Sustainability Frontiers > international education projects

Sustainability Frontiers, just over the hill from Sidmouth, is active internationally in sustainability projects. Here is its latest newsletter:

Greetings!

Autumnal greetings from Sustainability Frontiers at the Linden Barn!

We are encountering bright, magical days of sunlight although the days are starting to cool and shorten. There are apples to be picked standing atop long ladders, vegetables to be harvested and the sparkling flowers of autumn to delight in. The season melds joy at the beauty of things and sadness at their impending passing. Tempering the joy, too, has been the procession of events suggestive that global society is on a dangerously inclined plane. Even our gorgeous hot, dry, deckchair summer could not quash uneasy thoughts about how quickly the heating of the planet is advancing. We face, indeed, an accelerating dynamic of dark synergies in which climate change foments other crises in the human condition only to be itself magnified by those crises. Autumnal thinking also needs to turn to radical transformation.

As our organization stands on the threshold of its tenth year of operation, we are pleased to flag a range of new disaster risk reduction and climate change education publications, three new consultancies (in Bhutan, the Eastern Caribbean and the Pacific), two ongoing consultancies (in Pakistan and Japan) and contributions to international symposia and conferences. Please browse the contents of this Bulletin, follow up on web links that interest you and let us have your feedback. We very much welcome your proposals for cooperation. Also, please kindly share the Bulletin with those you know who may be interested in our work.

Transformative and Transgressive Learning for a World in Deep Trouble

David Selby had been invited to deliver the above-titled keynote address at the pan-European conference on Innovative Teaching for Sustainable Development to be held in Vienna, Austria on 29 November 2018. The umbrella theme of the conference is ‘Enabling-Provocation-Reflecting: Innovations for Future Education'.

For more on the event and David’s keynote abstract click here.

‘Teetering on the Brink’ Article

David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa have contributed an article to a Special Issue of the Journal of Transformative Education on the theme of Transformative Sustainability Education. Titled, ‘Teetering on the Brink: Subversive and Restorative Learning in Times of Climate Turmoil and Disaster,' the article looks at the nexus between transformative learning and sustainability education. The authors call for subversive learning addressing key climate change drivers allied with restorative learning to restore nature intimacy, to confront despair and to reclaim good life ways of being. The article has just been published as the October edition of the Journal of Transformative Education and is also available online.

For a more detailed article description, click here.

For the article abstract, click here.

To obtain the online version of the article, click here.

‘Archipelagos of Learning’ Article

An article by Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby, ‘Archipelagos of Learning: Environmental Education on Islands’ has been published by the international journal Environmental Conservation (2018, vol. 45, no.2, 137-46). The article appreciatively reviews environmental education on islands through the lens of four key strands: biodiversity, conservation and science-frames education; place-based, indigenized and bioregional education; climate change and disaster risk reduction education; and education for sustainable development. It identifies distinctive features of environmental education in island settings.

The article was written as the lead input to the thematic session on education at the Humans and Island Environments Conference organized by the Foundation for Environmental Conservation. The conference was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, 16-20 April 2018, the authors presenting their paper and facilitating the education thematic sessions through their virtual presence.

For an abstract of the article, click here.

To obtain access to the article, click here.

For details of the Environmental Futures conference, click here.

Other Recent Environmental Education Articles by the SF Team

• ‘Emerging Dimensions of Global Environmental Education’ by David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa recently appeared in the Greek online journal, For Environmental Education. The article briefly explores key features of global environmental education before examining two important areas of development in the field, i.e. climate change education and disaster risk reduction education, their interface, and their place within the broad field of environmental and sustainability education. Examples of noteworthy practice appear throughout. For links to English and Greek versions of the article, click here and here. 
   
• ‘Education for Sustainable Development, Nature and Vernacular Learning’ by David Selby recently appeared in the Centre for Educational Policy Studies Journal, vol. 7, no.1, 2017, 9-27. The article proposes vernacular learning rooted in intimacy with place and nature as better equipping young people to act for nature. For the abstract, click here. For the article, click here.

Supporting the School-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Project in the Pacific Region

Fumiyo Kagawa is undertaking an October 2018 to May 2019 consultancy for UNICEF Pacific to support the implementation design of its school-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience project in four countries in the Pacific region, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The overall aims of this consultancy are twofold: first, to support Ministries of Education in the development of training resources for gender-responsive and inclusive school-based disaster preparedness and planning with community involvement and, second, to build the capacity of national, sub-national and local authorities to manage, support and sustain school-based DRR and resiliency. Following consultations and close collaboration with key stakeholders in each of the four countries, Fumiyo will develop practical and contextualized school-based DRR handbooks and training guides. She will also develop and deliver national and sub-national training of trainers programs in each country.

For further details, click here.

Eastern Caribbean Education in Emergencies Consultancy

Lidra Remacka, SF Canada, is currently undertaking an eight-month (July 2018 to March 2019), multi-country field consultancy on behalf of the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Office. The aim of the consultancy is to design and implement a safe school program and to mainstream resilience principles into the education system at national level while also supporting the elaboration of disaster risk management at school level. The work will involve ‘hands-on’ engagement in twelve, English-speaking Caribbean countries: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Carriacou and the Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The island nations were severely affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. 

For details, click here.

Bhutan DRR School Curriculum Review

On behalf of Save the Children Norway, David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa have conducted a September/October 2018 review of the School Curriculum Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction developed by the Bhutan Royal Education Council (REC) and endorsed by the country’s Curriculum Technical Advisory Board. Their consultancy role has been to ‘strengthen the framework and give direction for strategic ways forward’. The team have made general recommendations on the Framework, reviewed learning outcomes, given guidance on learning activity development and offered ways forward for the REC to implement the framework nationally (providing synoptic success stories of national DRR curriculum integration elsewhere).

