Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children
John Chi-Kin Lee • Michael Williams Editors
Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children
Editors John Chi-Kin Lee Faculty of Education Department of Curriculum & Instruction Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR, PR China
Michael Williams Faculty of Education and Health Studies Swansea University Swansea United Kingdom
ISBN 978-1-4020-9685-3 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-9686-0 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008942783 © 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com
Children’s environmental learning in the wetland of Hong Kong
Acknowledgments
Writing and co-editing a book from its conception to completion is always a challenging task especially so when working with a number of scholars and friends from different cultures in the Chinese communities and elsewhere. First, we would like to thank all of the contributors to this book, one of the first to explore the issue of education for sustainable development in the Chinese communities: Angel Yuet-Ying Au, Gwyn Edwards, Yu Huang, Kwok-Chan Lai, Wing-Po Lam, William Hing-Tong Ma, Margaret Robertson, Shun-Mei Wang, Guang Yang, and Hongying Zeng. John Chi-Kin Lee would like to thank the Sumitomo Foundation in Japan for sponsoring the project Education for Sustainable Development: A Comparative Analysis of Educational Policies and Practices in Primary Schools in Japan, China and Hong Kong that helped considerably in the writing of Chapter 10. He is particularly grateful for the sponsorship provided by the Sustainable Development Fund in Hong Kong for funding the project Education for Sustainable Development in Primary Schools that provides the basic data for Chapters 8 and 9. Permission given by the WWF-China Office to use information from the Environmental Educators’ Initiatives project in Chapters 6 and 7 is deeply appreciated. He would also thank Ms. Dung Yi-Ping for allowing us to quote in Chapter 9 figures and tables from her unpublished thesis. Sincere gratitude is also extended to the schools and teachers referred to in this book who have made and are making valuable contributions to promoting education for sustainable development. For preparing the final manuscript for publication, we must thank Angel YuetYing Au and Zhonghua Zhang for their hard work, especially in indexing and proofreading. The authors would also like to thank Zhonghua Zhang for helping with the statistical analysis of questionnaire survey data used in Chapter 12. As always, we would like to thank our wives Irene Tang and Wendy Williams for their generous patience, support and encouragement.
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Contents
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Environmental Education for Sustainability in Primary Schools in Chinese Communities ........................................ John Chi-Kin Lee and Michael Williams
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Dimensions of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development ................................................ John Chi-Kin Lee and Michael Williams
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Assessment and Evaluation ..................................................................... Kwok-Chan Lai and John Chi-Kin Lee
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Education for Sustainable Development: Towards Whole School and Community Approaches .......................... Margaret Robertson and John Chi-Kin Lee
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Leading Curriculum Change for Education for Sustainable Development in Schools ................................................ Gwyn Edwards and John Chi-Kin Lee
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Education for Sustainable Development Projects and Curriculum Reform in China: The EEI and the EPD.......................... John Chi-Kin Lee and Yu Huang
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Green Schools in China ........................................................................... Hongying Zeng, Guang Yang and John Chi-Kin Lee
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The Education for Sustainable Development Project in Hong Kong............................................................................................ John Chi-Kin Lee, Wing-Po Lam and Michael Williams
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Case Studies from the Education for Sustainable Development Project in Hong Kong ....................................................... John Chi-Kin Lee, Michael Williams and Wing-Po Lam
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Green Primary Schools in Hong Kong ................................................. John Chi-Kin Lee
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The Greenschool Project in Taiwan ..................................................... Shun-Mei Wang
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Progress Towards Education for Sustainable Development in Macao...................................................... John Chi-Kin Lee, Angel Yuet-Ying Au and William Hing-Tong Ma
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Lessons Learned and Future Directions .............................................. John Chi-Kin Lee
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Index ................................................................................................................
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Contributors
Angel Yuet-Ying Au Research Associate at the Centre for University and School Partnership, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was awarded her Ph.D. in terrestrial plant ecology at The University of Hong Kong. Gwyn Edwards Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. Previously, he was a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London. His main teaching and research interests are: the humanities curriculum (including geographical and environmental education); curriculum change; educational leadership; and teacher professional development. Yu Huang Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Education College at Hokkaido University, Japan. He is a former master teacher in the Environmental Education Centre in Beijing Normal University. He has publications and experience in environmental education, geography and sustainable development education. He has also served as a consultant to NGOs and government agencies such as WWFChina and the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection). Kwok-Chan Lai Head of Strategic and Academic Planning at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has been a geography teacher, an Inspector of Schools in geography, and the Head of the Department of Social Studies in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. For 2 years he was in charge of geography fieldwork in the first Field Study Centre in Hong Kong. His doctoral research focused on experiential learning in geography field trips. His current research interests include geographical and environmental education, teacher professionalisation, and teacher demand and supply. Wing-Po Lam Former secondary school teacher, Senior Lecturer at Sir Robert Black College of Education, Assistant Education Officer (Administration) at the Education Department, Executive Officer I at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, xi
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as well as School Development Officer of the Centre for University and School Partnership, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has participated in various projects including the Professional Development for Environmental Education in Primary Schools and Education for Sustainable Development in Primary Schools. John Chi-Kin Lee Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Director of the Centre for University and School Partnership and Dean of the Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has worked as a Consultant for UNESCO on environmental education in China and has been a Visiting/Guest/ Adjunct Professor in a number of Normal Universities in China. His recent publications include Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts, co-edited with Michael Williams (Nova Science, 2006), School Improvement: International Perspectives, co-edited with Michael Williams (Nova Science, 2006) and The Changing Role of Schools in Asian Societies – Schools for the Knowledge Society, co-authored with Kerry J. Kennedy (Routledge, 2008). William Hing-Tong Ma Former School Development Officer at the Centre for University and School Partnership, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was one of the Project Team for the Education for Sustainable Development in Primary Schools project. He has extensive experience in teaching sciences and mathematics in primary schools. He was formerly a lecturer at the University of Macao and taught courses related to early childhood education. He has coordinated the projects on Quality Early-childhood Education for All and Early Childhood Environmental Education and Teacher Training. Margaret Robertson Professor in Education and Director of Research in the Faculty of Education at La Trobe University. She is involved in numerous international research projects focused on sustainable development, geographical education and teaching and learning with digital technologies. Her leadership in these areas is currently recognised with the project directorship of the ICSU (International Council for Science) funded project titled Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Development Networking Local Area Partnerships with Teachers and Young Scientists. Shun-Mei Wang Associate Professor and former Director of the Graduate Institute of Environmental Education, National Taiwan Normal University. She has extensive experience in leading environmental education research projects for various government agencies including: the Department of Science Education, National Science Council; National Youth Commission, Executive Yuan; Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan; Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan; and the Ministry of Education. Professor Wang has led the Taiwan Greenschool Project since 1999. Michael Williams Emeritus Professor of Swansea University (until recently the University of Wales Swansea). He is a former Head of the Department of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Health Studies. He has researched and
Contributors
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published widely in the fields of curriculum development, professional development and school organisation. He has special interests in geographical education and environmental education. In recent years, he has been an overseas consultant, researcher or evaluator for a number of projects based at The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Guang Yang Assistant Professor in Capital Institute of Basic Education Development, Capital Normal University. Dr. Yang was awarded her Ph.D. by The Chinese University of Hong Kong and her major research fields are curriculum and teaching, environmental education and geographical education. Hongying Zeng Deputy Director of Education Section, Center for Environmental Education and Communication, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China. He was awarded his Master of Education by the Department of Geography, Capital Normal University. His major management and research fields are environmental education, especially in green schools and green communities.
Chapter 1
Environmental Education for Sustainability in Primary Schools in Chinese Communities John Chi-Kin Lee and Michael Williams
“The wise man delights in water; the good man delights in mountains. The wise move; the good stay still. The wise are happy; the good endure”. (Confucian Analects, VI, 21) “If the seasons of husbandry be not interfered with, the grain will be more than can be eaten. If close nets are not allowed to enter the pools and ponds, the fishes and turtles will be more than can be consumed. If the axes and bills enter the hills and forests only at the proper time, the wood will be more than can be used. When the grain and fish and turtle are more than can be eaten, and there is more wood than can be used, this enables the people to nourish their living and bury their dead, without any feeling against any”. (The Works of Mencius Book 1, King Hui of Liang. Part 1; Legge and Yang, 1996: 265; Teng and Liu, 1995: 163) “Heaven and earth grow together with me, and the ten thousand things and I are one”. (The Equality of All Things by Chuang Tsu; Feng, 1974: 35; Teng and Liu, 1995: 163)
With a population in excess of 1,313 million China has a massive interest in global sustainable development. Of this population, more than 145 million are boys and 128 million are girls aged from 0 to 14 years. Older living Chinese have survived
J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China E-mail:
[email protected] M. Williams Swansea University, Wales, UK
J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_1, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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the privations of World War II, the civil war and its aftermath that led to the establishment of a Communist regime, the upheavals of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the shock of Tianamen Square and the contemporary economic revolution. The unleashing of the Chinese economic tiger by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s has heralded an unprecedented burst of industrial and commercial activity that has brought major environmental, demographic and social changes. At one time in its history China sought to keep foreigners at a distance, now its leaders embrace globalisation, and Chinese citizens and Chinese products are found throughout the globe. No discussion of globalisation, in all its many facets, can ignore China and certainly no discussion of sustainable development can exclude China, either as a perceived threat to sustainability or as the supplier of a vast range of consumer goods and industrial products. Sustainable development is a concept that is first and foremost about future prosperity gained without the destruction of those environmental phenomena that ensure the population’s health and well-being. The future of China is represented by the millions of students currently attending schools, colleges and universities. Given the substantial ongoing changes in China, it is impossible to conceptualise the economic, social and cultural nation that these young people will inhabit as adults. They will provide the nation’s leaders and the cadres of entrepreneurs, politicians, community leaders, artists and consumers. For them, as individuals and members of the collectivity, sustainability will be a central, if not over-riding, concern. In China, as elsewhere, education for sustainable development is thus of crucial importance. Of course, we need to take care in using the words “China” and “Chinese”. Atlases show China with clearly defined national boundaries. Some of the boundaries, viewed from outside China, are contentious and there are the unusual Special Administrative Regions – Hong Kong and Macao – that have recently been reunited with “the mainland”. Taiwan is a special case caught in the midst of claims and counter-claims regarding its sovereignty. Within the mainland boundaries the people of China are culturally heterogeneous, reflected in a diversity of languages, religions and social groups. In Hong Kong and Macao there are influential colonial heritages – British and Portuguese respectively – reflected in all aspects of the cultural fabric. China is clearly culturally complicated and, hence, any generalisations that seek to embrace the whole of China need to be handled with great care. This diversity has implications for any discussion about education, environmental education and for education for sustainable development. It is difficult to conceptualise a “Chinese educational system” and it is just as difficult to conceptualise a common China-wide “Chinese primary/basic education”. Unsurprisingly, the foreigner is likely to encounter difficulties in coming to terms with what constitutes “Chinese education for sustainable development”. Part of this difficulty lies in the translation and interpretation of terms. In the English language there has been much discussion about the meaning of “sustainability” and “sustainable development”. The lack of a consensus on what these terms signify extends to the whole gamut of words and phrases commonplace in the literature of sustainability. “Environmental conservation”, “environmental protection”, “endangered species”, “environmental pollution”, “environmental degradation”, “the greenhouse effect” “global warming”,
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“sustainable communities”, “economic progress”: these, and many others, have different meanings in different contexts and it is difficult to determine how much of their meanings are diffused or lost in the process of translation from one language and cultural tradition to another. Indeed, even when there is an agreement to use a particular definition for a particular purpose, this agreement does not mean a common understanding of the terms or a common translation of the ideas into concrete actions. The simple fact that this book is written in English and that the bulk of the contents has been translated from the Chinese language alert us to the limitations that are inevitable in trying to capture accurately “whole Chinese experience”. The written Chinese language is basically the same (except for the difference in the common usage of simplified Chinese characters in Mainland China and the traditional Chinese characters in Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong) but the use of the same term may vary between China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Interestingly, even the usage of the term “sustainable development” varies slightly between China “ke chi xu fa zhan (in Chinese Pinyin)” (sustainable development), Taiwan “yong shiu fa jan” (ever sustaining development), Hong Kong “ke chi xu fa zhan” (sustainable development) and Macao “ke chi xu fa zhan” (sustainable development). In similar vein, how different would this book be if the authors had been writing from a Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu or Uygur background with a sharp focus on environmental education for sustainability in primary schools serving children from these geographically defined cultural groups? This central linguistic concern draws our attention to issues relating to what is shared and is common to all cultures within China and what is distinctive of particular groups. The broad concern with cultural uniformity, that would one expect to find in a politically socialist state, has to be set alongside a concern for localisation and the aspirations of generally small, scattered rural communities. As we shall see, this is of fundamental importance in understanding primary education in China and, for our purposes, education for sustainable development. Before addressing directly some of the central educational issues, we need to have some understanding of the complicated values that underpin contemporary discussions about environmental education in China. A further concern relates to the academic and scholarly approach adopted in this book. Drawn principally from university backgrounds, the contributors are active in research and development, engaging in project development, research and writing that bring them into contact with a community of scholars distributed world-wide. They seek to be familiar with the conference publications, journals, theses and other literature that keep alive the academic discourses on education for sustainable development. Their scholarly roots may lie in a number of academic disciplines with the natural sciences, including geography and biology, to the fore. Working in educational contexts, they serve to bridge the work undertaken in universities in single discipline or multi-disciplinary settings with the work undertaken by schoolteachers in primary and secondary schools. This educational and academic context needs emphasising since the book would have been substantially different if it had been written entirely by politicians, government officials, journalists or persons
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drawn from single interest national or international non-governmental environmental organisations. Environmental education and education for sustainable development are fields or areas of study that are fraught with contention and diverse knowledge bases (e.g., Lee, 1998; Lee and Williams, 2001; Lee and Chung, 2003). Not only is there difficulty in the use of the term itself, there are further problems relating to whether this is a matter for schools to address and, if so, what the curriculum content should be, where it should fit into the school curriculum, who should teach it and what teaching methods and modes of student assessment would be appropriate. Further, there are questions relating to the notion that education for sustainable development extends well beyond the narrow confines of the formal curriculum to include the whole school as an organisation and the school and its relationships with its local community and the global community. These are the questions that run through this book. We seek to address them through a focus on education for sustainable development in Chinese primary schools. Most importantly, we use the term “Chinese” to include work undertaken in the societies of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. The following sections will first examine major philosophical, religious and other cultural influences on Chinese attitudes to the environment, the state of the environment and a brief history of environmental education in schools in the Chinese communities, the environmental attitudes of young people as well as the role of the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in promoting environmental education for sustainability in primary schools in Chinese communities. We shall also introduce the principal themes (school-based curriculum, green schools, environmental education for sustainability, Chinese “environmental culture” and Chinese “educational culture”) that run through all of the chapters. Major trends will be identified and key questions raised that will be addressed in subsequent chapters.
Values and Ideology It is commonplace to find in the educational literature references to the Confucian Heritage Cultures (Lee, 1996), a shorthand term intended to encompass a wide range of ideas, values, ideologies and religious expression. It is also commonplace to find in Chinese cultural artifacts – including poetry, drama, musical expression opera and painting – recurring symbols that have survived centuries of social, economic and political change. This symbolism underpins attempts by generations of Chinese philosophers and religious leaders to understand the nature of the universe and the place of humanity within it. From a Western perspective, there are many, often disconnected, environmental stereotypes that carry messages about China. These may be derived from exhibitions of Chinese classical painting, tourism presentations that highlight particular sites (the Great Wall, the palaces of Beijing, the terracotta army, the Yangtse gorges, the Shanghai waterfront, the temples of Tibet, these illustrate some of the most familiar),
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advertising related to major sporting events such as the Beijing Olympics, and many other popular sources. There is an association of China with Asian religions, even though the state is officially atheist. There is also a strong association with the communist stance of the state and the complexities related to the contemporary balance between socialist communitarianism and individualistic entrepreneurship and capitalism. The turbulence of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the shock of Tiananmen Square are part of this stereoptyped imagery. What is clear is that, despite the strong national state political ideology, rich and varied folk customs and intellectual traditions have persisted and evolved over the centuries. Many of these are directly related to the natural environment with fantasy plants and creatures enmeshed with real fauna and flora deeply embedded into the national consciousness. Guides to an understanding of what have been described as “Chinese traditional auspicious patterns” (see, for example, Williams, 1976; Werner, 1994; Li, 1989) serve to introduce the historical and cultural interactions between art, literature, belief and religion. As Werner (1994: 93) commented, “The Chinese pantheon has gradually become so multitudinous that there is scarcely a being or thing which is not, or has not been at some time or other, propitiated and worshipped”. Stories, poems and pictures abound in Chinese culture, embracing such exotic beasts as the phoenix and the unicorn along with surviving animals such as the panda, the lion, the tiger, the elephant and the horse. The narcissus, the lotus, the jasmine and the magnolia appear amid an array of other plants and flowers while the crane, the peacock and the swallow are examples drawn from the bird world. While superstition and religion are not promoted in mainland China, it is difficult for children to ignore traditional, auspicious phenomena. They are evident in local architecture and in various cultural forms. The transfer of traditions from adults to children over the generations not only contributes to consolidating a Chinese identity, it also serves to establish a moral code that relates daily life to a number of concerns, including respect for the natural environment. Traditional Chinese cultural forms are important components of the environmental education of young children. In addition to these cultural phenomena, there are values with an enduring quality that have been communicated from one generation to another. Some of these have religious origins, others stem from the writings of revered thinkers. An historical review of Chinese philosophy indicates that often these two – the secular and the religious – merge to produce bodies of influential writing that have deeply influenced Chinese value systems. In the context of religious values, the predominant influences in mainland China can be traced to Buddhist, Taoist and Lamaist sources. These can be readily found in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan but to them must be added Christian values that were introduced by the colonialists. In these places the whole panoply of Christian denominations find expression, evident in arrangements for state and private schooling. In mainland China religion is absent from state schooling. The transmission of traditional values occurs through non-school channels, including the family and the popular media. The Chinese philosopher Fung Yu-Lan (1976) has made a fundamental distinction between worldliness and other-worldliness as two trends of thought that “rivaled
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one another, but also complemented each other” (p. 22). While acknowledging that the evolution of Chinese philosophy was the concern for a small cultural elite and popular culture took little of the high culture into account, we need to recognise that, in influencing political leaders, the cultural elite did impact a broader populace. For the peasantry, economic survival has dominated: little time was, and, indeed, is available for articulate, reflective thought. It was for philosophers to attempt to give meaning to life and to explain the relationships between people and their environment. Notions of Heaven and Earth, the relationships between individuals and the Universe and relationships of individuals one with another have found rich and varied interpretations over the centuries. Some interpretations focus on the here and now – worldliness – while others are more general – other-worldliness – encompassing the whole human condition unbounded by temporal or spatial considerations. For our purposes, the contrasts between Taoism and Confucianism with regard to the natural environment serve to highlight the importance of philosophical considerations in contributing to an understanding of Chinese children and their environment. In an essay about environmental sustainability and Taoism, Chen Xia (undated) writes, “If man is in agreement with nature, and nature is well treated by human beings, the world will be peaceful and harmonious, and all things will be prosperous – a situation beneficial to man. If nature suffers from human beings, it will retaliate against man, causing calamitous suffering and the extinction of species”. Taoism emphasises the search for the Way, sometimes referred to as the Truth. It encourages a withdrawal from civilisation and a rejection of conspicuous consumption. In visual terms, it finds expression in classical Chinese landscape paintings where a solitary figure is to be seen looking reflectively into the landscape. It can also find expression in the temples located on the edges of precipices or on mountain peaks high above the clouds. Distinguishing sharply between what is natural (of nature) and the artificial (of humans), Taoism encourages people to respect the natural environment and to seek to achieve human–environment harmony. Promoting harmony is a fundamental tenet of Confucianism and is an essential basis for articulating environmental values. Readers of the Analects may be disappointed by its brevity and lack of attention to environmental concerns. However, it is important to recognise that Confucianism extends well beyond the writings of Confucius to include the Six Classics: Yi (Book of Changes), Shih (Book of Poetry), Shu (Book of History), Li (Book of Rituals), Yue (Book of Music) and Ch’un Ch’iu (Spring and Autumn Annals). Confucianism has much to offer concerning social order and personal morality. As Fung Yu-Lan wrote (1976: 45): “…the Taoists taught the theory of “doing nothing,” whereas as the Confucianists taught that of “doing for nothing””. The value of a person doing what ought to be done lies in the doing itself and not in any other outcome of an action. Tung Chung-Shu was a great Confucian theoriser and he argued that the universe had “ten constituents: Heaven, Earth, the Yin and Yang; the Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Soil, Metal, and Water, and finally man. Thus Wood produces Fire, Fire produces Soil, Soil produces Metal, Metal produces Water, and Water produces Wood. This is the process of their mutual production. But Wood overcomes Soil, Soil overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, Fire overcomes Metal, and Metal
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overcomes Wood. This is the process of their mutual overcoming” (Fung Yu-Lan, 1976: 193). Tung Chung-Shu links Wood, Fire, Metal and Water with each of the four seasons and also with the cardinal points of the compass. Humans fit into this cosmological view but not as isolated individuals. Within this broad cosmological pattern of Confucian thought the person is seen in relationship to others and not as an isolated individual. “The Confucian tradition stresses the importance of cooperative group effort so that individual concerns are sublimated to a larger sense of the common good. In this view, self-interest and altruism for a common cause are not mutually exclusive, and responsibilities rather than rights are stressed. Such a communitarian value system may be indispensable for fostering sustainable communities” (Tucker, undated). Confucianism is frequently associated with respect for ancestors and the need for a harmonious hierarchical structure for social order. This interpersonal respect can be generalised to include respect for the constituents of the natural environment. Moving to more recent times, while Taoism and Confucianism have evolved over the centuries to produce Neo-Confucian and Neo-Taoist forms, a radical transformation occurred in Chinese philosophy with the introduction of modern Western science and Christianity and this was followed by the impact of Leninist–Marxist ideas on the post-1949 Communist regime. In 1949 when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded, slogans reflecting a national orientation towards peopleenvironment relationships such as “combating nature” and “conquering nature” were popular. This was reflected in education where, according to Zhu and Dillon (2001: 344), “…the main thrust of the curriculum through the whole educational system appeared to be anti-nature” before the 1980s. Despite the possible ideological incongruence between Communism (implying liberation and class struggle) and Confucianism (implying traditional views), there may be less value conflict between the Communist and the Confucian views of nature. Harris (2006: 8) has succinctly remarked on “Chinese” perceived values of the environment: …the Chinese have a very instrumental view of the natural world: It exi[s]ts for the benefit of people. This mirrors traditional Chinese thought, notably Confucianism, which – despite sometimes being invoked as a model for environmentalism – is an anthropocentric paradigm. The aesthetic and ethical valuation of the environment and nature are low among most Chinese; nature is commonly viewed as being alien and worthy of improvement by human manipulation.
