Green
Curriculum: Sustainable Practice in Teacher Education
Sareena, K.M. M.Ed student, NSS
Training College, Ottapalam.
Dr.Minikumari, D. Assistant Professor, NSS Training
College, Ottapalam.
Abstract
Humanity
is at an unprecedented crossroads and conservation is a state of harmony
between men and land. Being holistic, a Green Curriculum views environment as
all that is around us and aims to give a better understanding of the way the
world functions its operation as a total system, its alteration because of the
actions of the human race and its consequences on the system and on us. This
paper emphasizes the importance of introducing green curriculum in teacher
education , across every discipline, to sustainable building principles and
practice , while highlighting successful methods for curricular and
co-curricular integration. Several strategies are being
practiced or considered by teacher education institutions to educate tomorrow’s
teachers and experts about sustainable building principles and practices. It
includes integrating sustainable practices in to course work and applying smart
solutions to solve real world problem.
Key
words : Green Curriculum, sustainable practice ,
teacher education
Introduction
The ‘green trend’ in educational field
as described as a concept of sustainability across the world by targeting
eco-literacy. The current global energy
and environmental crisis leads to high energy demand, arises due to the un-judicial
use and lack of knowledge about conservation.
This problem should be eradicated by the installation of infrastructure
and introduction of best environmental practices in educational
institutions. The future of our planet
hinges on the action of younger generation, so the greener transition should
start from the education field.
Curriculum is the crux of all the
educational system and it is intimately related with all the aspects of
education. It is made up of everything that surrounds the learner to achieving
the goals of education. It includes all
those experiences, activities and environmental influences which the student
receives during his educational career.
The concept of green curriculum ensures that the students’ capability of
taking the 21st century challenges.
It aims to develop positive attitude and responsible social networks for
removing the world wide issues of global warming, climate change, social
inequalities and unsustainable lifestyles.
Green
curriculum includes resource that helps students to gain skills and knowledge
about construction, installation and maintenance of energy resources and
awareness of natural and sustainable products.
Greening the curriculum means being open to nature as a teacher, the
outdoors as classroom and sustaining life for all future generations as the
most important learning objective.
Green curriculum and sustainable practices
Higher
education has a critical role to play in producing sustainable students by
helping them to understand “the complex connections and interdependencies
between the environment, energy sources, and the economy” (Elder, 2009, p.108).
Elder further states: The education required to accomplish this is a new way of
thinking and learning about integrated, systemic solutions not just to the
economic and environmental challenges but also the interdependent health,
social and political challenges. Above all, this new way of thinking uses the
green economy as the focal point for understanding the deep connections between
economics, energy, the environment and social well-being, often referred to
as sustainability.
Wals
(2010, p. 380) agrees with this as he says: “Universities in particular have a
responsibility in creating space for alternative thinking and emergence of new
ideas, as well as in critically exploring old ones.” The Ubuntu Declaration
(UNEP, 2006, p. 67), an initiative from education and scientific organisations
all over the world, raised the following areas where universities have a role
to play: review programmes and curricula in order to address the challenges of
sustainable development; strengthen the role of teachers and attract young
people to the profession; develop mechanisms to keep teachers informed; and
promote knowledge transfers in innovative ways in order to bridge the gaps and
inequalities of present knowledge.
In
Europe (Togo, 2009, p. 64) and in the United States various courses of action
have been taken towards curricular greening, and the following topics were
proposed for sustainable development: atmosphere and climate; transport systems
and fuel sustainability; agriculture, conventional and organic farming;
ecological economics; tourism and sustainability; and urban physical
environments.
Sustainability
“represents an interconnectedness of factors and force —environmental,
economic, and social—that require new and more sophisticated analyses,
teachings, and interventions” (Timpson et al., 2006, p. 9). And yet,
sustainability “requires integrating the knowledge base of individual
disciplines to create a holistic program that brings together the economic,
social, and environmental understanding, practices, and policies of a globally
and environmentally connected world” (Berry, 2006, p. 103).
Greening the curriculum refers to the
infusion of environmental and sustainability perspectives into the school
curriculum. The key is the perspective and the approach in which the contents
are explored and learnt. Many people think of a Green Curriculum as ‘nature
studies’ a supplement to the educational
system, an activity that largely takes place outside school and which relates
only tangentially to the core curriculum.
Sustainable practice is defined as
those activities that provide the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity
while protecting the natural systems and providing a high quality of life for
its people and community.(Giannini, 2009).
The green trend is moving mainstream,
it will improve the quality of peoples life through sustainable practices. It
focuses on three elements such as profit, protecting the environment and
enhance the quality of life. The researcher seeks to find answers for the
following questions.
1.
What
is the significance of green curriculum in education field?
2.
How
is green curriculum related with sustainable development?
3.
What
is the role of green curriculum in teacher education?
4.
What
are the suggestive sustainable practices in teacher education?
Significance
of green curriculum in education field
The
educational institution should play a pivotal role as children spend most of
their time in schools. It is in that have advocate for the effective
mainstreaming of green curriculum as a part of education. Children should be
taught to live sustainably at a tender age. Learning institutions should teach
basic principles of how nature sustains life and an understanding of the
implications of anthropological activities on the environment.
