenship.\u00a0 Stables also argues that, whilst openness to the real public debate is crucial, it is vital to remember that capacities are not outcomes, and that they do not simply precede outcomes.\u00a0 He says that, to a large extent, it is the making of real-life decisions that most fully enables, in an iterative, developmental manner, the capacity for exercising responsible citizenship.<\/p>\n

Concluding thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact that the school sector\u2019s direct greenhouse gas emissions, at 2%, is a small part of the UK\u2019s contribution is no reason to ignore it completely.\u00a0 It is, however, an argument for being very clear how every attempt to reduce carbon use, whether through good design, waste reduction, smarter procurement or energy savings, can be linked to opportunities for student participation and learning, and the practice it affords in their making real-life decisions.\u00a0 Gayford\u2019s work with WWF shows that where an institution is seen by students to care enough to focus on sustainability issues, this can be a key motivator, as is the opportunity that participation can bring for both learning, and the development of a sense of hope.\u00a0 Such engagement with real social and community issues is at the heart of well-documented approaches where the purpose is to develop young people\u2019s understanding and capability to act, rather than to ensure that social benefits accrue.\u00a0 And this brings us full circle back to our knowledge that young people are not empty vessels or blank slates (or screens) just waiting for the wise to fill.\u00a0 In summation, then, I am arguing that any imperative for schools to try to be sustainable, as institutions, needs to rest, primarily, on the way that this supports learning by students, teachers, governors, and others who are involved.\u00a0 To proceed otherwise would seem to miss the point that schools remain institutions whose prime social function is to help young people to learn.<\/p>\n

Readings<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Alexander R (ed.) (2009) Children, their World, their Education. London: Routledge
\nDCSF (2010) Evidence of the Impact of Sustainable Schools.\u00a0 London: Department for Education
\nGayford C (2009) Learning for Sustainability: from the pupils\u2019 perspective.\u00a0 Godalming: World Wide Fund for Nature.
\nHulme M (2010) Heated Debate. London: RSA Journal
\nRickinson M, Lundholm C & Hopwood N (2009) Environmental Learning: insights from research into the student experience. London: Springer
\nStables AWG (2010) New Worlds Rising; Policy Futures in Education 8(5) in press
\nUzzell D (1999) Education for environmental action in the community: new roles and relationships, Cambridge Journal of Education; 29(3) 397\u2013413
\nVare P & Scott WAH (2008) Two Sides and an Edge. London: DEA<\/p>\n

........................................<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>This was originally developed as part of a TIDE~ global leaning<\/em> initiative, and was published by SEEd<\/em> in 2010: http:\/\/www.se-ed.org.uk\/news\/sustainable-schools.html \u2013\u00a0As it has now vanished from the SEEd web pages, here it is. \u00a0Still relevant, I feel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sustainable Schools: seven propositions around young people\u2019s motivations, interests and knowledge Policy and practice around sustainable schools, and ESD more generally, tends to be based around largely tacit assumptions about young people\u2019s motivations, interests and knowledge.\u00a0 In this brief paper...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}