Weller (2006: 134) further remarks, …it is difficult to see how any of the indigenous potentials for an alternative environmentalism might be realized on a large scale, at least without a fundamental change in elite attitudes. The only nudge in that direction so far has come from the Buddhists, but the environmental aspect of their thinking remains less developed than others, and they have had little influence on China so far.
Despite the diverse indigenous views of nature laid down through the village lineage and temples, in addition to the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have both exerted some influence on shaping the environmental thoughts in China and Taiwan, the authoritarian history of both places prevents them from institutionalisation at a broader scale (Weller, 2006).
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Since the 1949 revolution and subsequent political changes, such as the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and early 1970s, the emphasis on Communist and Maoist ideologies (sometimes known as the “Red” approach) has led to rigid censorship or control over the teaching content in school. As argued by Qian and Huang (1997: 62): The emphasis on being “politically correct” in education appeared to contradict the notion of “keeping harmony with nature” in Chinese philosophy…Even students in school had to be cautious about what they wrote…The rigid control over the content and conformity to traditions inevitably led teachers to stress structures, traditions, and moralistic values in education instead of fostering students’ flexible learning and critical thinking abilities and encouraging their self-expression.
Since the opening-up policy of the early 1980s, Deng Xiaoping’s saying “To get rich is glorious” has stimulated an emphasis on wealth creation and material consumption concomitant with economic development (Harris, 2006). The political and economic changes since 1949 have to some extent diluted the influence of traditional environmental thoughts. Deng et al. (2006: 42) comment: …there is a value shift occurring in both China and Western countries, with the traditional Chinese worldview of a harmonious relationship between humans and nature decreasing since 1949 and especially since the 1980s. Correspondingly, the Western worldview of mastery over nature has also begun to change.
Primary Education in the PRC With regard to the PRC, universalisation and modernisation are key concepts for understanding the current state of primary education. Since 1949 China has made considerable progress in providing some kind of primary education for all of the children within its boundaries. However, in looking at progress in achieving universal school attendance we need to recognise a significant difference in quantitative and qualitative data. Numbers of schools, pupils and teachers should not be confused either with quality of school experience and output or with efficiency. The Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education sought to provide tuition-free primary schooling with children entering 5-year primary schools at 7 years of age for 6 days a week. While tuition was to be provided free, parents were expected to pay a small fee to cover textbooks, transport to and from school, food, and heating. Stipends were available for poor families. The provision and organisation of schools has been delegated by the central government to local communities. While China can be very loosely divided into three regions, the prosperous coastlands, the “average” central provinces and the economically poorer west, there are considerable local variations within each region. The poorer remote communities are unable to support full-time schooling and it is not unusual to find half day primary schools with an itinerant teacher travelling from one school to the next. The poorest communities are unable to provide schooling every day and are unable to provide a full 5-year programme. Commonly, they offer a very restricted curriculum, little more than Chinese language, mathematics, and moral education that includes political ideology.
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The modernisation process can be traced to the steps taken to open up China to the outside world in 1978. It was the policy document produced by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1985, titled Decision on the Reform of the Educational Structure, that laid down the principle that local government bodies at county and township levels should be responsible for primary education. The following year the National People’s Congress promulgated the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, providing the legislative authority for this decentralisation. In 1993 the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council jointly issued the Guidelines for the Reform and Development of Education in China. This was the key document for establishing the direction of education reform, leading China into the next century and it led to the Law of Education promulgated in 1995. The following year saw the publication of The Ninth Five-Year Plan for China’s Educational Development and the Development Outline in 2010 (Ministry of Education, PRC, 1996). This laid the foundations for the contemporary educational system, intensifying the drive at central government level towards universalisation and modernisation. These recent policy statements need to be read as part of the strategy embraced by the government’s slogan Invigorate China through Science, Technology and Education. Here we see the intensification of the drive towards educational modernisation in the light of the transformation taking place in the Chinese economy. Not only should education be responsive to this pressure, it also had to contribute through higher levels of literacy, numeracy and vocational skills to sustained economic progress. The translation of the broad policy framework into action was the subject of the Action Plan for Promoting Education for the 21st Century, published and ratified by the State Council in 1999 (an alternative translation is the Action Plan for Educational Vitalization Facing the 21st Century). In the same year, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council jointly promulgated the Decision on the Deepening of Educational Reform and the Full Promotion of Quality Education. The year 2001 witnessed the adoption of The Tenth Five-Year Plan for China’s Educational Development and the Development Outline in 2015 and this, too, emphasised the critical importance of education for the future of China. Clearly, at national levels there has been no shortage of initiatives, reforms and frameworks, indicating the concern of the central government to improve continuous progress in schooling. However, much remains to be done. A recent UNICEF report has identified the principal challenges facing the providers of primary education in China. Poverty inevitably leads to truancy and it is claimed that about a million children drop out of schooling every year with girls and children from ethnic minorities predominating. The central government had set a target for a 90% completion rate in primary education by 2005 though meeting this target proved impossible. Even if the children could be encouraged to attend school and complete the full programme, many schools “…lack the resources to provide more than 2–3 years of schooling. They are poorly equipped, often providing little more than desks and chairs, and their curricula are severely limited, leading to a high drop-out rate. An estimated two thirds of China’s un-enrolled school age children are girls… girls who are enrolled are the first to
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drop out when economic pressures affect their families” (UNICEF, undated). The report is critical of rote learning methods in classrooms and this discourages independence and creative thinking. The implications of this for generating the industrial and community leaders and administrators in a wide range of organisations are obvious: “the pressures of competing in a market economy provide China with a clear incentive for rearing creative, independent thinkers. To a large extent, this battle will be won or lost in the classroom” (UNICEF, undated). Not only are the schools often hampered by inadequate teaching and learning materials, they often lack experienced and qualified teachers. Implementing policies for curriculum reform, including any proposals for including education for sustainability, is extremely difficult given the poverty, school attendance, and the restricted teaching resources. The contemporary curriculum of Chinese primary schools was introduced in 1993 by the Teaching Scheme (Curriculum) for Full-time Primary and Secondary Schools (Pilot), This provided a detailed framework that included the arrangement of subjects and the syllabuses to be taught. Essentially, the subjects fell into two categories - subjects designated by the central government and those that were arranged locally. It was intended that the latter subjects would reflect local needs at provincial level. However, as indicated above, local circumstances have dictated that the curriculum offered in schools varies from one place to another. Thus, schools in the poorer regions were often unable to offer much more than the Chinese language and mathematics, the two subjects required for graduation at the end of the primary stage. In more affluent areas, especially in the cities, a wider curriculum has been provided including physical education, music, drawing, nature studies, history, and geography. Primary schools have also been required by the national government to provide moral education, including communist ideology, patriotism and civic education. The translation of government curriculum guidelines into action has been achieved largely through the publication of textbooks. The practice of publishing one textbook series in each subject for all schools in China has been replaced by more decentralised arrangements where textbooks can take account of provincial circumstances. As we shall see later in this book, the scope for developing education for sustainable development is governed by the flexibility of the school curriculum, the openness of the school timetable, the availability of qualified teachers and the capacity of the system to generate appropriate teaching materials. It is not simply a matter of increased resource provision, there are also quality issues that are systemic in character. In the words of a government document: The coordinated relationship between scale and speed and between quality and efficiency should be dealt with properly to consistently implement the policy of integrating scale, speed and quality. Without scale, there will be no speed and without quality, efficiency will not be materialized either. To expand the scale is a kind of development and to improve quality and efficiency also demonstrates development. Facing the trend of neglecting quality and efficiency while emphasizing quantity and speed, it is necessary for us to prioritize the issue of improving quality and efficiency, so that the development mode of education should be changed from scale expansion and speed acceleration to quality and efficiency improvement. (Ministry of Education, PRC, 1996)
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Environment and Environmental Education China As in any other country, China faces a vast array of environmentally related problems as it seeks to develop at great pace a modern, sustainable economy with a highly sophisticated infrastructure. Western nations are observing the “Chinese tiger” economy as a threat to their industrial and commercial sectors while welcoming the flood of low price imports from rapidly expanding Chinese industrial centres. Industrial expansion is occurring alongside large-scale internal population migration as workers are drawn from the rural areas to the cities. Not only does this result in considerable changes in rural economies and national demographic patterns, it also leads to changes in the distribution of wealth and the emergence of both new wealthy and impoverished social classes. The emergence of a number of megalopolises is also a feature of contemporary China, with Shanghai (estimated population in 2015: 13.6 million) and Beijing (estimated population in 2015: 11.7 million) at the top of the expanding cities list. Given the geographical extent of China and the scale of the economy, it is not surprising that all types of environmental degradation and environmental improvement can be observed. Desertification, deforestation, air, soil and water pollution, acidification, depletion of mineral resources and the threat of extinction of flora and fauna species are just some of the problems. Urban environments, whether in China, Hong Kong or Macao have their own distinctive array of environmental problems. A White Paper published by the Chinese government in 2006 provides detailed information about how these problems are being tackled. The legislative background is reviewed and the priorities for government action are listed. With regard to pollution, we read: In recent years, the Chinese government has focused its pollution-control efforts on what are known as the “key regions”, with marked achievements to its credit. The “key regions” refer to the three rivers (Huaihe, Liaohe and Haihe), the three lakes (Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu), the major state projects (the Three Gorges Project and the South-North Water Diversion Project), the “two control’s area” (sulfur dioxide control area and acid raincontrol area), Beijing and the Bohai Sea. (State Council Information Office, 2006)
These pollution controls can be set within a list of policies that are actively being promulgated. The White Paper reviews the following: afforestation; the protection of pastures; land protection, development and treatment; water and soil conservation; sand prevention and control; marine environmental protection; the construction of nature reserves, protected eco-areas, and places of historical interest and scenic beauty; conservation of biodiversity; and wetland protection. The joining of China to the United Nations (UN) in 1971 significantly shaped its strategy towards environmental protection and conservation. Prior to this, environmental policy tended to focus on environmental hygiene and health. Roch and Wilkening (2007), citing Edmonds (1999: 640) and others, stated that international efforts for environmental protection had exerted positive influences on Chinese
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environmental protection and environmental education endeavours in the 1970s. There were three reasons for this (p. 49): “greater environmental awareness and increased openness, realization that the environment can be a bargaining tool in international diplomacy, and increase in importation of environmental protection techniques”. Participation of the Chinese government in the UN Human and Environment Conference in 1972 led to the formulation of a tentative Act for Environment Protection, which marked the beginnings of environmental protection and education in China (Jiang, 1994; Lee and Tilbury, 1998). Lee and Tilbury (1998) have suggested that there were three phases in the development of environmental education policies in China. First there was the expert phase extending from 1973 to 1982. The Standing Committee of the fifth National People’s Congress passed the Law of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China (for trial use) in 1979 but it tended to adopt an environmental science rather than an environmental education approach, emphasising knowledge and the training of experts as the panacea for environmental problems. Secondly, there was the “red” phase from 1983 to 1992. In the Second National Environmental Protection meeting in 1983, Vice-premier Li Peng announced that environmental protection was to be one of the major national policies in China, advocating that, from 1990, national defence education and environmental education were to be included as part of extra-curricular activities and would be permeated through related school subjects. Environmental responsibility was viewed as a national duty and patriotic act and environmental education was gradually moving from environmental science towards a socialist or “red” approach which involved raising public consciousness of the need for environmental protection. In 1992, the Ministry of Education issued the Nine-Year Curriculum Plan for Full-time Compulsory Education in Elementary, Middle, and High Schools (trial implementation). Students were expected to understand the fundamental domestic conditions relating to aspects of population, resources, environment, and so forth. Following the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Chinese government drew up China’s Agenda for the Twenty-first Century in 1994. Thirdly there was the “sustainability” phase extending from 1992 to the present. Following the Rio Summit in 1992, the Chinese government developed its own Agenda 21 and published a White Paper on China’s Population, Environment and Development in the 21st Century in 1994. This called for “strengthening the indoctrination of the concept of sustainable development for people receiving education… [and] cultivating students’ affection for the environment and responsibility for the society, which in turn change unsustainable behaviour and lifestyle towards the environment” (Ministry of Education, PRC, 2003a: 5). In 1996, the Chinese government advocated the strategy “Invigorate China through Science, Technology and Education as well as Sustainable Development” for national development. Despite the efforts to promote it, environmental education has tended to emphasise environmental knowledge while the cultivation of environmental skills and values were relatively ignored (Ministry of Education, PRC, 2003a: 6). Though the term sustainable development was rarely found in official publications and papers on
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environmental education before the late-1990s, the reference to social development and quality of life in these documents had strengthened the “red” approach to environmental education in China. In 1997, the concept of sustainable development was formalised in the UNESCO conference in Slovenia, and since then it has become much more familiar in Chinese policy-making. To see what this might mean for education we need to address the priorities for environmental protection determined by the recently established Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) (formerly State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)). This agency highlighted five basic principles (adapted from SEPA, 1995: 260–261; Chan, 2004: 79): • To strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection • To maintain a certain level of economic growth in developing countries in order to alleviate poverty and to increase their capacity in both local and global environmental protection • To follow the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility” by the developed countries for taking more responsibilities and efforts in helping developing countries to combat their environmental problems through aids and technology transfer • To uphold the principle of non-interference and to maintain the integrity of state sovereignty and • To avoid the detachment of environmental protection and development from peace development and stability While the 1970s and the 1980s affirmed the role of education for economic construction and take-off in the Chinese Mainland, the role of education shifted to promote national economic and technological innovation in the 1990s in the light of challenges from the knowledge economy. We referred above to the White Paper on China’s Population, Environment and Development in the 21st Century adopted by the Executive Committee of the PRC on March 24, 1994 (See http://www.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/database/poplaws/law_china/ch_record014. htm#Chapter6%20Programme%20B. Accessed on January 25, 2008). With regard to primary education this paragraph (6.21) from the White Paper is particularly relevant: Encourage the idea of sustainable development in students’ thinking. Incorporate information about natural resources, ecology, the environment and sustainable development into primary school nature courses and middle school geography classes.
Wang Min (2006: 31–32) has identified three main strands of thought on sustainable development education in China: • Emphasis on people’s sustainable development: This strand emerged from the concept of “people as the core of sustainable development”. Some scholars linked sustainable development with lifelong education and quality education while others linked sustainable development to three or four “learnings” (“learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be”) and three
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“facings” (“facing the world, facing the future and facing the modernization” or “oriented towards modernization, the future and the world” (Agelasto and Adamson, 1998: 4). • Emphasis on education’s sustainable development: This strand also emerged from the concept of “people as the core of sustainable development” and emphasised the quality of people as the key to sustainable development. Education is viewed as a focus on coordination, equity and sustainability. • Emphasis on education for sustainable development highlighting the coordinated development of population, resources, environment and development. This is viewed as an important means for realising the sustainable development strategy as espoused by the UNESCO. Basic curriculum reform started in China in 2001 and many of the school subjects have since incorporated elements of environmental education. Environmental education is also included as one of the themes in the integrated activity curriculum. In 2003, the Ministry of Education published Syllabuses for special topics education on preventing AIDS, preventing drugs and environmental education for primary and middle school students (Ministry of Education, PRC, 2003b). At junior primary level (P1–3), the teaching content is exemplified by, expressing one’s own feeling about the surroundings, perceiving the impact of daily lives on the natural environment and understanding and practising the code of environmentally friendly behaviour for primary students.