Educational
institution that adopts an environmental focus demonstrates better academic and
life skill performance across the curriculum. Green curriculum helps to build
creative thinking and relationship skills and foster leadership qualities for
different environmental activities. Green curriculum should promote and engage the
students in learning about
Ø The resources in their institution which consume
and involve them in making consumption more sustainable.
Ø Toxics issues in and around educational
institutions and involve them to minimize their usage.
Ø Gardens and food systems; and involve them in
growing their own food.
Relationship between green curriculum and
sustainable development
Green curriculum model is based on the new
knowledge, understanding, skills, experiences and attitude needed to create a
new generation, which have the areas:
·
The
science of global warming
·
Impact
of climate change
·
Ecosystem
·
Part of
nature
·
Ecological
principles underlying how life works on earth
·
Ecological
problems and solutions
·
Process
of sustainable development
Green curriculum is working to ensure that
all programmes of areas provide opportunities for students to explore the
meaning of sustainable development in the context of their discipline. For some
areas like Ecological principles underlying how life works on earth, nearly
everything students’ study is concerned with sustainable development. For
others, the engagement with sustainable issues will be less direct, and often
linked to professional practice or employability elements of the programme. In
all cases, it helps to increase and enhance the opportunities available to
students through the curricula for engagement with the Sustainable Development
Goals. Green curricular model has developed modules and programmes which
explicitly focus on sustainable development.
Role
of green curriculum in teacher education
Teacher education programmes need to
addressing the issues of sustainability with their student. The teacher
education curriculum is already filled with multidisciplinary topics but in
some situations, it provides environmental education as a general paper. The
topics in this paper only related with theoretical content. They didn’t promote
practical activities for the sustainability during both normal course time and
internship period. This general characterisation of common curricular patterns
and problems outlined could be supplemented by a number of rich, promising,
alternative approaches which have contributed to substantial restructuring and
improvements of curricula of teacher education.
Green curriculum in teacher education helps
to find out how to connect what they are teaching in the classroom to the
principles, practices and technologies of sustainability. First element of the
curriculum focuses on incorporating sustainable practices, related to the
progress of environmental stability in all levels. It helps the teachers to
understand why they should include sustainability in their lesson plans and
classroom curriculum.
Through the internship
training, students can learn from actual activities to expand their views and
courage; and integrate what they learned to enhance their own value. The
specific teaching goals are as below:
1. Increase knowledge
about the environment
2. Cultivate
environmental awareness and sensitivity
3. Establish
environmental value and attitude
4. Fulfill
environmental action skills
5. Demonstrate
environmental action experiences
6. Develop ability of
cooperation and development
The second component of the
curriculum focuses on the fields of urban agriculture, sustainable architecture
and energy practices. It helps the teachers to discover an incredible resource
by workshops. During the workshops, presented by expert teachers and
professional development staff; the teachers were able to find out what the
curriculum was and how it been used.
Green curriculum provides
process oriented and integrated approach in teacher education. It is flexible
and connects to life outside the world. It encourages multiple sources of
learning and also provides opportunity to raise awareness about sustainable
practices.
Suggestive sustainable practices in teacher
education
Learning for the
environment aims at the development of an informed response and responsibility towards
the environment. It goes beyond the acquisition of skills and knowledge. It is
concerned with the formation of attitudes that lead to personal environmental
ethics which will involve people in actions for the conservation and
preservation of our national, social and cultural heritage. However, the main
goal of a Green Curriculum for children at all stages is to understand
environmental science and related social issues to make well-reasoned and
ethically appropriate environmental decisions across different areas be it economy, technology, industry or our
social and cultural life, for sustainable growth and development. There are
some suggestive sustainable practices in green curriculum.
·
Project
based learning : to provide green activities
reducing the environmental footprint of the classroom and quick projects related to recycling race, organic food taste test,
recycled plastic bottle rockets, solar demonstrations, hand-made paper, and
more should be given to teacher educators.
·
Green
technological courses: according to the need and relevance of environmental
activities different add on courses should be incorporated in teacher
education.
·
Interactive Green Mapping :
it is an interactive resource for teacher education. It provides an opportunity
to students to learn about the environmental resources in their area as they
create maps of the green resources in their own communities.
·
Green lesson plan: developed a green
lesson plan, focusing on the 3R s, (Reduse, Reuse and Recycle) conducted the
lesson, and then reported the actual lesson as a part of teacher education.
·
Green Media
: Engaging media resources abound to help green-leaning teachers and students
to make a difference for humanity and the planet.
·
Sustainability Curricula Directory : it is a collection of the best teaching tools
and makes them more widely known to educators.
Integration of
green curriculum in teacher education is having a vital role in sustainable
development. The sustainable practices help to inspire today’s teacher
educators and they will indirectly inspire their students to clear the path for
a cleaner and healthier tomorrow. Our children hold the future of the planet in
their hands by the valuable guidance of good teachers. The major endeavour of
green curriculum is to mould the students to implement concepts of
sustainability in the immediate surroundings by taking concrete actions.
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