{"id":7634,"date":"2020-02-04T17:51:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T17:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7634"},"modified":"2020-02-04T17:51:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T17:51:50","slug":"education-for-sustainability-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2020\/02\/04\/education-for-sustainability-in-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"Education for sustainability in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to Jess Tipton for alerting me to the section of the New Zealand government <a href=\"https:\/\/nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz\/Curriculum-resources\/Education-for-sustainability\/Tools-and-resources\">website<\/a> that focuses on \"education for sustainability\". \u00a0This is how it begins:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Education for sustainability<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"object-center\">\n<div class=\"embedded-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Education for sustainability\" src=\"https:\/\/nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz\/var\/tki-nzc\/storage\/images\/media\/images\/ef-images\/education-for-sustainability-banner\/1030144-1-eng-NZ\/Education-for-Sustainability-banner.jpg\" alt=\"Education for sustainability\" width=\"773\" height=\"92\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\"Sustainability is a critical issue for New Zealand \u2013 environmentally, economically, culturally, politically, and socially. We need to learn how to live smarter to reduce our impact on the environment for future generations.\"<\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>What is EfS<\/strong> section, we find:<\/p>\n<p>\"<em>New Zealand\u2019s national curriculum focuses on 21st century learning, ensuring learners are equipped to participate in and contribute to their own society and the wider world. An important aspect of this is encouraging students to consider significant future-focused issues such as sustainability.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The future-focus theme of sustainability is evident throughout The\u00a0New Zealand Curriculum. It is integral to the vision, principles, values, and key competencies, and provides relevant and authentic contexts across the eight learning areas.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Structuring learning around a unifying theme such as sustainability provides opportunities for students to make connections between learning areas, competencies, and values. It requires teaching and learning approaches that draw on all elements of\u00a0effective pedagogy\u00a0and focuses on empowering students to\u00a0take action\u00a0for a sustainable future. ...\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the\u00a0<strong>EfS in Schools<\/strong> section we find:<\/p>\n<p><em>\"Education for sustainability fosters innovative approaches to curriculum design and review, and provides many opportunities for students to become confident, connected, actively involved, life-long learners.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Schools <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>choosing<\/strong><\/span> to include a sustainability focus can do so in a number of ways. For example:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\"simple-list\">\n<li><em>through developing a whole school approach\u00a0\u2013 where students engaging in practices, projects, and ways of working that lead to a more sustainable future forms the basis of the curriculum and teaching and learning programmes<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>by using the\u00a0<a class=\" external-link \" title=\"Link to NCEA page. \" href=\"http:\/\/www.nzqa.govt.nz\/qualifications-standards\/qualifications\/ncea\/subjects\/education-for-sustainability\/levels\/\">NCEA Achievement Standards in Education for Sustainability<\/a>\u00a0to engage students in worthwhile qualifications<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>by including the multitude of meaningful learning contexts, issues, and community projects that sustainability provides\u00a0across learning areas and levels of the curriculum\"<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>NB<\/strong>, the emphasis of the word\u00a0<em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Choosing<\/strong><\/span><\/em>\u00a0is mine.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the\u00a0<strong>Learning Experiences<\/strong> section there are six lesson series and activity sequences, and in the\u00a0<strong>Tools &amp; Resources <\/strong>section, there are learning programmes and action planners and links to resources.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Whilst it is evident that this will be valuable for teachers and schools, it is interesting to compare all these resources with what these other parts of the website have to say:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>[1]\u00a0<a class=\"file-type\" href=\"https:\/\/nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz\/content\/download\/1108\/11989\/file\/NZ%20Curriculum%20Web.pdf\">The New Zealand Curriculum<\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 30\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>Looking up biodiversity, you find this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 30\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>The\u00a0Living World\u00a0strand is about living things and how they interact with each other and the environment. \u00a0Students develop an understanding of the diversity of life and life processes, of where and how life has evolved, of evolution as the link between life processes and ecology, and of the impact of humans on all forms of life. \u00a0As a result, they are able to make more informed decisions about significant biological issues. \u00a0The emphasis is on the biology of New Zealand, including the sustainability of New Zealand\u2019s unique fauna and flora and distinctive ecosystems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 30\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>and this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 30\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>Develop an understanding of how the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere interact to cycle carbon around Earth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>This is quite a contrast with what I've already quoted, and it strikes me that this is not much different from what we have in England in that these statements set out what teachers have to do, leaving it to them how to do it \u2013 and leaving it up to them to decide how far to go in stressing the issues (and what we might do). \u00a0Neither of these statements reflect the problems facing the Earth.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Then there's this:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>[2] \u00a0<a class=\"file-type\" href=\"https:\/\/nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz\/content\/download\/1110\/11995\/file\/Charts1.pdf\">Curriculum achievement objectives by level<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Here, the statutory expectations are set out. \u00a0Try searching for climate \/ climate change \/ biodiversity \/ species \/ endangered \/ sustainability \/ sea level \/ pollution \/ \u2026 to see how little mention there is. \u00a0This inevitable, of course, as [2] has to reflect [1].<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In reading these two sections the significance of\u00a0the word\u00a0<em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Choosing<\/strong><\/span><\/em>\u00a0which I noted above becomes clear. \u00a0Despite all the resources, lesson plans, schemes of work (which the DfE here does not emphasise), the statutory provision in New Zealand is essentially the same as in England: Teachers can do all this sustainability stuff if they really want to.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Indeed, the English curriculum is better than what we find in New Zealand because issues such as climate change are emphasised (though not as much as we'd like to see).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Maybe it's time to cut the DfE some slack, or would that be going too far. \u00a0Of course it would ...<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to Jess Tipton for alerting me to the section of the New Zealand government website that focuses on \"education for sustainability\". \u00a0This is how it begins: Education for sustainability \"Sustainability is a critical issue for New Zealand \u2013 environmentally,...<\/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":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7634","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=7634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}