At the senior primary level (P4–6), …surveying and understanding the basic characteristics of the community and local environment, understanding changes in the natural environment of the community and its connection with people’s living, analyzing the direct or indirect possible impact of one’s own and other’s behaviour on the environment; making judgments on friendly and unfriendly behaviour towards the environment’ is suggested as part of the teaching content. (Lee, Lin and Kwan, 2006: 237)
The green school concept was introduced in Europe in the 1990s and rapidly the idea spread from country to country. As early as 1996, the Ministry of Education of China initiated the Green School Project, funded by the State Environmental Protection Administration (now called the Ministry of Environmental Protection). This Green School programme, based on ISO14000 and informed by the European eco-schools, has been run by the Centre for Environmental Education and Communications (CEEC) in China since 2000 (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004: 13). While there are different interpretations of the green school concept, a Chinese scholar, Huang Yu (2003: 25–26), has suggested that a green school should have the following salient features: an environmentally friendly curriculum; environmentally friendly educational climate/ethos; encouragement of whole-school participation (teachers, students and staff); emphasis on the use of the immediate school environment and the local environment as resources for environmental education; mutual openness of community and school; and the promotion of studentcentredness. He further argued that to realise the green school ideals, concepts such as sharing, cultivating a harmonious interpersonal environment as well as respecting
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diverse cultures and values approaches needed to be reinforced (Huang, 2003: 27). In 2003, the Centre for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) of the State Environmental Protection Administration (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection) (2003) issued the Guide of China Green Schools, emphasising the following principles: objectivity; openness and fairness; localised; and encouragement-oriented (pp. 19–20). Alongside the initiatives taking place in ESD, related to China’s Agenda 21 strategy, there were other developments in environmental education. In 2003, the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People’s Republic of China, under the auspices of the Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) project, launched the National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG) (trial) document. According to the NEEG, environmental education (EE) has two main salient characteristics: integrated and practice-oriented (MOE, 2003a: 7). It had the following basic concepts (MOE, 2003a: 7–8): • Guiding students to know the world that is generally connected and interdependent • Guiding students to care about biodiversity and be concerned about the impact of different cultures on the environment • Guiding students to understand the meaning of sustainable development and • Guiding students to participate actively in resolving environmental problems and fostering students’ sense of environmental responsibility The overall objective of EE in the context of China, as expressed in the NEEG, are, guiding students to concern about problems faced by the family, the community, the nation and the globe and know correctly the interdependent relationships among person, society and nature; to help students acquire knowledge and skills required for maintaining personenvironment harmony; to foster affection, attitudes and values conducive to the environment; to encourage students to participate actively in decisions and actions for sustainable development so as to become citizens with social practices ability and responsibility. (p. 11)
To some extent, the phrase “person-environment harmony” reflects the Chinese orientation to nature and other sub-objectives were basically in line with international EE trends. The recent “11–5” period (the Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan) and the 17th National People’s Congress of the Communist Party in China in 2007 have emphasised a people-oriented, holistic, coordinated and sustainable scientific view of development as well as specifying the guiding thoughts and objectives for building a socialist, harmonious society. The Congress also called for a deepened understanding of the environment and the development of interpersonal and peopleenvironment relationships. In the case of environmental communication and education, it was argued that the school curriculum at the basic education level needed to infuse the content of environmental education (Anon., 2007). Circular 203 (SEPA, 2006) issued by China’s State of Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)) stipulated that primary and secondary schools should, dependent on school contexts, consider using time slots in “local” curricula and school-based curricula to organise
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special seminars on environmental education and project-based learning. In addition, the Chinese Government stipulated that during the “11–5” period, environmental communication and education needed to be strengthened so that the objectives and tasks of The Action Guides on National Environmental Communication and Education (1996–2010) could be fully realised (SEPA, 2006).
Macao In the case of Macao, the education system comprises a diversified and uncoordinated collection of educational arrangements imported from Portugal, the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Before the late 1990s, when it was still under Portuguese rule, it was characterised by a laissez faire philosophy (Bray and Hui, 1991). With regard to environmental problems in Macao, there were persistent problems of acid rain and noise pollution in the 1990s (Chan and Tam, 1994). To heighten public awareness of environmental degradation, the Office of Environmental Technology, the Macao Environmental Protection Association, the City Council of Islands in Macao and other organisations became active in the development of social environmental education from the early 1990s. In 1998, the Environment Council of Macao Special Administrative Region (REAM) was restructured and one of its responsibilities was to “to propose and organize training and promotional activities, especially relating to environmental education” (http://www.ambiente.gov.mo/english/02/. Accessed on June 16, 2007). While an interdisciplinary approach was advocated, most schools did not have a strong commitment to implementing holistic environmental education and most environmental education was achieved through subject teaching in geography, biology and chemistry in secondary schools and social studies, science and health education in primary schools (Lee and Ma, 1996). Kwong (1998, 1999) remarked that Macao encountered the following constraints in promoting environmental education: inadequacy and low level of environmental education; lack of organised and long-term system planning; lack of organic alignment and coherence among the government, schools, social organisations and families; inadequacy of resources, teacher training and professional manpower as well as research funds; lack of comprehensive environmental education and communication materials related to the context of Macao; and packed and tight curriculum time in school making the introduction of a specialised subject for teaching environmental education difficult. Despite the lack of guidelines and other constraints, the Macao government has paid attention to the promotion of environmental education through organising training courses for teachers. For example, the Environmental Council worked with the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau in providing an environmental education course on “water resources, climatic changes and environmental problems” for teachers (http://www.ambiente.gov.mo/tchinese/08/2007/19.asp. Accessed on June 17, 2007).
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Taiwan In Taiwan, an Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan was established in 1987 and the Division of Environmental Protection Education was established under the Ministry of Education in 1990. The document Essential Components of Environmental Education was promulgated in 1992 under the Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan (http://ivy3.epa.gov.tw/ cp/education-announce/page/12-fco/12-fco-ok01.htm. Accessed on June 17, 2007). This stipulated that primary school children should be encouraged to understand the “rural” environment, love their environment, history and culture through direct contact with the natural environment and historical antiques so as to cultivate their correct life attitudes and habits (Teng and Liu, 1995: 181). In addition, a “three-year implementation plan for strengthening environmental education in schools” was set up. This plan had six major items: promotion of environmental management in schools (e.g., implementing environmental management in sustainable schools); realisation of environmental teaching (e.g., developing environmental teaching materials); promotion of an environmentally friendly school campus life; establishment of environmental education facilities; and recognition by awards (e.g., recognising school teachers and students for promoting environmental protection) and chances for international exchange (e.g., participating in international conferences) ( http://ivy3.epa.gov.tw/cp/education-announce/page/12-fco/12-fco-ok01.htm. Accessed on June 19, 2007). In 1999 the Ministry of Education launched The Action Programme for Education Reform and initiated the Nine-year Articulated Curriculum Guideline, which included the promotion of a school-based curriculum and an integrated curriculum (Hwang et al., 2006). The curriculum guideline covered the whole curriculum and identified not only ten key competencies and seven key learning areas but also six key issues, one of which was environmental education (http://www.edu.tw/ EDU_WEB/EDU_MGT/EJE/EDU5147002/9CC/9CC.html. Accessed on June 19, 2007). The curriculum objectives for environmental education included five aspects: environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity; environmental conceptual knowledge; environmental values and attitudes; environmental action skills; and environmental action experiences. These could be infused into various learning areas (language, arts and humanities, integrated activities, social studies, nature and life technology, health and physical education) and could be aligned with different key competencies (understanding self and development potentials, appreciation, performance and innovation, career planning and lifelong learning, expression, communication and sharing, respect, caring and team work, intercultural learning and international understanding, planning, organisation and practice, using technology and information, active inquiry and research, independent thinking and problem-solving). Chang (2001) has suggested that by infusing environmental education into the 9-year curriculum, the emphasis on environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity could make use of outdoor teaching and experiential activities; the emphasis on environmental values and attitudes could make use of
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values analysis and values clarification; the emphasis on subject integration could use “environment” as the issue for curriculum and instructional design; the dual attention paid to global perspective and local consciousness could make use of local environmental teaching; and emphasis on environmental action could start from issues in daily lives. Liang (2007) identified six stages of EE policy changes in Taiwan: 1990–1999: EE Centers; 1995–1998: Nature Education Center; 1998–today: Environmental Security and Hygienic Center; 2000–today: Taiwan Greenschool Partnership and Network Project (see Chapter 11); 2003–today: Sustainable School Campus Project; and 2000–today: County EE Project. He further pointed out that current EE tended to highlight local governance, collective school action, interdisciplinary themes, a sustained stimulus, whole school approaches, co-operation and partnership (p. 5).
Hong Kong In Hong Kong, the Government White Paper Pollution in Hong Kong – A Time to Act was published in 1989 and one of its responsibilities was to “encourage the development, through the formal education system, of a well informed, environmentally aware and responsible community” (p. 43). In early 1990, the Environmental Campaign Committee was established to co-ordinate the distribution of resources for promoting environmental activities followed by the issuing of the Guidelines on Environmental Education for Schools in 1992 (revised in 1999) (Lee, 1997, 2000). Here environmental education was viewed as encompassing education about, in and for the environment. In the revised document, a model for environmental education towards sustainable development was proposed in which students “should develop those qualities of environmental citizenship including values, attitudes, competences, beliefs and behaviour, which enable them to become informed decision-makers through active interaction with the natural and social environments in the local context while bearing the global context in mind” (Curriculum Development Council, 1999: 7). Following the changeover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the Chief Executive highlighted the importance of sustainable development in his Policy Address in 1999 (http://www.susdev.gov.hk/html/en/sd/index.htm. Accessed on June 16, 2007). A Sustainable Development Unit (SDU), the Council for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Fund were then set up to promote sustainability in Hong Kong. In 2001, the Curriculum Development Council published a curriculum reform blueprint, including eight key learning areas and nine generic skills. This document supported school-based curriculum development and encouraged partnerships with other organisations and sectors in realising the reform. In addition, four key tasks were recommended for helping students develop independent learning capabilities, including moral and civic education, reading to learn, project learning and information technology for interactive learning. Moral and civic education covers various issues ranging from sex education, religious education, media education to environmental protection (Curriculum Development
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Council, 2001: 84). Different values and attitudes are also incorporated in the school curriculum and “sustainability” is one of the social core values and “with a respect for the environment” is one of the proposed attitudes (pp. II–2). The Curriculum Development Institute of the Education Department (now the Education Bureau) also issued a teacher handbook on sustainable development education for primary school teachers to assist them in implementing environmental education. Since 2002, the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) has launched a School Outreach Programme aiming at raising awareness among secondary school students of the issue of sustainable development. In Hong Kong, a Green School Award scheme was organised by the Environmental Campaign Committee, the Environmental Protection Department and the Education Department (now the Education Bureau) in 2000 to promote comprehensive green management in primary and secondary schools. In the Green School Award, the participating schools needed to submit a self-assessment plan according to the criteria set out by the organisers. These criteria encompassed environmental infrastructure, environmental management, environmental education, effectiveness of environmental education and school members’ participation in environmental activities.
Organisation of this Book Our book is intended to offer an in-depth presentation of contemporary aspects of education for sustainable development in Chinese contexts. The growing literature in the broad field of education for sustainability and education for sustainable development has a strong Western character. Research and scholarly studies are commonly underpinned by values and assumptions derived from Western culture, broadly defined. In the late 1990s a group of scholars led by Yencken, Fien and Sykes undertook a comparative study of the environmental knowledge and attitudes of teenagers (aged 14–17) in the Asia-Pacific Region. They produced an influential book, Environment, Education and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local traditions and global discourses (2000), and one of its conclusions was, “Reorienting education for sustainability is a powerful rhetoric and a wonderful aspiration. However, there is much to be learnt about the processes of educational innovation and change. Learning from the successful experiences of other educational reform movements, and interpreting their lessons to education for sustainability, must become the new priority of priorities for education” (Fien, 2000: 275). While Chinese experience lies at the heart of our book, and will be a very distinctive feature, a second characteristic will be the focus on young learners at the primary (elementary) stage of schooling. Much of the existing literature is concerned specifically with the learning of adolescents in secondary schools. Our book has three sections. Initially, the focus is on the academic foundations, trends and traditions of environmental education for sustainable development in a Chinese context. We acknowledge that there is a rich and expanding Western literature in the field, much of it written in English, and we shall introduce carefully selected examples drawn from this literature to complement work undertaken in Chinese
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and other Asian contexts. Following this chapter, where we have highlighted a number of contextual factors contributing to an understanding of the broad approach to education for sustainable development in Chinese cultural contexts, Chapter 2 highlights the dimensions of environmental education and education for sustainable development. It gives an historical snapshot, since the 1960s, of international approaches to EE/ESD through the analysis of major conferences and documents. National approaches to EE/ESD are discussed, followed by a discussion of the Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) international project with concluding remarks focusing on the declaration of the 4th International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE) held in 2007. Chapter 3 deals with assessment and evaluation, including an overview of new learning approaches and assessment for ESD and a consideration of the assessment and evaluation cultures in the Chinese communities. This is followed by examples of strategies of assessment and evaluation for ESD. Another major part of this chapter is a focus on self-evaluation of whole-school approaches to ESD. Chapter 4 explores whole school and community approaches in ESD. Starting with an analysis of educational contexts, as well as the interactions between globalisation, collectivist and localised cultures, the notion of “Chinese” teachers and learners is discussed. This is followed by a literature review of students’ environmental learning in Chinese communities. Chapter 5 focuses on curriculum change and leadership issues related to ESD. On the one hand, school is seen as a basic unit of change with an orientation towards “organisational learning and professional community”. On the other hand, leadership from a complexity theory perspective for sustainability is promoted. The second section addresses contexts and case studies, comprising chapters that illustrate and discuss recent EE/ESD initiatives in the Chinese communities. It includes chapters from Hong Kong on the Education for Sustainable Development Project and case studies of green schools. This section highlights recent initiatives in school-based ESD curriculum development programmes and/or case studies of green schools in China, Macao and Taiwan. Chapter 6 discusses and compares two major EE/ESD projects: the Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) project and the Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development (EPD) Project in China. Chapter 7 discusses the development of green schools in China and offers mini-case studies of green schools. Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the project on Education for Sustainable Development for Primary Schools in Hong Kong SAR. Chapter 8 focuses on the context of reform, project organisation, the extent to which project objectives were met, and project deliverables. Chapter 9 highlights three case studies from the project. Chapter 10 provides case studies of green primary schools in Hong Kong SAR. Chapter 11 discusses the development, as well as the challenges and prospects, of the Greenschool Project (GPPT) in Taiwan. Chapter 12 focuses on the development of environmental education towards sustainable development in Macao SAR. The final chapter, offers an overview that extrapolates from the previously discussed case studies and examples, and points to likely future developments as well as echoing Western theories and practices in environmental education for sustainable development.
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References Agelasto, M. and Adamson, B. (1998). Higher Education in Post-Mao China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Anon. (2007). Opinions related to doing the job well on environmental education and communication during the “11–5” period. Environmental Education, 1, 4–7. Bray, M. and Hui, P. (1991). Curriculum development in Macau. In C. Marsh and P. Morris (eds.), Curriculum Development in East Asia (pp. 181–201). London: Falmer Press. Center for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (ed.) (2003). Guide of China Green School. Beijing: CEEC of SEPA. Chan, G. (2004). China’s compliance in global environmental affairs. Asia-Pacific Viewpoint, 45(1), 69–86. Chan, S. K. and Tam, W. K. (1994). Environmental pollution and its evolution in Macau, Zhuhai and Hong Kong. Journal of Macau Studies, 2, 77–87. Chang, T. (2001). Nine-year articulated curriculum reform and infusion of environmental education. In T. Chang (ed.), Environmental Education Curriculum Design (pp. 109–127). Taiwan: National Taiwan Normal University [in Chinese]. Chen Xia (undated). Daoism and Environment Protection. http://www.crvp.org/conf/Istanbul/ abstracts/CHEN%20XIA.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2007. Curriculum Development Council (CDC) (1999). Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department. Curriculum Development Council (CDC) (2001). Learning to Learn: Life-Long Learning and Whole-Person Development. Hong Kong: Printing Department. Deng, J., Walker, G. J. and Swinnerton, G. (2006). A comparison of environmental values and attitudes between Chinese in Canada and Anglo-Canadians. Environment and Behavior, 38(1), 22–47. Edmonds, R. I. (1999). The environment in the People’s Republic of China 50 years on. China Quarterly, 159, 640–649. Feng, G.-F. (translated), Chuang, T. (1974). Inner Chapters. London: Wildwood House. Fung, Y-L. (1976). A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. New York: Free Press. Fien, J. (2000). Listening to the voice of youth: Implications for educational reform. In D. Yencken, J. Fien and H. Sykes (eds.), Environment, Education and Society in the AsiaPacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses (pp. 251–275). London: Routledge. Harris, P. G. (2006). Environmental perspectives and behavior in China: Synopsis and bibliography. Environment and Behavior, 38(1), 5–21. Henderson, K. and Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-School Approaches to Sustainability: An International Review of Sustainable School Programs. Report prepared by the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES) for the Department of Environment and Heritage, Australian Government. Huang, Y. (2003). Development of international environmental education and China’s “Green School”. Comparative Education Review, 1(152), 23–27 [in Chinese]. Hwang, J. J., Yu, C-C. and Chang, C-Y. (2006). School improvement in Taiwan, 1987–2003. In J.C.K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), School Improvement: International Perspectives (pp. 201–212). New York: Nova Science. Jiang, X. (1994). Case Studies of Environmental Education in the People’s Republic of China (mimeograph). Beijing: People’s Republic of China UNESCO National Committee Secretariat [in Chinese]. Kwong, H. C. (1998). Macau environmental education. Lotus, 8. http://www.ambiente.gov.mo/ tchinese/07/lotus08/l0815.asp. Accessed on June 16, 2007 [in Chinese]. Kwong, H. C. (1999). Macau Environmental Education [Educacao Ambiental de Macau]. Macau: Sun Fai [in Chinese]. Lee, J. C. K. (1997). Environmental education in schools in Hong Kong. Environmental Education Research, 3(3), 359–371.
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Lee, J. C. K. (1998). Theory and Practice in Environmental Education in Primary and Secondary Schools: Towards Sustainable Development. Beijing: UNESCO/Beijing Normal University Press [in Chinese]. Lee, J. C. K. (2000). Teacher receptivity to curriculum change in the implementation stage: The case of environmental education in Hong Kong. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(1), 95–115. Lee, J. C. K. and Chung, Y. P. S. (2003). Knowledge foundation: Education for sustainable development. In Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) (Electronic). Oxford: Eolss. http:// greenplanet.eolss.net. Accessed May 12, 2008. Lee, J. C. K., and Ma, W. H. T. (1996). Environmental education through subject teaching in Macau: Lessons from a small state. International Journal of Environmental Education and Information, 15(2), 109–120. Lee, J. C. K. and Tilbury, D. (1998). Changing environments: The challenges for environmental education in China. Geography, 83(3), 227–236. Lee, J. C. K. and Williams, M. (2001). Researching environmental education in the school curriculum: An introduction for students and teacher researchers. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 10(3), 218–244. Lee, J. C. K., Lin, P. and Kwan, T. Y. L. (2006). Environmental and geographical education for sustainability in Hong Kong and China: Trends and issues. In J. C. K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 229–245). New York: Nova Science. Lee, W. O. (1996). The cultural context for Chinese learners: Conceptions of learning in the Confucian tradition. In D. A. Watkins and J. H. Biggs (eds.), The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences (pp. 25–41). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong/Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd. Legge, J. and Yang, B-J. (translated) (1996). The Four Books of Confucianism. Chang Sha: Hu Nan Publication. Li, Z. D. (ed.), (1989). Chinese Traditional Auspicious Patterns. Shanghai: Shanghai Popular Science Press. Liang, M-H. (2007). Environmental Education Policy and Institutional Transformation in Taiwan Paper presented at the 4th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC), July, Durban, South Africa. http://www.weec2007.com/papers/files/2007-08-04_33/47%20Liang. doc?PHPSESSID = 2b6d7804b5bbfe278ffe6216b7bea2f4. Accessed on March 3, 2008. Ministry of Education (PRC) (1996). The Ninth Five-Year Plan for China’s Educational Development and the Development Outline by 2010. http://www.moe.gov.cn/edoas/website18/ info3335.htm. Accessed on April 16, 2008. Ministry of Education (PRC) (2003a). The National Environmental Education Guidelines (Trial). Beijing: Beijing Normal University [in Chinese]. Ministry of Education (PRC) (2003b). Syllabuses for Special Topics Education on Preventing AIDS, Preventing Drugs and Environmental Education for Primary and Middle School Students. Beijing: People’s Education Press [in Chinese]. Qian, G. and Huang, T. (1997). Happiest but least cheerful: The paradox of population and education policies in China. In P. J. Thompson (ed.), Environmental Education for the 21st Century: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 59–66). New York: Peter Lang. Roch, M-C. and Wilkening, K.E. (2007). Global to local: International conferences and environmental education in the People’s Republic of China. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 16(1), 44–57. State Council Information Office (2006). Environmental Protection in China (1996–2005) [White paper]. Beijing: State Council Information Office. http://www.china.org.cn/english/2006/ Jun/170355.htm. Accessed on June 25, 2007. State of Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (1995). China Environmental Protection Agenda in 21st Century. Beijing: China Environmental Sciences Press. State of Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (2006). Circular, no. 203. http://www. sepa.gov.cn/info/gw/huangfa/200612/t20061227_98899.htm. Accessed on May 20, 2007.
