education for sustainability at Otago Polytechnic

all this interlocking view of life, both biological, spiritual, manufactured and economic, including issues of equity and ethical practice, is what our institution is trying to implement. It should be threaded through any qualification offered by us. At CAPABLENZ it should be threaded throughna ny qualification we award, so I need to come to grips with what it means.
To this end I'm looking at three major resources- the Education for Sustainability Blog that can be found in the links on the lefthand side of Insite- has some interesting contributions from school champions. I found the Vet Nursing discussion on uniforms (made in China) and Jenny Rudd's Mental Health Support threading of great interest. Also I have borrowed two books by Sam Mann- "Sustainable Lens" is to be recomended- it has a vast array of diagrams that attempt to depict sustainability in many forms, faced by a one page commentary by SWam who with his usual insight is always pushing me just a little beyond my comfort zone. His second publication "The Green Graduate" is an account of the process introducing Sustainable Ppractice into Otago Polytechnic qualifications- and again causes me to take time out to consider. (you could always listen to Sam's radio programme on Thursday nights as well).

Sustainability, that began for me on an environemntal level is becoming moral and ethical. A matter of values, equity, fairness and stewardship -kaitiaki- over both material and biological resources.

Fritjof Capra- easier link

the last link is a bit astray- I quite like its quirkiness, but here is a more obvious connection toCapra

great reading.

Orr's Six Myths about education

Orr quotes Elie Wiesel as saying Education "emphasised theories instead of values, cponcepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience". This is not a new criticism of an education system- it is rather one that challenges the Western rational approach to knowledge collection and use. Weisel and Orr with him are sitting on a rationale that would have education being about values and conscience. (not so different from the base and justification for many of our integrated private schools in New Zealand)
Having experienced the formal education system both as a receiver (what a passive word) and a giver (under a plethera of role titles)for more years than I can count on my fingers, I am very inclined to agree with critiques that give knowledge, its reception and use a priviliege for the rational and indeed support the false dualism of the intellect and the spirit. What you replace it with is the moot point. Clearly Orr wants to replace it with the notion that "all education is environmental education" and lists curriculum content that would provide that. This is a seductively partisan view and one which is quite cleverly argued. I'm in the process of exploring other readings (Design for Sustainability and FritjofCapra ) where an holistic and integrated world is pictured and ways to support that are explored.
I'll just keep on with it I think and I look forward to our next gathering.

fab resource

hi folks.
easter was an interesting time in a camping ground with very clear statements around environmental responsibility- "to ensure you enjoy being here until your old age and your grandchildren can also".

The neatest resource is to be found (as it often is) in material designed for further down the education chain.
http://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/social-sciences/Education-for-sustainability

"It can be helpful to think of sustainability in terms of maintaining the capital we need for our continued existance. There are four types od such capital:natural,human,social and built (includes both manufactured and financial). All four types are necessary if societies are to function".

definitions, teaching packs, assessment resources. a veritable feast and all for free!!!!!

sustainable practice- new learning? or refocussing on old?

I am fascinated by the trends in recipe books in New Zealand over the last 6 months.
Much of what we are going to now is "comfort food" food our grandmothers used to make- witness the Baking recipes, the home garden recipes, the eggless, butterless (from the days of rationing,)and the collections from fundraising publications. Further than that the grow your own gurus, (Linda Hallinan, Anabelle Langbein) are taking us into a former life. (Of course our cleaning with Wendyl Nissan could be going that way too. Baking soda and vinegar will get you to a clean heaven).
And bless us, the advice to those who seek well-being is taking the same pathway. Nigel Latta in both his magazine columns and his tv programme talks about "stuff" not making you happy,while Martin Seligman looks for a satisfying life that is as much about doing things for others as for the self.
It may be that in a time of recession we become nostalgic for what was and from a distance seems much better. (Have you seen "Midnight in Paris"? There anything 'before'has to be superior)It may be that such regression is actually progression towards more sustainable lifestyles that will make fewer demands on both our environment and our society.
I wonder what you think?

porgress up and down

I have recently been involved in a serious and important discussion around how to assess experiential learning and match it with taught stuff. It is like copmparing apples with oranges, BUT if you shift up a conceptual level they are "fruit".
SO how do we recognise Fruit? can we allow distinctive varietal differences? or do we have a must have and might have list?
are the critical definitions of fruit sufficient? or do we need a flavour of each specialty (major) fruit?
quite a challenge really, AND very important when prior/exepriential learning is presented to assess.
I'd love some comments on this from you all.

workbased learning

I wonder often if the world recognises some of the "hidden" aspects of learning at work. oh yes, there is the skill demonstration, and sometimes the "you would be wise to.." mentoring, but aside from that?
If all workers were required (under the most dictatorial regime you might imagine) to document thoughts/feelings/learnings what would aprear. I suspect that something we might see as Grounded Theory might emerge. then the challenge is to support the working learner to compare their groundedness with the formalities.
So how does the wolrd recognise the learning? maybe the world has to challenge its own assessment practices.