For more details, click here.

Safer Tomorrow: Disaster Preparedness in Pakistan Project

In the June to October 2018 period, Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby have been supporting the HOPE’87 A Safer Tomorrow – Disaster Preparedness in Pakistan project being implemented across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The broad aim of the project is to promote resilience to natural and human-made disaster through capacity building of governmental institutions, schools and communities. Specifically, its objectives are to strengthen school disaster management, to develop a student and community culture of safety through risk reduction and resilience education, and to better coordinate disaster prevention and risk reduction at different jurisdictional levels.

The SF team have reviewed and fine-tuned the project’s Scope and Sequence curriculum document laying out knowledge, skills, values and attitudinal learning outcomes for grades 1-12. They have followed this by developing Student Learning Outcomes for each item listed in the Scope and Sequence document. They finally turned their attention to working on the initial draft of the Education Sector Planning Guidelines for Education in Emergencies following initial work by the National Disaster Management Authority.

For more on the consultancy, click here.

Pakistan School Safety Framework

The Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority has recently published the Pakistan School Safety Framework. Signed off by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a key partner in Framework development has been HOPE’87 who over the last few years has regularly drawn upon Sustainability Frontiers for consultancy support. As consultants to HOPE’87, the SF team reviewed and organized the draft NDMA Framework in 2016 and in the same year developed the template for disaster risk management planning at school level that features in the Framework (pp.96-118). Earlier (2014) the SF team developed the eight-step approach towards school-based disaster management laid down for Pakistan schools in the Framework (pp.32-43).

For earlier HOPE' 87 consultancies click here and here.

Learning and Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals Handbook

Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby have been supporting the Tokyo-based Tamagawa Academy Super Global High School (SGH) Program since its launch in April 2014. Funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the program aims at helping students of Tamagawa Academy to become global leaders with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to make a positive contribution to global society with its multiple interrelated challenges.

Since November 2017, the team has been developing teaching and learning activities focusing upon a range of Sustainable Development Goals and covering the five SGH themes of poverty, environment, human rights, diplomacy/leadership and international cooperation. Pilot tests in the classroom continue.  Teacher and student feedback sheets gathered are being drawn upon and analysed to finalize the activities.

The Handbook, provisionally titled Meeting Global Challenges: Learning and Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals, is under review for publication in Summer 2019 by Tamagawa University Press. Consideration is also being given to the parallel publication of an English language version. Containing 100 activities the Handbook will be an invaluable resource for teachers who would like to embed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in classroom learning.

For further details of the Tamagawa Handbook, click here.

For details of SF’s earlier work for the Tamagawa Academy, click here.

New Publication: Working Together for Resilience

A key outcome of a 2015-16 consultancy undertaken by Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby for HOPE’87 Pakistan and CARE Pakistan was a desk-based and empirical research study into linkages and synergies between school-based and community-based disaster risk management.

The study in reworked form is shortly to be published online under the title, Working Together for Resilience: Linkages between school-based disaster risk management and community-based disaster risk management. It makes an important contribution to regional and global discourse on effective disaster risk management and comprehensive school and community safety. 

The report is being co-published by HOPE’87 and Sustainability Frontiers. Publication will be shortly announced in the Latest News sidebar on homepage of the SF website.

For details of the 2015-16 consultancy click here.

Teaching Kids About Climate Change

A new Green Teacher (Canada) book, Teaching Kids About Climate Change, edited by Tim Grant has just been published. It is a sister volume to Teaching Teens About Climate Change, edited by Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn and reviewed in our last Bulletin (no 20). The new publication offers a rich treasure chest of activities for engaging young people ages 6 to 14 with climate change issues. We are delighted that our own activity, ‘Weathering Climate Change’ on clarifying the differences between weather and climate and previously published in Green Teacher is included in the book.

For details of Teaching Kids About Climate Change, click here.

For our original 2011 Green Teacher article in which four SF activities used in the two books appear, click here.

For details of Teaching Teens About Climate Change, click here.

Regional Revitalization International Symposium Contribution

In November 2017 Fumiyo Kagawa attended and spoke at an International Symposium held at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, on Prospects and Ongoing Challenges of Regional Revitalization based on Education for Sustainable Development. Her paper, ‘"Regional Revitalization" through Sustainability Education: Insights from the UK Experience’ has now been published in the Symposium proceedings.

For the paper abstract, click here.

For the paper (in Japanese) click here.

For details of the Symposium, click here.

Publications in Nepali

Two earlier SF publications written for UNESCO and UNICEF have been translated and published in Nepali, the official language of Nepal.  The first is Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries, first published in 2012 and the second is its sister volume, Towards a Learning Culture of Safety and Resilience: Technical Guidance for Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction in the School Curriculum, first published in 2014. The former is now available in four languages (English, French, Portuguese, Nepali) and the latter in three languages (English, Spanish, Nepali).

For the Nepali version of DRR in School Curricula click here.

For the original English version click here.

For the Nepali version of Towards a Learning Culture of Safety and Resilience click here.

For the original English version click here.

FRESH Health, Personal and Social Development Education Webinar

On 16 July 2018 David Selby took the lead role in an international webinar organized by the FRESH Working Group on Health Literacy, Life Skills and Social Inclusion (FRESH is a collaboration of four UN agencies and several international NGOs). David spoke of Sustainability Frontiers’ work in combining disaster risk reduction classroom-based learning across the curriculum with campus-based action learning and active learning in and with community.

For more details of FRESH, its Working Group and the Webinar (recording and PowerPoint set available), click here.

Bulletin 21, 25 October 2018

http://www.sustainabilityfrontiers.org/
.
.
.