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Teng, M. and Liu, C-C. (1995). The current status of environmental education in Taiwan, R.O.C., Bulletin of the National Institute of Educational Resources and Researches, 20, 161–183 [in Chinese]. Tucker, M. E. (undated). Confucianism and Ecology: Potential and Limits. http://www.google. co.uk/search?hl = en&q = confucianism + and + environment&btnG = Google + Search&meta = . Accessed on June 25, 2007. UNICEF (undated). The Children – Primary School Years. http://www.unicef.org/china/children_878. html. Accessed on February 28, 2008. Wang, M. (ed.) (2006). Introduction to Sustainable Development Education. Beijing: Geological Press [in Chinese]. Weller, R. P. (2006). Discovering Nature: Globalisation and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Werner E. T. C. (1994). Myths and Legends of China. New York: Courier Dover. Williams, C. A. S. (1976). Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives. New York: Dover. Yencken, D., Fien, J. and Sykes, H. (2000). Environment, Education and Society in the AsiaPacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses. London: Routledge. Zhu, H. and Dillon, J. (2001). Education for sustainable development: A Sino-English comparative study in environmental education. Journal of Zhejiang University (Science), 2(3), 342–347.
Chapter 2
Dimensions of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development John Chi-Kin Lee and Michael Williams
The environment offers a unique context for achieving a broader and more integrated development of human creativity, initiative and organisational skills and qualities that will be indispensable prerequisites for achieving a sustainable society. (Smith, 2004: 3) We are convinced that the movement towards sustainable development depends more on the enlargement of our moral sensitivities than on the growth of our scientific understanding – important as that is. Education for sustainable development cannot be concerned only with disciplines that improve our understanding of nature, despite their undoubted value. (Ospina, 2000: 36)
The comparative education literature is replete with warnings of the hazards of cross-cultural borrowing. What works in any one educational system may, for a myriad of cultural reasons, be a complete disaster in another country. Ideas and insights, theories and principles, guidelines and frameworks, procedures and practices do not readily transfer across nations, provinces and cities – sometimes, not even between neighbouring schools. Not surprisingly, given the extent of cultural diversity at various scales, education for sustainable development (ESD) can often appear to be confusing, lacking in shared understandings and without any substantial consensus on theory and practice. Much depends on how one approaches an understanding of ESD. It is tempting to begin with the international literature, especially reports, declarations and papers arising directly from United Nations sources. An alternative source is the wide range of publications produced by academics working in international, national and local contexts. Publications produced by official national governmental agencies are another source that may be read alongside J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] M. Williams Swansea University Wales, UK J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_2, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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the publications of non-governmental organisations operating at various levels from the international to the local. Yet another source is the body of literature emanating from practitioners, especially teachers, who wish to share their experiences of trying to implement ESD in their own classrooms. It is easy to dismiss publications emanating from international political institutions as the products of bureaucrats sitting in remote offices. They are often perceived as living in a world of conferences and projects, employing consultants and experts drawn from various places, commissioning reports and approving documents or writing up their own documents for international dissemination. Of course, international political organisations have their own political agendas. They are influenced externally by influential political players from the nations they seek to represent. They are also influenced internally by influential individuals and groups within their own organisations. Their publications, in the form of declarations, directives, research reports and frameworks and programmes for action have, necessarily, to be couched in a form that will hopefully gain a broad level of support and will not be seen to contain any overt criticism of any specific nation or group of nations. Inevitably, this apparent sensitive “neutrality” (no documents can be values-free) can be interpreted in many ways. International declarations may be praised for their flexibility in that they allow for adaptation to local circumstances. They may, at the same time, be criticised for their lack of precision and overambitious unreality. In international terms, proposals for concrete action need to be supported by the resources necessary for achieving any specific targets. It is pointless for international organisations to offer and promote ambitious action programmes to impoverished nations or to nations that lack the political will to provide the requisite support for any change in hard resource terms – cash, manpower and equipment. International political organisations that have played an active role in guiding the development of environmental education and education for sustainable development include the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe. We shall return to the work of these organisations later. Of course, it is the amount of attention paid by nation states to these organisations that is important. Nation states, generally, seek to insulate their educational systems from those beyond their borders. Education systems are essential components of state governance and are tightly linked to the social, economic and political fabric that constitute the national culture. This is not to say that national educational policymakers and practitioners always turn a blind eye to experience elsewhere. Educational policy-makers seek to gain competitive advantages from their educational systems, seeking to make constant qualitative and quantitative progress in educational provision to advance economic progress and ensure social cohesion and cultural advancement. Knowing what works well in other countries is important for achieving their short term and long term goals. Borrowing from successful practice and modifying this practice to meet their needs is commonplace across the educational spectrum. Nation states contribute to framing the work of international organisations from which they expect outputs of benefit to themselves. They look to the research and development activities of international organisations for guidance in their educational
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policies and practices. Such organisations can provide comparative data to indicate where a particular nation stands in any league tables, such as those for literacy, school participation, teacher–student ratios, test performance in particular subject areas, and so on. They can also provide frameworks on which to hang institutional changes in such educational aspects as school organisation, school performance, school curricula and school examinations. International organisations can point to examples of educational success in particular countries that are in the vanguard of change. However, the individual nations determine whether to heed any advice and how much weight they give to any suggested reforms. National educational systems reflect not only the work of international organisations. For some, for example, former colonies, the influence of external pressures has often been paramount. Non-formal, indigenous educational arrangements were overwhelmed by foreign systems. Coercive, external pressures resulted in the replication of alien schools, curricula, examinations, textbooks and school administrative systems. In the context of this book, the impacts of the United Kingdom (more especially England) on education in Hong Kong and Portugal in Macao are very important. However, with increasing globalisation of communication, innovative ideas may be readily transferred across frontiers and the simplistic ties between the mother countries and their former colonies have been enhanced by increasingly complicated transnational and inter-continental networks and webs. How educational visions, ideas, policies, plans and practices are disseminated between nation states is often extremely difficult to trace. In a Chinese context, we would expect to find influences derived from the sharing of political ideologies, especially Marxist–Leninist ideology, between China and the former Soviet Union and, to a lesser extent, other socialist states. We would also expect, simply because of geographical proximity, to find contemporary China looking to Hong Kong (as a conduit for British experience), and nations in the Asia-Pacific region as places from which benefit might be gained from cultural borrowing in education. With regard to ESD, what is important is that different nations have different approaches to ESD, as do different regions, districts and individual schools. Obviously, this is not to say that there is no common ground in policies and practice, it is simply to keep in the forefront a recognition that, even when nations make pronouncements about aspects of ESD, these should not be treated as authoritative statements about what is happening at the general classroom level. Broad statements have a value in highlighting issues and trends but they need to be treated with caution. The same caution needs to be applied to pronouncements emanating from academic sources. Academics have their own scholarly agendas and perhaps they need to take care when appearing to be authoritative about developments in ESD occurring within their own nations. Their career agendas include the need to meet priorities governing academic performance, especially those that are related to measurement criteria for research performance. “Publish or perish” has long been the mantra driving research and promotion in prestigious universities. It explains the plethora of journals – not least in the broad field of ESD – and the wide array of national and international conferences generating the publication of keynote speeches and conference proceedings.
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We emphasise this academic activity and its mixture of motives in ESD since the dissemination of academic writing has played a powerful role in popularising the work of international organisations, national organisations and non-governmental organisations, offering a critique of policies and practice, and making suggestions and recommendations for future development. Just as nation states exist in a globalised, competitive world, so do academic institutions and academics. Not surprisingly, therefore, we find in the academic literature academics using diverse research paradigms and methodologies, promulgating their own definitions and descriptions of perceived reality, interpretations of research findings and viewpoints, making the landscape of EE/ESD research increasingly vivid and dynamic. Inevitably, despite much international travel to attend conferences and undertake consultancies and access to a vast array of websites, most academics work in national contexts, sometimes formally constrained by government contractual requirements, sometimes restricted in terms of what they can research and analyse by governmental conventions and sometimes depending on the interplay between faculty and institutional vitality (Mrazek, 1993). Depending on their experience in working in foreign education systems, they vary in the scholarly and professional authority they bring to international fora. An expert recognised by the academic and professional community in his or her own nation may not have the expertise necessary to contribute substantially to relevant work in foreign places. Determining who are the experts in ESD with appropriate experience and research backgrounds is one of the tasks for persons who are newcomers to ESD in theory and practice.
International Approaches There can be no doubting the vital role the United Nations and its organisations have played in promoting, initially, environmental education and, more recently, education for sustainable development. This role fits well with the purposes of the UN as expressed in Article 1 of its 1945 Charter: To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
Given the enormous world-wide interest in environmental issues, and especially environmental conservation, in the 1960s, it is not surprising that the UN became actively engaged in promoting environmental education. Environmentalism in the 1960s, stimulated by highly publicised international crises, became part of the counter-culture in Western countries. The setting up of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 1960, following reports written by the distinguished biologist Julian Huxley about the destruction of habitats and the threat to the survival of animal species in Africa, is symbolic of the increased awareness in Western, economically developed countries of the massive changes taking place across the globe. It was significant that the headquarters of the WWF was located in a villa in Switzerland
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that already housed the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources(IUCN), a body that changed its name to the World Conservation Union in 1990. As significant was the establishment of Greenpeace (1970) and Friends of the Earth (1971) as active non-governmental organisations. These, and many other agencies scattered through many countries, became wellknown for their highly publicised campaigns. These varied from attempts to stop the destruction of the rainforests to anti-nuclear campaigns and campaigns directed at protecting threatened species, including pandas, tigers, polar bears and whales. Some campaigns were highly localised, others were continental and global in scale. They sought to raise the awareness of the public at large as well as seeking to bring pressure to bear on governments and industrial organisations, especially multinational corporations. These environmental agencies sought all kinds of support and were active in seeking to include educational institutions in their campaigns. With regard to environmentalism and school education, 1970 is an important year. At a IUCN environmental education workshop held in Nevada a definition of environmental education was produced that proved highly influential (e.g. Palmer, (1998) reports that it was accepted as the definition used by the National Association for Environmental Education in England). Environmental education was defined (IUCN, 1970, quoted in Palmer, 1998) as: A process of recognising values and clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the inter-relatedness among man, his culture and his biophysical surroundings. Environmental education also entails practice in decision-making and self-formulating of a code of behavior about issues concerning environmental quality.
In terms of school practice, much had already been achieved in many countries by the early 1970s in terms of nature studies and environmental studies. As an example, we can quote from the wide range of work undertaken in English primary schools. Perry et al. (1968) traced official encouragement for environmental studies through a series of government reports between 1918 and 1967. Local studies, rural studies, social studies, environmental scienceand environmental studies were terms used at various times to describe those curriculum activities, especially in elementary schools, that focused on “the practical discovery of information within the local environment, the meaningful handling of ideas and information, followed by the ever-broadening concepts of these against a national and world background” (Perry et al.,1968: 7). In most countries there was substantial experience of informal environmental education and this was most evident in the less economically developed world where school provision was poor and school attendance was low. In richer countries with a long history of formal schooling, environmental studies often had a strong association with biology, it was perceived as having a scientific basis. To some extent, the natural environment was also associated with religious education and the visual arts. The 1970s were to see the theoretical foundations laid for what might be described as a “cultural revolution” in the organisation and teaching of environmental education. Rachel Carson (1963: 226–227) quoted what a biologist, (Swanson 1957)
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wrote about any science and what he wrote was apposite for environmental education and for education for sustainable development. These, . . . may be likened to a river. It has its obscure and unpretentious beginning; its quiet stretches as well as its rapids; its periods of drought as well as its fullness, It gathers momentum with the work of many investigators and as it is fed by other streams of thought; it is deepened and broadened by the concepts and generalisations that are gradually evolved.
The “obscure and unpretentious beginnings” can be traced to the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. This generated a long list of recommendations for international action. In terms of environmental education, Recommendation 96 is significant in that it called for the establishment of an international programme of environmental education. This saw the launch of the International Environmental Education Programme (IEEP). Environmental education was defined as being interdisciplinary and taking place both in schools and out of schools. It was to be lifelong in coverage and directed at the engagement of ordinary citizens in simple activities to manage and control their environments. A number of needs were identified, especially relating to the gathering and dissemination of information about current practice, the training of professionals and the introduction of new teaching materials and methods. This recommendation was followed up in Belgrade in 1975 at a workshop organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This workshop produced a Charter that included a definition and a goal for environmental education (UNESCO–UNEP, 1976): Environmental education, properly understood, should constitute a comprehensive lifelong education, one responsive to changes in a rapidly changing world. It should prepare the individual for life through an understanding of the major problems of the contemporary world, and the provision of skills and attributes needed to play a productive role towards improving life and protecting the environment with due regard given to ethical values. The goal of environmental education is to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.
The workshop paved the way for a series of major conferences, convened at 10-year intervals and in the intervening years workshops and conferences at continental and regional scales were organised. The first of the major conferences was the Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education organised by UNESCO in co-operation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1977. In the final report (UNESCO–UNEP, 1977: 24) the definition of environmental education, quoted above, was extended: Environmental education should be integrated into the whole system of formal education at all levels to provide the necessary knowledge, understanding, values and skills needed by the general public and many occupational groups for their participation in devising solutions to environmental questions. The ultimate aim of environmental education is to enable people to understand the complexities of the environment and the need for nations to adapt their activities and pursue their development in ways which are harmonious with the environment . . . Environmental
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education must also help to create an awareness of the economic, political and ecological interdependence of the modern world so as to enhance a spirit of responsibility and solidarity among nations.
It was stated that national reports indicated that some countries had made significant advances in implementing environmental education programmes. The favoured approach was the inclusion of environmental components in the teaching of conventional subjects and curriculum units and teaching materials reflected this. Importantly (UNESCO–UNEP, 1977: 13), “Less seems to have been achieved at the secondary level than at the primary level in schools, both quantitatively and in terms of innovations”. Through the 1980s the theoretical foundations laid in the 1970s were enhanced and refined and projects and programmes were implemented at various scales in many parts of the world. It is notable that the UNESCO–UNEP International Environmental Education Programme (IEEP) published many monographs on EE teacher training, curriculum development and evaluation. Among these publications, Hungerford and Peyton (1986: 24–28), based on earlier work, put forward goals consistent with the Tbilisi Declaration, which contained four levels: Ecological Foundations level; Conceptual Awareness level; Investigation and Evaluation level; and Environmental Action Skills level (Lee, 1995). Nonetheless, these agreed-upon goals of EE and associated EE research had been criticised for the behaviourist, positivist nature of the dominant approach to environmental education research (Robottom and Hart, 1993). At the 1987 UNESCO–UNEP Moscow Congress (Environmental Education and Training: International Strategy for Action in the Field of Environmental Education and Training in the 1990s) it was reported that the database held information about some 10,000 individuals active in EE in 162 countries, 650 institutions in more than 70 countries, more than 300 programmes and activities and 200 periodicals (UNESCO–UNEP, 1987: 3). The themes that unified this considerable international effort were universalism, holism and action. Every adult and child should receive some form of environmental education that was perceived as a lifelong endeavour. The themes emphasised universal values and attitudes, subject to local cultural adaptation. Universal knowledge and skills should be developed and training should take place to transmit these to influential multipliers. In the words of the Moscow report, Emphasis has therefore been placed on the interdisciplinary nature of environmental education, and also on the need to reach all categories of the population through in-school and out-of-school education. (Para 9, p. 3)
Holistically, the environment had to be seen as a whole, “simultaneously comprising natural aspects and those that result from human action” (ibid. Para 3, p. 2). That environmental education should subsume the whole school curriculum was another holistic dimension and this was extended to the notion of environmental education as embracing the whole school and beyond the school to the whole community. Yet another holistic dimension was the embracing of a whole range of curricular activities that had been on the margins of school curricula yet had strong advocates. Thus, in the Moscow report (Para 59, p. 11), we read,
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With regard to action springing from environmental education, the Moscow report asserts the importance of problem solving related to real problems, leading to profound changes in lifestyles: No doubt the most important factor contributing to the specificity of EE is its emphasis on the resolution of practical problems affecting the human environment. (ibid. Para 16, p. 6) EE is more than just a particular aspect of the educational process; it should be regarded as an excellent basis on which to develop a new way of living in harmony with the environment, a new lifestyle. (ibid. Para 18, p. 6)
Prophetically, the authors of the report suggest that environmental education should be linked to sustainable development and they refer to the World Environment Strategy initiated by IUCN in 1980 in co-operation with the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and UNESCO. By the time of the Moscow Congress the theoretical foundations of environmental education had been laid. A fundamental change had been achieved, at least in theory, in extending environmental education well beyond the confines of a narrowly circumscribed school biology or a loosely defined school geography into an expansive interdisciplinary field. The environment encompassed economic, social, cultural and political phenomena, in rural and urban settings, the whole natural and human-constructed environment. The Moscow delegates felt sufficiently confident in what had been achieved between 1977 and 1987 to call for UNESCO and UNEP to declare 1990–2000 as the Decade for Environmental Education. While the Moscow Congress was seen as very significant for the environmental education community, it was overshadowed by the report Our Common Future published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland, 1987) that highlighted a wide range of international issues and offered a strategy for sustainable development. If the period from 1972 to 1987 had been a period of laying the foundations of a universal environmental education, the following decades were to be marked by a second “cultural revolution” heralded by the Brundtland Report and the Earth Summit (the UN Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Clearly, the universal environmental education movement was attached by an umbilical cord to fundamental changes in public information resulting from international environmental disasters and the dissemination of findings from scientific research. It also could not be detached from political and economic events that impacted on the international community. The Earth Summit brought together all of these concerns, lucidly highlighting their educational implications in Agenda 21of the final report. Acknowledging the contribution of the Tbilisi conference, Chapter 36.3 of Agenda 21 (http:// www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/index.htm. Accessed on January 2, 2008) reads,
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Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. While basic education provides the underpinning for any environmental and development education, the latter needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning. Both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people’s attitudes so that they have the capacity to assess and address their sustainable development concerns. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision-making. To be effective, environment and development education should deal with the dynamics of both the physical/biological and socio-economic environment and human (which may include spiritual) development, should be integrated in all disciplines, and should employ formal and non-formal methods and effective means of communication.
In Agenda 21 there is a call for a review of curricula so as to ensure the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach embracing the inclusion of socio-cultural and demographic aspects in the teaching of environment and development issues. Recommendations are made for action at the individual school level: Relevant authorities should ensure that every school is assisted in designing environmental activity work plans, with the participation of students and staff. Schools should involve school children in local and regional studies on environmental health, including safe drinking water, sanitation and food and ecosystems and in relevant activities, linking these studies with services and research in national parks, wildlife reserves, ecological heritage sites etc. Educational authorities should promote proven educational methods and the development of innovative teaching methods for educational settings. They should also recognise appropriate traditional education systems in local communities.
Running parallel to the Rio Summit was a Global Forum organised by NGOs and this resulted in the framing of the Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility (http://habitat.igc.org/treaties/at-05.htm. Accessed on January 2, 2008). In this treaty the signatories commit themselves to: . . . a process of educational transformation aimed at involving ourselves, our communities and nations in creating equitable and sustainable societies. In so doing we seek to bring new hope to our small, troubled, but still beautiful planet.
Not surprisingly, the treaty is profoundly different in its content, tone and intentions from Agenda 21– the latter is addressed principally to governments, the former is directed to influential groups and active individuals. The authors seek to promote an education that “. . . fosters ecologically sound and equitable societies that live together in interdependence and diversity”. They identify the root causes of the crises threatening the world’s future as originating in the dominant socio-economic system that is based on over-production for some and under-production and inadequate conditions for the majority. They called for the abolition of those development programmes associated with the existing economic growth model. They saw environmental education as bringing about “change in the quality of life and a greater consciousness of personal conduct, as well as harmony among human beings and between them and other forms of life”. Here we see two programmes for change, overlapping but addressing different audiences. Inevitably, there was an obvious need for a rapprochement between them but the divide has persisted. The radical agenda of the NGOs, with its focus
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on the individual and local communities and a radical approach to equitable development with an emphasis on harmony, contrasts with the sustainable development agenda of the Earth Summit. For education decision makers and curriculum planners ESD brought new challenges. Having already experienced serious difficulties in establishing coherent, interdisciplinary programmes in environmental education in primary and, especially, secondary schools, they now needed to conceptualise the differences between EE and ESD, explore the overlaps and decide how they could both be incorporated into school curricula and into out-of-school activities and nonformal education. While the roots of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development can be found in the Brundtland Report and Agenda 21of the Rio Earth Summit the clarification of the objectives and strategies of the programme can best be read in the International Implementation Scheme (IIS) published by UNESCO in October 2005. At the national level there were two broad goals for the DESD (ibid. p. 6), to: • Provide an opportunity for refining and promoting the vision of and transition to sustainable development – through all forms of education, public awareness and training • Give an enhanced profile to the important role of education and learning in sustainable development More specifically, the declared objectives were (ibid. p. 6) to: • Facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in ESD • Foster an increased quality of teaching and learning in education for sustainable development • Help countries make progress towards and attain the millennium development goals through ESD efforts • Provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate ESD into education reform efforts To understand fully where these UNESCO defined goals and objectives fit into the whole programme of UN work one would need to read carefully through the reports of nine post-Rio UN conferences: World Summit for Children, 1990; World Conference on Education for All, 1990; International Conference on Population and Development, 1992; United Nations Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, 1994; World Summit for Social Development, 1995; Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995; Second UN Conference on Human Settlements, 1996; World Food Summit, 1996; and World Education Forum, 2000 (UNESCO, 2002). These highlight the various crises confronting the planet and demonstrate the role of education in understanding the crises and contributing to the finding of solutions. ESD had to be part of an evolving global education agenda that sought to provide basic education for all, with specific reference to eradicating illiteracy and ensuring equal opportunities for boys and girls, men and women. It was all seen as an essential part of the movement towards quality education. The IIS (ibid. p. 27) spelled out the characteristics of quality education in a list that stated that quality education:
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• Upholds and conveys the ideals of a sustainable world – a world that is just, equitable, and peaceable, in which individuals care for the environment to contribute to intergenerational equity. • Takes into consideration the social, economic, and environmental contexts of a particular place and shapes the curriculum or programme to reflect these unique conditions. Quality education is locally relevant and culturally appropriate. • Is informed by the past (e.g., indigenous and traditional knowledge), is relevant to the present, and prepares individuals for the future. There were four major thrusts of ESD: • • • •
Improving access to quality education Reorienting existing education programmes Developing public understanding and awareness of sustainability Providing training
The anchor that holds the whole ESD agenda together has three components: environment, society and economy. Adding flesh to these skeletal issues is the challenge of ESD for educators at all levels. To make progress in meeting the ambitious goals and objectives of the DESD, the IIS encouraged nation states to adopt a partnerships approach, with partnerships being forged at subnational (local community), national, regional and international levels. It was envisaged that the active partners would be drawn from governments, civil society and NGOs and the private sector. For these partnerships, the IIS advocated seven strategies (ibid. p. 17): • • • • • • •
Vision-building and advocacy Consultation and ownership Partnership and networks Capacity-building and training Research and innovation Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Monitoring and evaluation
Clearly, for newcomers to the field, ESD is a complicated and sophisticated notion to grasp. For the enthusiasts who had devoted much energy – and indeed whole lifetimes – to promoting a global approach to universal environmental education there was a need to determine whether to stay with the environmental education agenda, developed so well in theory during the 1970s and 1980s, or to throw in their lot with the ESD agenda. For those who had stood on the margins of development in EE, they could argue that their lack of commitment had demonstrated a prophetic wisdom. The nature of the challenges facing those educational policy makers who were required to engage actively with ESD was spelled out in an authoritative article written by (Ospina 2000), the UNESCO Director of the ESD project. Ospina starts with six premises relating to sustainable development, of which the first two are (p. 32, original emphasis):
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• Sustainable development is perhaps more a moral precept than a scientific concept, linked as much with notions of fairness as with theories of global warming. • Sustainable development involves the natural sciences and economics, but it is primarily a matter of culture. It is connected with values people cherish and with the ways in which they perceive their relationships with others. Turning specifically to education, he presents a long list of objectives, including (ibid. pp. 34–35): • To place a system of values and ethics at the centre of society’s concerns • To encourage a meeting of disciplines, a linking of knowledge and of expertise, and to render our understanding more integrated and contextualised and so, in turn, to open up new horizons for justice and equality (equity) • To encourage lifelong learning, starting at the beginning of life and grounded in life – one based on a passion for a radical transformation of society and a change in the moral character of society • To elevate once again the importance of social subjectivity and of the qualitative dimension of social life • To encourage new alliances between the State and civil society in promoting citizens’ emancipation mediated by the practice of democratic principles while fully acknowledging the complexities inherent to every human reality • To valorise aesthetics, the creative use of the imagination, an openness to risk and flexibility, and a willingness to explore new options • To instil in the minds of all people a conviction of the values for peace in such a way as to promote the creation of new lifestyles and living patterns In these quotations we sense a crusading vision that embraces societal transformation, a call for passion as much as reason, the need to give weight to social subjectivity and the qualitative dimension of social life, the valorisation of aesthetics, the emancipation of citizens with due regard to their cultural distinctiveness, especially those from indigenous groups. The distance between nature study, environmental studies and environmental education and ESD as envisaged in the DESD could hardly be greater. The challenge is to restructure education in all of its facets, to reorient the curriculum, to establish new partnerships, to aim for substantial and radical societal changes, and to engage with a global movement. Fundamental changes are called for in the meaning of schooling – school organisation, curriculum structure, the roles of teachers and students, teaching and learning processes, and the relationships between schools and their local communities. Such profound changes required substantial changes not only in the training of teachers and senior staff in schools, it also required training of an array of adults within communities, voluntary groups and NGOs. Clearly, there are serious resource implications. Of course, as the UN broad educational agenda shows, ESD has to be set alongside other priorities such as school provision, staff provision, school improvement, management development, and the provision of a minimum, basic education in literacy, mathematics, science and information technology.
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National Approaches: The Case of England The Rio and Johannesburg summits sent out rallying-calls to the international community to engage with all of the complex issues surrounding sustainable development. The United Nations sought to place sustainable development high on the policy agendas of all of the United Nations agencies. Included in all of these was the need to determine the role of education, broadly defined. As noted above UNESCO was given the principal responsibility for formal and non-formal education for sustainable development and the DESD was the initiative that was designed to convert broad policies into action plans. The task was to convince national governments that ESD should be placed high in their educational priorities. In the DESD International Implementation Scheme a list of objectives is provided to guide national governments. They are encouraged (p. 12) to incorporate ESD into national plans for both sustainable development and education. These plans should aim at increasing the public’s awareness and understanding of ESD and education professionals should be given appropriate knowledge and understanding. Co-operative networks should be established and research and development projects should be undertaken. As we shall report in the following chapters, deliberate efforts were made in the Chinese communities to meet these objectives. Of course, nations do not operate in isolation: in terms of educational ideas, insights and practices, these can readily cross frontiers. This has been increasingly commonplace since the technological revolution enabled those with internet access to keep abreast of official (governmental) and academic (universities and research institutes) publications. Alongside internet access is access to the burgeoning literature on ESD, particularly access to the literature published in the English language. With regard to the Chinese communities discussed in later chapters of this book, experience in England, and to a lesser extent in the other three home countries that make up the United Kingdom, is particularly relevant for understanding ESD in Hong Kong and, as we shall read in Chapter 6, for the Chinese mainland. The colonial experience provided the vital links between the two educational systems and these links were obviously forged through the medium of the English language. There are many factors to be taken into account in tracing the place of environmental education in the curricula of English schools. As we have already noted, there was a strong tradition in schools, especially primary schools, in learning about the environment formally in courses that carried many titles. While science and geography held the dominant position, there were also courses carrying titles such as rural studies, local studies, nature study and environmental studies. These became increasingly popular in the 1960s with the freeing up of traditional curricula. Comprehensive reorganisation, combined with the raising of the school leaving age, in secondary schools had important curricular effects. First, the merger of the grammar school tradition (especially subjects with strong boundaries, control through public examinations and didactic, text-book led teaching) with the secondary modern school tradition (weaker subject boundaries, nonspecialist teachers, less influence of public examinations and innovative modes of teaching) resulted in a phase of curriculum revision. Interestingly, at that time,
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neither central government nor local government had any direct responsibility for the curriculum organisation and management within any school. The curriculum was perceived as a “secret garden” into which government did not tread. The result was a diverse pattern of curriculum with headteachers (principals) and senior staff deciding how knowledge was organised, which subjects or courses were taught to any year group of students, and how staff roles and loads were allocated. To add to the curricular diversity, central government established a Schools Council funded to promote curriculum innovation though having no power or authority to direct schools to take up any innovations. At the very time of increasing public awareness of environmental problems and issues, when one might have expected an enormous parallel interest in environmental education, the attention of schools was drawn away to other developments. In the secondary school sector, at that time one would have expected teachers of geographyand biology to have taken the lead in promoting environmental education. Biologists were caught up in the exploration of new ways of teaching science, including courses of integrated science. Integration was also a challenge for geography teachers and this was advocated by projects funded by the Schools Council including the Humanities Curriculum Project (launched in 1966), the History, Geography and Social Science 8–13 Project (1971–1975), the Keele Integrated Studies Project (1968–1971) and the General Studies Project (1968–1972). Of these, the Humanities Curriculum Project was most influential and it is interesting to reflect on the list of topics chosen by the project team for study by average and below-average students aged 14–16 years. They were: war and society; education; the family; relations between the sexes; poverty; people and work; living in cities; and law and order. For geography teachers, more popular than any of the other projects was the Geography for the Young School Leaver Project (1971–1975). It is worth noting that this project focused on three themes judged to be of special relevance for students aged 14–16 years and these topics were: man, land and leisure; cities and peoples; and people, place and work. There is obvious overlap of these three themes with themes in the Humanities Curriculum Project. The environment appeared to have been taken for granted and not an issue that needed special attention. It must be recognised that, while the Schools Council projects gained widespread publicity in the educational press, at local level local newspapers paid much attention to curriculum innovations initiated in individual schools. NGOs were active in encouraging schools to engage in projects of all kinds and amidst these were projects that focused on aspects of the local environment. In this regard, one can point to the school-based work of organisations such as the National Parks, the National Trust, English Heritage, the Nature Conservancy, the Forestry Commission, the Field Studies Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. These are just examples drawn from an extensive list of NGOs that had special interests in aspects of the natural environment. It was their diverse interests and wide range of educational approaches that lay at the heart of the environmental studies movement at that time. At the very time that public attention was being drawn to the campaigns of the newly created Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, school geography teachers
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were being encouraged to embrace the “new geography”. While redefining the tenets on which school geography had been traditionally based, this served to reinforce the boundaries round the subject in schools, deterring teachers from seeking any integration with other subjects. Also, at the same time, anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists were seeking support in schools for the study of such matters as politics and citizenship, race relations, human rights and peace. Out of this emerged programmes of world studies, peace studies, education for international understanding, and development studies. The relative freedom to produce unique school-based courses for external assessment was formalised through the Mode 3 arrangements of the new Certificate of Secondary Education examinations. On top of all of this was the beginning of the technological revolution that was to bring computers and computer studies (later to be called Information and Communications Technology) and a vocational revolution that was to bring vocational education high on the agenda of all schools. Comprehensivisation of secondary schools impacted on the primary schools. This was most obvious in the ending of the 11+ examination that had been the prime determinant of the curriculum in the upper years of primary education. As in secondary schools, primary schools celebrated their new found curriculum freedom and engaged in curricular experimentation. New course arrangements, new methods of teaching, new forms of curricula were introduced. The Schools Council was active in funding a wide array of projects that received widespread publicity. As in secondary schools, the Schools Council had no power or authority to compel schools to engage in any of its projects. Schools volunteered to participate and they alone decided how much time, energy and effort they would commit to any project. Needless to say, as in secondary schools, only a minority of primary schools participated in any particular project. As in secondary schools, primary schools could initiate their own projects at the local level and environmental studies, in various forms with varying support from NGOs, became part of the curriculum in some schools. Curriculum theorists revelled in the rich array of projects and innovations of the late 1960s and early 1970s, for them this was the golden age when schools experienced curriculum emancipation and teachers could, alone or in groups and associations, experiment in syllabus design, teaching methods, assessment and course evaluation. However, all was not well and stinging criticisms were made of schools and the curriculum in the Ruskin speech delivered by the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, in October 1976. The door to the secret garden had been opened. He was especially concerned with informal methods of teaching in primary schools, the absence of a core curriculum that included literacy and numeracy, the failure of science to attract students, particularly girls, and the number of unfilled places in science and engineering courses in universities, the need to establish closer links between schools and industry. This speech launched the Great Debate that saw an outpouring of discussion documents from government departments, local education authorities, teacher unions, teachers’ professional associations, examinations boards and NGOs. All wanted to have their say about the future direction of education.
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The government’s view of future directions were expressed clearly in a White Paper, Better Schools, published in 1985, the same year that the Department for Education and Science published The Curriculum from 5 to 16. These two documents heralded the next phase of curriculum reform, what (Tomlinson 1992: 48) called “the radical phase of neo-conservative educational policy”. Gone was the decentralisation of curriculum decision-making to schools; gone was the emancipated school and innovative teachers. As (Tomlinson 1992: 48) records, By 1990 the school curriculum, assessments at 7, 11, 14 and 16, all public examinations, the teacher training curriculum, in-service training, teacher appraisal, teachers’ pay and conditions, capital building and the formulae for fixing individual school budgets, to mention only the obvious, were all directly under the control of central government. It is a breathtaking list not to be found in any other modern state.
The Education Reform Act of 1988 codified these reforms and included the formal introduction of a specific National Curriculum for state primary and secondary schools. For England (but not for Wales and Scotland) this National Curriculum comprised three core subjects (mathematics, English and science), and seven foundation subjects (history, geography, technology, music, art and physical education, and a modern foreign language – the latter only in secondary schools). This was the statutory requirement and to it was added later a number of cross-curricular themes. The cross-curricular themes were not legally required but schools were strongly encouraged through non-statutory guidance publications from central government to include them. These themes were environmental education, health education, careers education, citizenship education and economic and industrial understanding. Notice the inclusion of environmental education. In 1990, the National Curriculum Council published Curriculum Guidance 7 on environmental education and it was seen as “. . . excellent in showing common study links with other themes but is not explicit enough in stating where attention might be focused in order to obtain the clearest picture of what causes environmental problems” (Goodall, 1994: 1). While applauding the official recognition of the importance of environmental education, activists in environmental education had to witness the demolition of those innovative environmental studies and environmental education courses that they had struggled to develop in the 1960s and 1970s. The ambitious framework for the National Curriculum was soon challenged. Initially each of the specified core and foundation subjects was defined by a set of objectives (attainment targets) and key content (programmes of study). Long lists were produced and it became obvious that they were not only too detailed but they were also too content-heavy – they could not be taught effectively. Reviews were followed by revisions and the cross-curricular themes lost their strong position and were to disappear. The compulsory core and foundation subjects were to be modified with some subjects, especially geography, becoming optional and this had special significance for environmental education. In 1997 the New Labour government replaced the Conservative government and with it came what was called the New Agenda. Curriculum modifications were incorporated in the new National Curriculum published jointly by the Department for Education and Employment and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in 1999.
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By then, the government had to respond to national pressures to provide some kind of citizenship education and, following Rio, they needed to encourage schools to give some attention to ESD. As we have seen, ESD embraces society, economy and the environment and serves as an umbrella for a wide range of issues, including development, poverty, race relations, peace, health issues and environmental protection and conservation. In England, the government decided to give geography a lead role for both citizenship education and ESD. This was a setback since geography was the first candidate for “reduction, optional status or dis-application” (Rawling, 2001: 297). There was evidence that many schools were choosing to make geography an optional subject for 14–16 year-olds. As geography became marginalised so, inevitably, did geography as a contributor to environmental education and to ESD become marginalised. Morgan (2006) has shown how political events in the UK led to further changes. He refers to the report, Learning to Last, that had been written by the Sustainable Development Education Panel (2003), established as a joint initiative by the ministries responsible for education and environment, food and rural affairs. Two years later the UK held the presidency of the G8 group of countries and hosted a “G8 Environment and Development Ministerial”. 2005 was also important for the publication of a strategy for global education published by the Department for International Development (see http://www.globaldimension.org.uk/default.aspx?id = 348. Accessed on January 2, 2008) and for the setting up of a Commission for Africa by the British Prime Minister. One of the consequences of all of this international activity by several ministries and international groups was an enhancement of the place of ESD in school curricula. The secondary school curriculum was revised yet again (see www.qca.org.uk/ curriculum). To be implemented in 2008–2011, this curriculum demonstrates how far England had moved in providing both environmental education and ESD. The three core subjects of the 1988 version of the National Curriculum have been extended so that it now includes (for 14–16 year-olds) the following compulsory elements English, mathematics, science, ICT, physical education, citizenship, religious education, sex education, careers education and work-related learning. Where there is evidence of student demand, the humanities, the arts, design and technology and modern foreign languages can be added to these. A Statement of Values is included as part of the new National Curriculum and the environment figures prominently in this. It reads:
The Environment We value the environment, both natural and shaped by humanity, as the basis of life and a source of wonder and inspiration. On the basis of these values, we should: • Accept our responsibility to maintain a sustainable environment for future generations • Understand the place of human beings within nature
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Understand our responsibilities for other species Ensure that development can be justified Preserve balance and diversity in nature wherever possible Preserve areas of beauty and interest for future generations Repair, wherever possible, habitats damaged by human development and other means
The prominence of this list is of considerable significance since it contextualises not only the way the mandatory subjects and elements are defined but also because it is linked to a list of non-statutory cross-curriculum dimensions. This list comprises (see http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/cross-curriculum-dimensions/index.aspx. Accessed on January 2, 2008): • • • • • • •
Cultural diversity and identity Healthy lifestyles Community participation Enterprise Global dimension and sustainable development Technology and the media Creativity and critical thinking
These dimensions, it was suggested, can be addressed through the teaching of conventional subjects, thematic days, activity weeks or events, usual routines of the school, educational visits and extra-curricular activities, and by inviting speakers to address school assemblies. It was up to schools to decide how to take initiatives according to their own local circumstances. Of particular interest to us is the global dimension and sustainable development cross-curriculum dimension. In a statement that seeks to guide teachers towards including this in their school curriculum, sustainable development is defined and then the following list of aims for implementing a programme of education for sustainable development is provided (see http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/crosscurriculum-dimensions/globaldimension/?return = http%3A//curriculum.qca.org. uk/search/index.aspx%3FfldSiteSearch%3Dglobal + dimension + and + sustainable + development%26btnGoSearch.x%3D23%26btnGoSearch.y%3D6. Accessed on January 2, 2008): • Appreciate the importance of a global context and engage in a range of culturally diverse experiences • Understand the connections between the environmental, social and economic spheres and make links between local, national and global issues • Critically evaluate their own values and attitudes, appreciating the similarities between people everywhere and learning to value diversity • Understand and appreciate the relevance of the global dimension to their own lives • Develop skills that will enable them to identify and challenge injustice, prejudice and discrimination • Participate in global partnerships, which can be a powerful and exciting way of bringing a global dimension into the classroom
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• Make informed decisions about how they can understand and potentially make their own distinctive contribution to local and global communities • Recognise that some of the Earth’s resources are finite and therefore must be used responsibly • Consider probable and preferable futures and how to achieve the latter • Appreciate the importance of sustainable resource use – rethink, reduce, repair, re-use, recycle • Appreciate the importance of obtaining materials from sustainably managed resources • Appreciate that economic development is only one aspect that contributes to the quality of life These aims must be set alongside a number of other initiatives in England of which the Sustainable Schools strategy initiated in 2006 is particularly important. This acknowledges the need for schools to adopt a holistic approach to ESD. This is the definition of a sustainable schooladopted in the strategy (see http://www. teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/leadership/leadership_detail.cfm?id = 2. Accessed on January 26, 2008): A sustainable school puts a high value on the well-being of its pupils and the school environment. Its classrooms are welcoming, clean and reassuring places to learn. It has a zerotolerance approach to litter, graffiti and bullying, reinforced by staff demonstrating positive, caring, responsible behaviours. In a sustainable school rainwater is collected for maintenance of the school grounds, water is preserved by efficient flush mechanisms and taps with sensors, paper towels are recycled and only cleaning agents that do not harm the environment are used. Little is wasted and anything surplus to requirements is recycled, composted or donated. Quality food and drink is sourced from suppliers with good environmental and animal welfare records. The school takes health seriously, taking the message out into the community and supports local suppliers where it can.
To convert this definition into an action programme, the strategy offers eight “sustainability doorways”: food and drink; energy and water; travel and traffic; purchasing and waste; buildings and grounds; inclusion and participation; local well-being; global dimension (For details of each of these, see http://www.dfes.gov.uk/ aboutus/sd/doorways.shtml Accessed on January 26, 2008). Thus by 2006 England had a clearly documented and comprehensive whole school approach to ESD, embracing the whole formal curriculum, extra-curricular activities and a range of non-curricular activities. These extended from sustainability in subjects, sustainability in courses, through to sustainable schools in sustainable local and global communities. It is the culmination of an evolutionary process that has seen it origins in such activities as pond-dipping, nature walks and growing a runner bean in a jam jar through biology, then to science and society, and on to cross-disciplinary arrangements that usually brought biology and geography close together, then to cross-curriculum themes before moving to ESD as a whole-school vision and approach embracing moral education, health education, nutrition, classroom behaviour, global studies and citizenship.
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Viewed from a foreign perspective, this is a remarkable short history that has left early advocates of environmental studies with a strong uni-disciplinary science perspective stranded. As the scientific imperative yielded to a social science perspective geography teachers were increasingly attracted to a broader based environmental education only for them to be left in the wake of a wave of changes that put conventional subjects in the shadows. Looser arrangements such as personal, social and health education (PSHE) offered a more flexible curriculum base, though on the margins of the compulsory core curriculum, but providing a more fertile curricular and extra-curricular space. All of this has been enveloped in the current, wider whole school perspective on ESD. Finding a curricular solution was, of course, not simply a matter of determining where in the curriculum ESD should fit. As other governments have found, it is one thing to declare ESD a mandatory requirement in schools and quite another thing to gain the full commitment from schools to meet the requirement. For this, teachers have to be trained and released from other (often higher status) teaching duties. New resources have to be put in place (especially textbooks, that need time to be written, evaluated and published), and financial resources made available to pay for such things as staff development, the purchase of teaching materials and the funding of out-of-school activities. There is also the tricky question of testing and examinations. These arrangements cannot be changed overnight. For public examinations, change is often slow as syllabuses have to be designed and approved, reliable and valid examinations have to be prepared, examiners have to be recruited and schools have to be convinced that the examinations carry weight. This infrastructure was lacking in England and, until it is put in place, introducing ESD into the curriculum will be a slow process.
International Approaches: The Case of ENSI The Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI)is a network under the umbrella of the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) as partof the project “Schooling for Tomorrow”. In ENSI publications the network has been described as both government-based and decentralised. This network was established in 1986 and its membership currently comprises fifteen countries though more than twenty countries have been associated with its work (see www.ensi.org/About_ENSI/4&Member_ countries/. Accessed on February 7, 2008). ENSI formulated two broad aims to guide its activities: • The promotion of environmental awareness • The promotion of dynamic qualities These were translated into a set of learning principles that have been the foundations for ENSI’s work, initially in environmental education and more recently in education for sustainable development. In terms of its contribution to curriculum
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development, (Elliott 1998: 132) pinpointed that ENSI represents the following features: the process model of curriculum planning; the pragmatic epistemology underlying the curriculum; the notion of learning as a dynamic process, the local environment as both a resource of and site for active learning, the role of the school as a community resource for constructing local knowledge, the idea of network as learning systems, school-level curriculum decision-making as the design of innovative experiments, and teacher-based action research as a basis for school initiatives and quality control procedures. Central to these was a theory of learning that focused on the notion of the student as a dynamic learner. This theory and the associated principles were advocated by Posch who acknowledged their origin in the constructivist theories promulgated by Bruner (1986). The four principles were expressed in terms of what dynamic students should achieve through environmental education. They should (Posch and Rauch, 1998: 255): • Experience the environment as a sphere of personal experience • Examine the environment as a subject of inter-disciplinary learning and research • Shape the environment as a sphere of socially important action • Accept the environment as a challenge for initiative, independence and responsible action This focus on learning provided a powerful antidote to the strong substantive focus that characterised much writing about environmental education in the 1990s. Posch was severely critical of the prevailing characteristics of classroom pedagogy that he identified as: systematically structured knowledge; specialisation, teaching as transmission of knowledge; and a predominance of top-down communication. He wanted to see a substantial shift in the culture of classrooms, arguing (Posch and Rauch, 1998: 256) that students should be active rather than passive, engaged in seeking solutions that they had themselves devised for problems that they had defined. From this theoretical position came further suggestions for research into metacognition and constructivism. Closely linked with these theories of learning were theories of pedagogy that embrace such concepts as action research, active learning, discovery learning, problem solving, and enquiry learning and theories of school organisation that embraced communities of learning, communitarian curricula and school-community partnerships. Nonetheless, there may be challenges for teachers and students such as marginalisation of environmental education outside the school hours, difficulty in deciding the sequence of situational knowledge and disciplinary knowledge, and threats of uncertainties resulting from involvement in public controversies (Posch, 1991: 16–17). Smith (2004) has provided an authoritative resumé of how ENSI sought to develop international collaborative projects based on these theories. He has also provided a comprehensive guide to the literature associated with ENSI. Drawing on its strengths as an institution-based, research-oriented and actionoriented network, ENSI has sought to develop a programme of work focusing on: teaching and learning; school development; school-community relations; teacher
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training; and research as an integral part of development. Initially the members, who were drawn largely from teacher education institutions, research institutes, and government departments, concentrated on exchanging information about experimental and successful work being conducted in the member countries. They moved to a focus on curriculum development projects in schools and teacher education institutions and have extended their work into promoting research initiatives principally in the fields of teacher education, organisational development of schools, and the development of schools as learning communities with an emphasis on sustainability values. They have systematically sought to influence government policy-makers and to engage directly with school principals and teacher educators in order to promote grassroots innovation. At the time of writing their principal collaborative activities were: the Quality Criteria Project, the Teacher Education Project, ENSI goes public; and the Core Competences in Teacher Education Project. (CSCT – Curriculum, Sustainable Development, Competences, Teacher Training) (For details see: www.ensi.org. Accessed on January 2, 2008.) Their ongoing promotion of eco-schools has been one of their most successful, in terms of participating schools, areas of work. In these projects we see a clear shift from an environmental education focus to a focus on education for sustainable development. ENSI has been important in developing a language for exploring issues concerned with both environmental education and education for sustainable development. It has adopted a number of concepts that are subject to national and regional interpretations and are sufficiently flexible to cross from one national language to another. ENSI has also been important in providing an international sounding board for confronting head-on the factors that inhibit any ambitious proposals for whole school and whole community collaborative projects. This is evident in the published report of a conference concerned with mainstreaming (Benedict, 2000). At this conference, in the keynote lecture, Williams (1999) outlined a sequence of stages that schools often experienced as they sought to introduce environmental education and this is applicable to education for sustainable development. These stages are shown in Table 2.1. The application of this developmental model can best be seen in the ecoschools associated with ENSI. Eco-schools embraced the culture of whole school commitment to environmental and sustainability values (Mathar, 2006). They engaged in curriculum revision, the involvement of teachers and students in community projects, the greening of school management policy, the utilisation of all aspects of the school site for environmental purposes, and a progressive acquisition of environmental habits by all students and staff. The success of eco-schools has seen the evolution of a movement, commonly referred to as the green school movement, that, as we shall read later in this book, has spread to many countries. Through its Quality Criteria Project ENSI sought to demonstrate the importance of defining criteria on which to base the progress of schools as they moved towards high achievement.
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Table 2.1 Stages in the introduction of environmental education and education for sustainable development in schools Stage
Structures
Processes
Persons
1. Awareness
Informal team
• Lesson audit • Curriculum audit • Staff audit • Community audit • Inservice-education of teachers • Staff reconnaissance of local community resources
Individual enthusiasts
2. Experimentation Co-ordinator Working group Curriculum committee
• Planning • Implementation • Monitoring • Evaluation • Projects • Visits • Curriculum development • Use of information technology • Monitoring student progress
Team of enthusiasts
3. Consolidation
Whole subject departments Inter-disciplinary teams Collaborative partnerships
• Refining of processes used in the curriculum experiments • Increased range of teaching methods • Increased range of curricular and extra-curricular activities • Extending school-community partnerships
Selfperpetuating groups
4. Habit
Whole staff group Local community arrangements
• Continuation of 3 • Review • Planning • Implementation • Evaluation • Resource acquisition • Staff development
Continuation of 3
Selected Experience Elsewhere While ENSI has a strong European membership, it also includes major countries from other continents, including Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Canada and the United States. These countries have their own active programmes at various levels for promoting both environmental education and education for sustainable development. While it is commonplace to explore government policies for education, especially for curriculum development and school improvement, to find evidence of active national commitment to education for sustainable development, it is often in the initiatives of individual schools and in the school-based activities of nongovernment organisations (NGOs) that one will find richer evidence.
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The vagaries of government policies are well illustrated in the case of Australia. Greenall (1987), Gough (1997) and Chapman (2004) have traced the progress of environmental education in Australia. Greenall highlighted the gulf between the rhetoric of policy and practice in the 1970s and 1980s. Policies drafted at national and state levels were not supported by the allocation of resources for curriculum development and staff development. Chapman (2004: 28–29) emphasised the deliberate marginalisation of environmental education by policy makers, arguing that environmental educators have been lured “into continued cycles of effort that have little productive impact”. Environmental education remained as part of school science “. . . in a neutralised form that did not challenge the dominance of the cultural views normally transmitted through schooling, seldom venturing beyond ecological issues to the social economic and political ways in which attitudes towards the environment are shaped” (p. 24). This pessimistic analysis should not cloud the progress achieved by individual states and schools. Tilbury et al. (2005) described the situation of Australian school environmental education (EE) succinctly: while EE remains a non-mandatory component of schools (with the exception of New South Wales (NSW), “. . . the NSW and Queensland EE documents promote environmental citizenship action through the KLA [Key Learning Area], Studies of Society and Environment. Also, in the Queensland and South Australian curriculum guidelines for senior level Geography and the Victorian Environmental Studies, action competence is promoted as a learning outcome” (p. 6). They also remarked that, “. . . whole school approaches, which involve staff, students and community in learning for change towards sustainability, are beginning to emerge. Sustainable Schools, for example, encourages schools to consider their pedagogical approaches, curricula, infrastructure and management policies in light of sustainability principles and processes” (p. 61). Robertson (2006) illustrates this with examples drawn from Cherbourg, an aboriginal community located in Queensland and Brooks High School in Tasmania to show how education for sustainable development can be introduced to disadvantaged communities. Similar pessimism has been expressed about progress towards official promotion of education for sustainable development in the United States. It is not only political commitment that is lacking. McKeown (2006: 284) highlights the dominance of teaching to annual tests in elementary schools, a practice that promotes the acquisition of lower-order thinking skills. She asserts, “Preparing students for standardised tests of basic information and skills is distant from the pedagogy called for in ESD” (p. 284). In 2006, she reported, only one state, Vermont, had stipulated standards that addressed sustainability. Most work in ESD was achieved in an ad hoc way by individual schools working with NGOs and universities. To assist these initiatives, two important theoretical projects were undertaken that have been influential beyond the United States. The first of these was undertaken by the Cloud Institute that produced a framework of core concepts and habits of mind for education for sustainable development (For details see: www.sustainabilityed.org. Accessed on February 28, 2008). The other was a framework for reorienting education to address sustainability produced by McKeown. Associated with this is an
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authoritative toolkit (For details see McKeown et al., 2002; www.efstoolkit.org produced by McKeown and her colleagues). As part of the overall reform of the school curriculum in India the government set up in 2004 a number of focus groups to review current practices. The Focus Group on Habitat and Learning examined education for sustainable development. Any attempt to implement a comprehensive programme of education for sustainable development is hampered by many factors and Chokar and Chandrasekharan (2006) have highlighted the dominant reality of pedagogy in Indian schools. This comprises teachers who follow assiduously the approved textbooks, which are generally detached from reality. Students are expected to memorise what is contained in their textbooks and they are tested on this. Not surprisingly, a project intended to infuse environmental learning into the curriculum sought to revise the content of textbooks used in a number of subjects. This project, titled Environmental Education in the School System, was set up in 1999, nearly a decade after the Indian Supreme Court directed every state government and every education board to make education on the environment compulsory. It was a joint project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Chokar and Chandrasekharan show how the introduction of education for sustainable development requires reform of the curriculum, teacher training and staff development, school improvement, the quality of textbooks and school examinations. They refer (p. 307) to the guiding principles of the National Curriculum Framework of 2005: “connecting knowledge to life outside the school; ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods; enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks; and reforming the examination system for curriculum renewal”. These reform principles recur in discussions about education for sustainable development worldwide.
Looking Forward There has been a remarkable evolution of environmental education since the Tbilisi Conference. In the early twenty-first century, a strong emphasis has been placed on experimentation, situated learning and context-based processes, the inter-relationships between environment, society, culture and economy, the interconnectedness of environmental issues, and the introduction of ESD through various partnerships and the broadening of learning sites, participation coupled with new media and methodologies (ICEE, 2007a: 2–3). Looking back at three decades of UN-generated international guidelines for environment-related education, Sauve et al. (2007: 36), from a critical hermeneutical analysis, concluded that, “. . . education is an instrument to support a political and economic agenda; environment is reduced to problems of resources; and development is mainly associated with sustained economic growth”. They assert that international proposals tend to neglect such aspects such aspects as education as a process and a critical engagement, reflection on action, importance of critical thinking and the necessity for dialogues between different types of knowledge (p. 40).
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Recently, there have been two important international conferences on environmental education. The Fourth World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) 2007 was held in Durban, South Africa (http://www.weec2007.com/. Accessed on March 2, 2008) and the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE) was hosted by the Centre for Environmental Education, Ahmedabad, India (http://www.tbilisiplus30.org/index.htm. Accessed on March 2, 2008) in November 2007. For the WEEC2007, the theme was “Learning in a Changing World”. There were many sub-themes ranging from Environmental education in the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development, Cultural changes and environmental learning, Sustainable schools and learning institutions, Environmental education and the WEHAB (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity), to Environmental education, policy and curriculum transformations. As regards the latter sub-theme, it was reported, “Most countries have/are incorporating EE/ESD into school curricula and there is teacher education in EE taking place. Good progress is being made although things are still in early development stages. The links and relationships with other subjects make EE more interesting. Some groups (e.g., out of school youth, and communities) are left out of EE policy making” (Lotz-Sisitka, 2007: 10). There was a call for broadening EE/ESD policies and practices to engage out of school children, youth and communities. At the closing of the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE), a declaration was endorsed by the participants, part of which read, “Environmental education processes support and champion Education for Sustainable Development. Such education processes must be relevant, responsive and accountable . . . Education for Sustainable Development encourages a shift from viewing education as a delivery mechanism to a lifelong, holistic and inclusive process” (ICEE, 2007b). The conference offered recommendations in areas such as “Changing thinking about education and learning” (e.g., taking an integrated approach to EE as a process of transformation), “Changing patterns of leadershipand partnership formation” (e.g., using partnerships as a common vision and based on principles of equity), “Change how we understand environmental issues” (e.g., documenting success stories and new practices) and “Change how we conceptualise and engage with the environment-development relationship” (changing EE related practices towards concepts of sufficiency and sensibility in addition to focus on efficiency) and “Change how knowledge is viewed, and our communication practices” (e.g., reinforcing education processes based on exploration, negotiation, deliberation and dealing with risks and challenges) and “Change sites of learning and participation patterns and practices” (e.g., contributing directly to hands on action and change through environmental education and ESD practice) (ICEE, 2007a: 6-11). The agenda for future developments in environmental education and education for sustainable development continues to be long and complex. This agenda will continue to be explored at a variety of levels by multiple stakeholders. Solutions to the numerous problems will demonstrate the power of local communities and especially local schools as they struggle to interpret and implement official policies for education in general and ESD in particular.
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References Benedict, F. (2000). From the Pilot to the Mainstream: Generalisation of Good Practice in Environmental Education. Oslo: Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs. Bruner, J. (1986). Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Carson, R. (1963). Silent Spring. London: Hamish Hamilton. Chapman, D. (2004). Environmental education and politics: snakes and ladders revisited. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 20(2), 23–30. Chokar, K. B. and Chandrasekharan, S. (2006). Approaches to education for sustainability in India. In J. C. K. and Lee M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 297–308). New York: Nova Science. Elliott, J. (1998). Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI): An international innovative curriculum experiment. In J. Elliott The Curriculum Experiment: Meeting the Challenge of Social Change (pp. 130–161). Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Goodall, S. (1994). Introduction – Environmental education. In S. Goodall (ed.), Developing Environmental Education in the Curriculum (pp. 1–8). London: David Fulton Publishers. Gough, A. (1997). Education and the Environment: Policy, Trends and the Problems of Marginalisation. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research. Greenall, A. (1987). A political history of environmental education in Australia: snakes and ladders. In I. Robottom (ed.), Environmental Education: Practice and Possibility (pp. 3–21). Geelong: Deakin University Press. Hungerford, H. R. and Peyton, R. B. (1986). Procedures for Developing an Environmental Education Curriculum: A Discussion Guide for UNESCO Training Seminars on Environmental Education. Paris: Division of Science, Technical and Environmental Education, UNESCO. International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE) (2007a). Moving Forward from Ahmedabad . . . Environmental Education in the 21st Century. Ahmedabad, India: Centre for Environmental Education. http://www.tbilisiplus30.org/Final%20Recommendations.pdf. Accessed on March 2, 2008. International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE) (2007b). The Ahmedabad Declaration 2007: A Call to Action. Ahmedabad, India: Centre for Environmental Education. http://www.tbilisiplus30.org/Ahmedabad%20Declaration.pdf. Accessed on March 2, 2008. IUCN (1970). Environmental Education Workshop. Carson City Nevada. Lee, J. C. K. (1995). Quality in environmental education: Visions and limitations. In P. K. and Siu P. T. K.Tam (eds.), Quality in Education: Insights from Different Perspectives (pp. 259–282). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Educational Research Association. Lotz-Sisitka, H. (2007). From WEEC to IEEC (Tbilisi+30) Plenary Presentation in Working Group Launch at the 4th ICEE. Ahmedabad, India: Centre for Environmental Education. http://www.tbilisiplus30.org/Heila%20Lotz-Sisitka.pdf. Accessed on March 2, 2008. Mathar, R. (2006). Eco-schools and green schools. J.C.K. Lee and M.Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 139– 153). New York: Nova Science. McKeown, R. (2006). Approaches to environmental and geographical education for sustainability in the United States. In J. C. K. Lee and M.Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 283–296). New York: Nova Science. McKeown, R., Hopkins, C., Rizzi, R. and Chrystalbridge, M. (2002). Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit, Version 2. Knoxville, TN: Waste Management Research and Education Institution. Morgan, A. (2006). Sustainable development and global citizenship: The ‘New Agenda’ for geographical education in England and Wales. In J. C. K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 187– 203). New York: Nova Science.
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Mrazek, R. (1993). Philosophy or reality? Driving paradigm shifts. In R. Mrazek (ed.), Alternative Paradigms in Environmental Education Research (pp. 285–289). Troy, OH: The North American Association for Environmental Education. Ospina, G. L. (2000). Education for sustainable development: a local and international challenge. Prospects, XXX(1), 31–40. Palmer, J. A. (1998). Environmental Education in the 21st Century: Theory, Practice, Progress and Promise. London: Routledge. Perry, G. A., Jones, E. and Hammersley, A. (1968). The Teachers’ Handbook for Environmental Studies. London: Blandford Press. Posch, P. (1991). Environment and school initiatives: Background and basic premises of the project. In CERI, Environment, Schools and Active Learning (pp. 13–18). Paris: OECD. Posch, P. and Rauch, F. (1998). Developments in teacher education through environmental education research. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 7(3), 255–259. Rawling, E. M. (2001).The politics and practicalities of curriculum change 1991–2000: issues arising from a study of school geography in England. British Journal of Educational Studies, 49(2), 137–158. Robertson, M. (2006). Australia – Environmental education and cultural change in a land of ‘plenty’. In Lee and J.C.K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 215–227). New York: Nova Science. Robottom, I. and Hart, P. (1993). Research in Environmental Education: Engaging the Debate. Deakin: Deakin University Press. Sauve, L., Berryman, T. and Brunelle, R. (2007). Three decades of international guidelines for environment-related education: A critical hermeneutic of the United Nations discourse. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 12, 33–54. Smith, S. (2004). The Role of Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) in a Global Environment: A Summary of Its Operations, Effectiveness, Relevance and Performance since its Inception in 1986. Paris: OECD/ENSI. http://www.schule.at/dl/The. Accessed on February 7, 2007. Sustainable Development Education Panel (2003). Learning to Last: The Government’s Sustainable Development Education Strategy for England (Draft Presented to Ministers February 2003). London: SDEP. Swanson, C. P. (1957). Cytology and Cytogenetics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Tilbury, D., Coleman, V. and Garlick, D. (2005). A National Review of Environmental Education and Its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia: School Education. Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES). Tomlinson, J.(1992). Retrospect on Ruskin: Prospect on the 1990s. In , M. Williams, R. Daugherty, and F .Banks (eds.), Continuing the Education Debate (pp. 43–53). Cassell: London. UNESCO (2002). United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014: International Implementation Scheme. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO–UNEP (1976). The Belgrade Charter. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO–UNEP (1977). Trends in Environment Education. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO–UNEP (1987). Congress: Environmental Education and Training. International Strategy for Action in the Field of Environmental Education and Training in the 1990s (Moscow). Paris: UNESCO. Williams, M. (1999). Environmental education in the mainstream: international perspectives. Unpublished paper prepared for the ENSI Strategy workshop, Hadeland, Norway, December 1999. World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chapter 3
Assessment and Evaluation Kwok-Chan Lai and John Chi-Kin Lee
The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) (2005–2014) recognises the critical role that education and learning must play in the achievement of sustainable development at the global level (UNESCO, 2005). Education is considered as the primary agent of this transformation, building people’s capacities for futures-oriented thinking and action. Through ESD, “pupils become empowered to develop and evaluate alternative visions of a sustainable future and to work to collectively fulfil these visions” (Centre for Environment Education, 2005). The very concept of ESD challenges the way most people think about the world today and calls for a shift towards the values, behaviour and lifestyle required for a sustainable future. In this regard, it involves a rethinking and revisioning of education programmes and practices at all levels, representing a paradigm shift of education (UNESCO, 2006). According to Sarabhai (2005), those required changes related to school education include: • Learning rather than teaching: Education will have to become learner-oriented at the individual, institutional and societal levels. Teaching needs to be focused on making the student a better learner, rather than filling the student with information per se. • Capacity building: With the information explosion, education is to build learners’ abilities for critical thinking and problem solving. They will need to have the skills to select and process information, critically analyse it, and take decisions based on this. • Multi-disciplinary approach: ESD needs to break the barriers of subject compartmentalisation into single subject disciplines, and help in seeing connections
K.-C. Lai (*) Office of Strategic and Academic Planning, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_3, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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and the holistic linkages among them. This is crucial as real world problems need integrated, multi-disciplinary solutions. • Participatory: Learners are characteristically passive in conventional education as the teacher dictates what and how learners should learn. In an increasingly complex world, people will decide what they need to learn and how best, and when, they need to learn. ESD needs to empower and enable learners to learn when, where, what and how they choose. Similarly, the UNDESD International Implementation Scheme (UNESCO, 2005: 29) calls for a reorientation of existing education programmes “in a holistic and interdisciplinary context, engaging society at large, but carried out by individual nations in a locally relevant and culturally appropriate manner”. This reorientation of education necessitates a review of existing curricula in terms of their objectives and content, as well as a review of recommended and mandated approaches to teaching, learning and assessment so that lifelong learning skills are fostered (UNESCO, 2006). It is significant that this direction is in alignment with the aims and objectives of large-scale curriculum reforms that have taken place in many parts of the world in the last decade (see for example, Education Commission, 2000). In this chapter we refer to assessment as student assessment and evaluation as whole-school evaluation and we treat these separately in two sections. We shall first discuss how the current assessment reforms in many places support the reorientation of teaching and learning practices contributing to successful ESD in schools. However, we shall suggest that the existing assessment practices in mainstream school education, particularly in Chinese societies, are often not compatible with the instructional goals of ESD. We shall argue that a move towards more authentic assessmentof ESD is badly needed to capture the salient learning goals and processes that were found in our research into geographical and environmental education. We believe that such a move will greatly enhance the effectiveness of ESD in schools. In the final section, we shall examine the quality criteria for school self-evaluation of ESD that have been developed in different parts of the world. The development of meaningful criteria is critical to the successful implementation of whole school approachesto ESD, that is emerging in those schools often labelled as green schools, eco-schools, or sustainable schools. We shall also discuss how student assessment has featured in the quality criteria of some international and national projects.
ESD and New Learning Approaches A key objective of the UNDESD is to foster better quality teaching and learning for ESD (UNESCO, 2005). The reorientation of many existing educational practices, including the curriculum, teaching and learning approaches and assessment, is necessary because ESD is not only dealing with environmental knowledge and
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skills, but also aspects of participation, self-efficacy, equality and social justice (Breiting et al., 2005). ESD aims to prepare learners for their engagement in sustainable development, and involves questioning and reflecting upon their actions and decisions, so they can re-think and re-design their activities, as well as developing a deeper understanding of their dispositions (Tilbury and Cooke, 2005). As such, the central thrust of ESD “is not learning just for the sake of learning but is learning for the environment and action oriented” (Stimpson, 2006: 67). As ESD is about learning to make and understand the connections and interactions among the complex environmental, economic and social systems and their many subsystems, sustainability needs to be viewed through multiple perspectives (Wheeler and Bijur, 2000), and students’ ability to engage in critical enquiry is important. As Tilbury and Cooke (2005) contend, “…sustainability is a collaborative learning process which encourages exploration of new ideas and tools as well as critical reflection upon experience and assumptions that influence change towards sustainability” (p. 12). Yet Symons (1996) observed that in much primary education the critical enquiry dimension is neglected, and argued that, for real ESD to take place, it is essential to build opportunities for critical enquiry into the mainly descriptive and practical nature of much current environmental education. The above emphases on change and action are encapsulated in the term learning for sustainability; the strategies to bring about the change for sustainability are called learning based strategies (Tilbury and Cooke, 2005). In ESD, student learning experiences are no longer confined to the classroom, but are part of learning in the community and in the field. It is influenced by the traditions of environmental education which is generally characterised by three inter-related approaches: education about, in or through, and for the environment (Fien and Tilbury, 1996; Palmer, 1998). In learning in or through the environment, teachers use the environment as a resource with emphasis both on providing opportunities for students to engage in direct and first-hand personal experiences of phenomena and processes. Its objectives are on students consolidating and applying knowledge, gaining understanding of environmental processes, interrelationships and issues, acquiring intellectual and social skills in environmental enquiry, and fostering environmental awareness and concern (Lai, 2006). Furthermore, as intellectual, social and emotional processes are inextricably linked in fieldwork learning, there is a need to enhance holistic learning through the development of learning communities and collaborative learning strategies in and out of the classroom (Cove and Love, 1996; Johnson and Johnson, 1996). To achieve the goals of ESD, learning must be authentic and activities should require the application of knowledge and skills in real-life situations. Students might engage in performance-based learning tasks, such as performing an activity, producing a response, or creating a product that demonstrate their competencies (Luongo-Orlando, 2003). The design of these tasks should be interactive, hands-on, and problem-based to nurture high-order thinking abilities and promote active self-learning (Symons, 1996; WWF Hong Kong, 2006). These tasks are often multi-dimensional and require higher levels of cognitive thinking such as problem solving and critical thinking(Wiggins, 1989).
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This call for the adoption of new teaching and learning approaches for ESD echoes the thrust of current curriculum reforms that advocate the move towards more meaningful and authentic learning. Students need to apply their new knowledge and reasoning to situations similar to those they will encounter in the everyday world in order to know it truly. They need to have the opportunity to make decisions with real consequences (Montgomery, 2001). This move is also aligned with the direction of curriculum reform in Hong Kong, for example, which stresses life-wide learning, i.e., exposing students to learning opportunities in a milieu of formal and informal environments: the school, the classroom, home, community, workplace and the physical environment (Curriculum Development Council (CDC), 2001). These represent a reformed vision of curriculum that requires that, “…school learning should be authentic and connected to the world outside of school not only to make learning more interesting and motivating to students but also to develop the ability to use knowledge in real-world settings” (Shepherd, 2000: 7).
Effective Assessment for ESD Curriculum reforms in many parts of the world have advocated a fundamental shift in assessment thinking from assessment of student achievement for the purpose of grading and judging to one that recognises that assessment has enormous potential for improving and promoting student learning. This has signified a fundamental shift from “assessment of learning” to “assessment for learning” (see for example, Assessment Reform Group, 2002; Black and Wiliam, 1998).
Formative Assessment Effective assessment will serve diagnostic, formative and summative purposes. However, many teachers tend to focus on summative assessment, of which the prime purpose is to judge students’ achievements, and this ignores formative assessment that is aimed at monitoring student progress over time and improving performance. Formative assessment is vitally important in ESD because students should be engaged in authentic tasks throughout the school year and they require information and guidance from their teachers to improve upon their work. In particular, fostering of the environmental attitudes and values of students is a gradual process with ups and downs. Students’ needs are also often unpredictable and may vary from one student to another. All these require teachers to find out constantly the changing needs of their students and adjust their teaching strategies to promote students’ ongoing learning. It is no longer sufficient to depend on summative assessment since the feedback to the teachers and students is typically late.
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Authentic Assessment In the assessment literature, authentic assessment is sometimes grouped under “alternative assessment”, the forms of which also include direct, performance and practical assessment. It involves an authentic task requiring students to demonstrate desired skills or procedures in real-life situations or out-of-school settings (DarlingHammond et al., 1995; Johnson and Johnson, 1996). It often entails the holistic performance of worthwhile complex tasks in challenging environments that involve contextualised problems (Montgomery, 2001: 8). As such, an examination of the process as well as the product of learning is essential (p. 9). The move towards authentic learning in ESD, as discussed earlier, will need to be paralleled with moves to establish means for more authentic assessment of student learning. Nevertheless, this is an area which has received limited attention within the environmental education literature (Marcinkowski, 1998) and curricula materials for classroom use (California Coastal Commission et al., 1995). It has the potential to make an enormous contribution to ESD as authentic assessment practices place a greater emphasis on problem solving, critical thinking, comprehension, reasoning and metacognition, or self-reflection, skills than traditional assessment techniques (Luongo-Orlando, 2003).
Self- and Peer-Assessment Self-assessmentand peer-assessment by students are essential parts of formative assessment (Black and Wiliam, 1998). These help to equip students with the capacity to evaluate the quality of their own work, provide feedback on their peers’ work, and receive and respond to the feedback from others (Carless et al., 2006). This capacity building is particularly important for ESD that is aimed to build learners’ capacity for critical thinking and problem solving, to take charge of their learning, and to promote sustained and lifelong learning. In self-assessment, students need to understand the main purposes of their learning. Hence, in the design of ESD programmes, the evaluation criteria should be understood by the students from the start, so as to allow them to review their own work by applying the appropriate criteria (Montgomery, 2001). Table 3.1 provides a summary of the changing emphases in ESD assessment.
The Assessment and Evaluation Culture in the Chinese Communities There is a continuing struggle to bring learning for sustainability approaches into mainstream school education in many parts of the world (Tilbury and Cooke, 2005). In mainland China, with a highly centralised formal examination system, the
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Table 3.1 Changing emphases in ESD assessment (Adapted from National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment, National Research Council, 1996) Less authentic forms of assessment More authentic forms of assessment Restricted forms of assessment that Multiple forms of assessment are only weakly linked to the learning experiences of students Assesses what is easily measured Assesses what is meaningful and most highly valued Often confined to accuracy of Assesses students’ understanding and reasoning, knowledge requires higher level of cognitive thinking Tends to neglect students’ feelings Emphasises affective learning and actions and emotions and actions Subject-specific orientation: assessCaptures the variety and richness of a programme ment often confined to individual taught across subject areas subjects Assessing to learn what students do Assessing to learn what students do understand not know Summative assessment: end-of-term Formative assessment- students engaged in ongoing assessments by teachers. But assessment of their work and that of others; ensures avoid late feedback after on-time feedback and encouragement to the students summative assessments Utilitarian purpose Students learn to manage their own experience. Values life-long consequences
traditional emphasis has been on summative assessment for grading and there has been a neglect of formative assessment for improving learning. In addition, the traditional focus has been on the acquisition of knowledge and skills, with a neglect of affective outcomes. All these do not favour ESD. Despite the greater flexibility and relaxation evident in the education reforms of the past decade and the emphasis of ESD at the level of the central government in the Chinese communities, the schools’ switch to an assessment for learning culture has been still slow. The assessment culture in the Chinese communities can be traced back to the seventh century when the civil examination started. As remarked by Cheng (2007: 255), “Examinations have always been central to education systems in Chinese communities. The strong tradition of the civil examinations… has underpinned examination-oriented education systems for centuries, even the modern school system”. The impact of examinations to some extent echoes an East Asian culture of schooling in the Chinese communities that emphasises “excellence”, underpinned by hard work and effort as an aim of education and student preparedness to conform to uniform requirements, in particular to examination ideologies and their belief in perseverance (Lee and Dimmock, 1998). In the case of mainland China, the backwash effect of public examinations exerts strong influence on teaching and learning in the senior secondary schools as young people study for public examination courses (Zhu, 2003). Even at the primary school level, Zhu and his colleagues (2003) described the assessment culture in EE in China in this way (translation by this author): Despite EE being practised for over 20 years in primary schools in China, it has not progressed beyond the initial stage. Conceptually it has not developed into an integrated and
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mature system. Practically, it remains at the trial and exploration stage. Even for those schools which have started early, few have conceptually considered student evaluation as an integral part of EE. In this regard, EE in primary schools remains largely as actions of individual schools or teachers, and inevitably is affected by the knowledge of school leaders and teachers. This has resulted in significant negative effects. In reality, EE has been restrained by the traditional emphasis on examinations. This serious defect in the overall education system has adversely affected educational effectiveness, and restrained the development of EE in primary schools. (p. 323)
In addition, despite community- and field-based learning being an important part of ESD, Lai’s research (2002a, b, 2006) on geographical and environmental fieldwork in Hong Kong has indicated that assessment practices usually ignore the meaningful learning experiences of the students provided by fieldwork learning. For instance, in a qualitative study of the field trips of primary school children to a nature education centre, Lai (2002a) reveals the rich learning experiences that the students acquired in these field trips. The field trips represented emotionally engaged learning which took place in a milieu distinctly different from that of the classroom. They had brought students meaningful personal experiences that had potential for developing in students a feeling of personal concern and responsibility for the environment. Nevertheless, the study revealed that it was common for teachers to require the students to complete standardised worksheets that were mainly focused on the recall of factual knowledge, such as the names and features of plants and animals observed on the field trip. These traditional forms of assessment also often failed to recognise the personal or group experiences of students acquired in the field trip. Furthermore, the fieldwork experiences of students were not regarded by the teachers as an integral part of their learning. Assessment of fieldwork learning was not well integrated into the planning process. The students generally received little guidance from their teachers before and after the field trips. On returning to school, teachers tended to move quickly on to classroom teaching of related school subjects in order to compensate for the time lost to the field trip. Typically, students also received feedback that was too limited and too long after the field trips had ended. In contrast, a school-based environmental field project, “What happens around you and your school area” used fieldwork as the major learning activity, class discussion and role play as extended learning activities and a photograph exhibition for reflection. Students were also asked to protect a tree in the school garden. Such a project had a strong attitudes and skills orientation with an “emphasis on the learning processes, not directly on the outcomes” (Kwan and Chan, 2004: 313). It is noteworthy that primary school sites are very small in size in Hong Kong because of limited space. In Taiwan, primary (elementary) schools generally occupy larger sites and some schools have developed environmental trails or habitats for learning on their campuses. Here, some examples of collaborative or guided environmental education action research between university professors and school practitioners can be found. For example, a primary school in Taichung has developed an environmental trail activity curriculum, which, after implementation and revision, contained the following thematic modules: gatekeeping god of the campus; plants in the front school yard; passing through the hall into the inner chamber; being close to the earth; little demons in flower and grass; good fung shui everywhere;
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young environmental angels; playing sand together (Chang and Liu, 2003). Another example comes from Shi Shan primary school in Taipei where an action research study adopted the approach of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Schoolyard Habitats Project and the Habitats for Learning of Ohio in the US and the schoolyard was transformed into habitats for learning through environmental education. The results revealed that building a habitat for learning as a process of life and education in the school campus could provide teachers and students with “firsthand experience of learning by meaningful doing” (Wu and Chou, 2003: 50). A city elementary school in Taoyuan had developed a new “sound environment” education programme, intended to improve students’ environmental sensitivity to soundscape. The results of a quasi-experimental design showed that the programme could significantly increase the “total awareness”, “organized awareness”, “total attitude”, “perception attitude”, “concern attitude”, “total behaviour intention”, “exploratory behaviour intention”, “resolving behaviour intention” and “protection behaviour intention” of sixth grade elementary school students (Chang and Tung, 2005). In the case of China, students’ participation in an informal curriculum or extracurricular activities, such as participation in “greening” the school grounds and planting trees for the community, is common in schools. Students may also be involved in displays and exhibitions of their work as well as in cultural drama performances. While these activities may help nurture their environmental attitudes and values, there is often a lack of critical thinking and deep values inquiry. Instead, the cultivation of students’ environmental knowledge and skills tends to be emphasised (Kwan and Lidstone, 1998). Nonetheless, the promotion of project-based learning in the recent curriculum reform provides opportunities for exploring alternative assessment. As regards the evaluation culture, some scholars, such as Tse (2005: 118), have argued that under the impact of the managerialism and marketisation, educational reforms have brought about measures such as specification of aims and indicators and the extensive use of internal and external assessment. These measures, to some extent, are also exemplified in the use of indicators in the green school project in Hong Kong and the emphasis on school self-evaluation and external inspection in ESD school development, which will be discussed in later sections. Competition among schools for awards and recognition from higher education authorities has also been an issue of concern in schools in China. Very often schools engage in publicity activities such as an exhibition of students’ work, a singing/musical event or a dramatic presentation. As commented by Kwan and Lidstone (1998: 93), “. . .such events contribute to the sense of competition to be regarded as leaders and successful in meeting the requirements of higher authority. Success in such cultural competitions may be interpreted as success in meeting national educational aims”. Against the entrenched examination culture in Chinese communities and the tides of managerialism and marketisation accompanying educational reforms, there are calls for reform in assessment and evaluation in the school curriculum. The basic curriculum reform in China advocated that it was important to build up an evaluation system that enhanced students’ holistic development, and identified and developed students’ multiple potentials and needs (Ministry of Education, The People’s Republic of China, 2001). In Hong Kong, the basic curriculum reform also emphasised
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assessment for learning that recognised, “…both the processes (e.g., inquiring, independent learning, use of generic skills, reflections) and the products of learning (e.g., knowledge/concepts, problem-solving capacities)” as important in student learning (emphasis as original, CDC, 2001: 80). In Taiwan, the 9-year curriculum guide (trial), apart from the seven Key Learning Areas, consisted of six issues, one of which was environmental education. As regards assessment and evaluation, it was proposed that there would be a division of labour between central, regional and local governments in curriculum evaluation. This evaluation included formative and summative evaluation and served the purposes of improving the curriculum, selecting teaching plans, enhancing learning effectiveness and having post-evaluation review (Ministry of Education, R.O.C. (Taiwan), 2000). In addition, there would be an emphasis on school-based curriculum, curriculum integration and the use of key competencies for students of elementary and junior high schools (Hwang et al., 2006).
Strategies of Assessment and Evaluation of ESD ESD is holistic in nature. It encompasses formal and informal learning experiences in school as well as in the field, and encourages authentic learning and multiple outcomes concerned with the cognitive, the affective and the connative (Stimpson, 2006). ESD is also integrated and embedded across all subject areas (Teacher Training Agency, 2003; Ubuntu Network, 2007). All these require the implementation of an appropriate assessment framework with open-ended, multiple assessment modes to evaluate such learning. In other words, assessment strategies in ESD need to capture the variety and richness of ESD across the formal and non-formal curricula. They are aimed to promote meaningful learning and provide opportunities for students to demonstrate what they have acquired in the process of authentic learning. This requires a move away from the traditionally more restricted forms of assessment which are often confined to measuring knowledge and practical skills. Unfortunately, there is a relatively limited discourse about assessment strategies in the ESD and EE literature. The question of “What to teach/assess?” is given much greater emphasis than the “How to assess?” question (Tal, 2005). As Lai’s research findings on fieldwork indicate, many teachers continue to rely on standardised and restricted forms of assessment, such as worksheets, stereotyped projects and examinations, to evaluate the outcomes of ESD programmes and activities. These traditional forms of assessment were inadequate as they often failed to recognise the rich individual student experiences involved in fieldwork, and were irrelevant to many students. As Proudman (1992) comments, “…too often teachers are so focused on the activity…that they blindly assume their students will have similar experiences” (p. 21). We do not intend to give detailed descriptions of strategies of assessment for ESD here. Nevertheless, teachers may obtain support from the assessment literature which focuses on more authentic, performance-based and integrated modes of assessment and which would allow opportunities for creativity, reflection and sharing of “real world” experiences and which encourage problem solving and
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exploration of alternative solutions. These include tools for developing rubrics for authentic classroom assessment tasks (Luongo-Orlando, 2003; Martin-Kniep, 2000), reviews of assessment devices and opportunities in environmental education materials for classroom use (California Coastal Commission et al., 1995), learner reports in which students describe their learning experiences (Stokking et al., 1999), and assessment in enquiry and issue-based approaches (Chambers, 1995). Table 3.2 provides an example of a learner’s report which reveals how a Japanese Primary 3 student makes sense of the contexts that surround him/her during a survey of “green resources” in the neighbourhood of his/her urban school. ESD is inextricably linked with values and attitudes. Self, peer and portfolio assessment methods are more effective than traditional assessment methods in evaluating students’ higher order thinking and changes in actions and attitudes. Portfolios are particularly useful because they can document the growth in student learning (Martin-Kniep, 2000). In addition, Zhu and his colleagues (2003) have suggested that teachers may conduct assessment of students’ changes in values, attitudes and actions through their natural, on-going observation and interaction with their students in real settings, or through employing tools designed specifically to assess changes in values, attitudes, behaviour. For the latter, teachers may adopt a pre- and post-tests strategy and a self-assessment strategy to enable a student to
Table 3.2 Report of a Primary three Japanese student on a survey of “green resources” in the school neighbourhood (Adapted from Sajima et al., 1992: 106–107) Time period Activity Extracts from student’s report 1 Finding “green resources” There are rich green resources around my home in the neighbourhood in the parks and temples. In addition, there are green areas along the roads and pedestrian walks, and at the back of my apartment building. In my school grounds, there is also green vegetation. There are plenty of trees lining the road before the building. 2 Thinking of the functions When the weather is hot, I feel cool standing under of the beech trees the shade of the beech tree. I would like to find along the road out how the beech tree is grown, by itself or by human planting, or grown by heaven? 3 Observation and survey There are large and small beech trees. The old trees of beech trees along are tall and large; the young trees are small. The the road total number of trees along the road is 172, of which 4 are withered and 6 are of other types. Altogether there are 162 beech trees. 4 Interview of planters The most difficult part of raising a beech tree is of beech trees that it would require several planting of seedlings before it can survive. Among 151 trees, only 19 would blossom. The re-planting process would require help from a lot of people. 5 Evaluation of activity I will pay special attention to the following behaviour. I will never trample on the soil, and irrigate the soil when I am free. May the withered trees grow up again!
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identify change in his/her own values, attitudes and/or actions. In addition, tools like brainstorming, ranking, timelines, mental maps, points of view, written lists, unfinished sentences, opposites or “stand on the line”, four corners, labelling, selecting and role play are effective for teachers to use to enable the students to clarify and analyse their values (Educating for a Sustainable Future, undated). For older children, learning approaches such as mentoring, facilitation, participative inquiry, action learning and action research might help them explore the sustainability agenda. These approaches enable them to reflect on their experiences, learn how to make changes and move forward (Tilbury and Cooke, 2005). They foster skills for creative and critical thinking, oral and written communication, collaboration and co-operation, conflict management, decision-making, problem-solving and planning, using appropriate information and communication technology, and practical citizenship (UNESCO, 2006). As discussed in the previous section, assessment of fieldwork is usually not well embedded in the learning process. This suggests the need for teachers to plan well ahead and put in place practices that facilitate formative assessment at all stages of fieldwork learning. Briefing and debriefing stages should be regarded as integral parts of fieldwork learning. During the briefing stage, objectives of the field activity and the assessment criteria should be made explicit to the students, which will also facilitate students’ later engagement in self-assessment. After the field trip, teachers should provide opportunities for students to process and reflect on their personal or group experiences through debriefing sessions, during which teachers and learners can return to the experience, attend to feelings and re-evaluate the experience (Boud and Walker, 1991). Feedback should also be given to students soon after the fieldwork has ended. The efforts of all students should be recognised.
School Self-evaluation of Whole-School Approaches to ESD Whole-School Approaches to ESD Whole-school approaches to sustainability education are emerging in many parts of the world, supported by the view that effective ESD is not just a curriculum issue, but requires the involvement of the whole school which is also a site of good practice in sustainability education for the community (Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH), 2005; Tilbury and Wortman, 2006). As such, they integrate the formal curriculum and pedagogy with institutional culture and ethos, institutional practice, self-evaluation and action research, and community links (Shallcross, 2003). Whole-school approaches also aim to build up a learning organisation or communities of action in which internal and external stakeholders are provided with learning opportunities to reflect not only upon their role in achieving sustainability within the organisation and how to influence change, but also to help define a vision of sustainability for the organisation (Tilbury and
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Cooke, 2005; Robinson and Shallcross, 2006). ESD-schools are considered to be a step beyond green schools or eco-schools as they place a greater emphasis on aspects of participation, self-efficacy, equality and social justice in preparing students for their engagement in SD. In this regard, they aim to offer students a context for developing active citizenship and participation embracing the complexity of the combined social, economic, political and environmental dimensions of sustainable development (Breiting et al., 2005: 5). In terms of evaluation, a key feature of a sustainable school as a learning organisation is the presence of regular monitoring, reflection and evaluation procedures which inform future actions (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004). Self-evaluation is considered as the basis of green school development and it helps us to understand the conditions, “hidden stones” and good practice of ESD (Mathar, 2006). Its essence is to assess whether the values that schools and teachers espouse are reflected in their own or their school’s actions (Posch, 1993). Nevertheless, an international review of whole-school sustainability programmes has found that such monitoring and evaluation have not been high priorities, limiting the ability to reflect and improve upon practice (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004; Tilbury and Wortman, 2006). In addition, there is a need for evaluation of whole school approaches in ESD to go beyond evaluation practice in individual school subjects since ESD is transdisciplinary in nature as it tries to integrate formal and non-formal curricula.
Quality Criteria for School Self-evaluation of ESD In recent years, various bodies have been advocating approaches and defining criteria that can be used to evaluate whole-school approaches to ESD. In the following sections, we shall examine a few cases demonstrating the type of criteria adopted by international bodies and projects, national government agencies and research centres in various parts of the world and in Chinese societies.
International Projects Educating for a Sustainable Future Project The UK Educating for a Sustainable Future website, developed from the European Commission-funded Sustainability Education in European Primary Schools (SEEPS) Project and a Scottish initial teacher education initiative, emphasises developing approaches that can be used to evaluate institutional change. According to its Study Guide, Evaluation should help all members of the school community to identify where they are, the direction they would like to take (vision), ways of realising visions (designs) and why change is necessary (rationale). Self-evaluation is about evaluating the quality of learning and the school environment from the perspective of the whole school community; it is a
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dynamic process that values everyone’s input: students, teachers, parents, support staff and members of the local community. It moves groups and individuals towards self-determined visions and practices that should be oriented towards giving feedback. (Retrieved from http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/esf/resources/intros/6-0.html. Accessed on March 5 2008.)
This Study Guide considers that self-evaluation occurs on at least three different levels: individual; team, group or department; and school. It also advocates constructivist, democratic, co-operative and participatory processes as key features of self-evaluation in whole school approaches versus those which are predetermined, prescribed, hierarchical and authoritative. The Study Guide states that, “A pupil can evaluate his/her own learning or contribution to a group project. This enables pupils to assimilate and internalise experiences. Many tools are available for pupil selfevaluations. Tools that promote pupil self-expression are particularly useful as these create freedom for pupils to express their own ideas in a way/language that is directly relevant to their experiences” (http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/esf/resources/ intros/6-0.html. Accessed on March 6, 2008). As regards evaluation of children’s participation, a video recording, photographs or line drawings could be used to stimulate discussion and there were also suggested questions for pupils, as follows (Shallcross et al., 2006: 96): Is there anything in the video or on the drawing that you would like to see happen in your school? If so what is it and why would you like to see it in your school? What do you like about your lessons? What do you dislike about your lessons? What would you like to change in your local community and environment and why?
The School Development Through Environmental Education (SEED) Network The School Development through Environmental Education (SEED) network was funded from 2002–2005 as a European COMENIUS 3 network and organised by the Environment and Schools Initiatives (ENSI). This European network perceives EE and ESD “as a teaching and learning process which aim to foster democratic participation of students as active citizens for social and environmental change” (Breiting et al., 2005: 7). It emphasises a critical examination of the process of change within the development of an ESD-school, which will improve the school’s capacity to enhance student learning to prepare the students for future challenges in a changing world. The quality criteria articulated by SEED are comprehensive and lucid. They are well documented in two publications (Breiting et al., 2005; ENSI Transfer-21 Programme “Quality and Competencies” Working Group, 2007). Their criteria represent a thorough analysis of what ESD means in schools in Western communities. For a school’s self-evaluation, Breiting et al. (2005) propose rationale and quality criteria in each of 15 areas under three main groups – the quality of the teaching and learning process; school policy and organisation; and the school’s external relations. For instance, the quality criteria in the area of teaching-learning approaches include:
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• The teachers listen to and value the concerns, experiences, ideas and expectations of the students and their plans are “flexible” and open for changes. • The teachers encourage co-operative learning and experiential learning. • The teaching takes into account the value of practical activities by linking them to students’ concept development and theory construction. • The teachers facilitate students’ participation and provide contexts for the development of students’ own learning, ideas and perspectives. • The teachers search for ways to evaluate and assess students’ achievement consistent with the above mentioned criteria. (p. 15) The design of the framework is underpinned by a conception that the most important achievements of ESD “…are related to the teaching and learning processes and the school climate and organisation, rather than to the practical actions or outcomes in the school or in the community” (p. 9). While the SEED quality criteria did not offer concrete advice on methods of assessment, they provided examples of visible outcomes and a rationale. For instance, the quality criteria for a village school in the area of “at school and in the local community” were illustrated by: Children proposed to ask the community and their parents for help to make the forest cleaner, without abandoned waste, and more accessible, and with their teachers they made specific plans of what to do and when to do it. During three days work with the help of the community the abandoned forest was made more appealing to people. . . The forest is now used as an educational site. (p. 16)
Regarding the rationale of school actions, the main aim is to help students understand how things work in reality and not the physical/technical visible outcomes: But when an outcome is reached, and a little dream of change becomes reality because of the joint efforts of the class or the school, it is extraordinarily important to value this change, also for the students who have not participated, and to nurture and maintain the results obtained. In many cases, follow up of the changes obtained is more difficult than the change itself. This can be a point for reflection of the students and the whole school. (p. 17)
In the follow-up report (ENSI Transfer-21 Programme “Quality and Competencies” Working Group, 2007) quality criteria are explored in depth through nine categories, or what the report calls “quality areas”. These are learning culture, learning groups, competencies, school culture, opening of schools to the outside world, school management, school programme, resources and staff development. The “learning culture” area, in particular, encompasses the assessment of teaching and learning, which represents an enrichment of the SEED quality criteria.
National Government Agencies Ofsted and DfES Based on the evidence from inspection visits to primary, middle and secondary schools, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (2003) in England issued a document, titled Taking the first step forward towards an education for sustainable
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development: Good practice in primary and secondary schools, that identified the characteristics of good practice in ESD. It measured the extent to which schools or programmes successfully engaged with the seven key concepts of ESD listed in its curriculum guidance to schools: • • • • • • •
Citizenship and stewardship Sustainable change Needs and rights of future generations Interdependence Diversity Uncertainty and precaution Quality of life, equality and justice
Several areas were assessed – management, curriculum, teaching, learning, decision making, specific projects, general environmental indicators, purchasing, grounds and learning environment. However, it does not highlight process criteria that might be expected in the classroom (Stimpson, 2006). The Ofsted study found that sustainable schools built their good practices through a cycle of strategic goal-setting, action and assessment. Based on this study, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2006) developed a Sustainable School Self-Evaluation tool for schools to assess their current level of progress and plan next steps. This calls for the tailoring of teaching and learning practices to pupils’ needs and interests to help them actively to contribute to a sustainable society. The ESD curriculum would: …provide more opportunities to develop the multidisciplinary, problem-based skills needed to tackle real-world challenges. It would offer pupils opportunities to apply a full range of thinking skills to practical real-life problem-solving. It would challenge pupils to develop strategies for effective independent working, as well as cooperative team working. It would draw fully on the school’s buildings and grounds, its surroundings and local community as a learning resource, bringing learning to life in the form of practical applications. And it would place pupils and their community at the heart of the learning process, making pupils increasingly responsible for the development and assessment of their own learning. (p. 30)
A National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools The National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools (Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005) provides a comprehensive framework for a whole-school approach to EE for sustainability through all years of schooling. This starts from the development of a shared vision and goals which guide the formulation of learning objectives and the articulation in all facets of school life, school governance, resource management, physical grounds, and networks and partnerships. On the more practical side, the Statement includes a useful inventory called Indicators for a Sustainable School that measures various aspects
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of school operations, curriculum, teaching and learning, physical surroundings and relationships with the local community (DEH, 2005). Compared with the SEED framework and the Ofsted criteria, the Australian framework asserts explicitly that assessment is an integral part of curriculum planning and effective assessment strategies need to be congruent with the different approaches to curriculum planning and content being adopted in an environmental education for sustainability programme. Detailed guidelines are given: Environmental education for sustainability programs have skills, attitudes and values, and participation and action as well as knowledge outcomes. This means assessment strategies will need to emphasise problem-solving, teamwork, decision making, holistic thinking, clarifying and analysing values, and opportunities for action, as well as providing opportunities for students to demonstrate that they have also acquired the requisite skills. In many instances, students can benefit from being involved in negotiating the criteria and methods by which they are assessed. (pp. 15–16)
Chinese Societies Hong Kong SAR In Hong Kong, schools’ self-assessment of whole-school approaches has until recently been developed in the context of green schools in EE, rather than for the much broader notion of ESD-schools as defined by Breiting et al. (2005). The government-published HK Green School Award Self-assessment Manual (Environmental Campaign Committee, 2003) focuses on visible and physical outcomes related to the five aspects of environmental structure, environmental management, environmental education, effectiveness of environmental education and school members’ participation in environmental activities. As regards the effectiveness of environmental education, two major aspects are taken into consideration: environmental awareness, attitude and behaviour, and environmental awards. One of the criteria of environmental awareness, attitude and behaviour is, “The environmental awareness of students is enhanced”. It is divided into four levels: e (excellent): In addition to conditions in level g, the school undertakes evaluation and takes improvement action to improve students’ awareness. g (good): The school coordinates school-based plans to enhance students’ environmental awareness. A mechanism is in place to measure the awareness. f (fair): The school measures students’ environmental awareness. i (immediate improvement required): There is no mechanism to measure students’ environmental awareness.
Such a criterion shows that the emphasis is on the operation of an evaluation mechanism rather than on the expected level of students’ environmental awareness. The recently launched Sustainable Development School Award Programme has adopted a similar approach by rewarding secondary schools for their participation in activities promoting SD concepts and practices in schools and the community respectively.
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The Chinese Mainland In China, conscientious attempts have been made to promote ESD in schools and in teacher education in support of the launching of the UN Decade for ESD, though its effectiveness varies widely due to the huge disparities in economic and educational development across the country. The importance of whole-school approaches in ESD has received increasing attention. Up to 2005, more than 20,000 green schools at different levels have been created in China. The indicators and criteria for judging a green school vary between places. For instance, those adopted in Shanghai include: • • • • •
There is a managerial group at the school level in charge of EE/ESD. Concepts of EE/ESD are adopted through the proceeding of education. “Green” publicity with themes are undertaken on campus or in the community. Overall greening and pollution control on campus. Good awareness of the need to protect the environment and active participation in national or local activities of environmental protection. • Mirroring local characteristics (Yu and Xun, 2007: 7–8). Wang (2005) also categorised the quality criteria in evaluation of ESD into “where”, “what” and “how”. “Where” refers to evaluation of the school culture and learning context which may facilitate ESD; “what” refers to the learning content organised under an interdisciplinary framework and “how” refers to the evaluation of teaching and learning processes. He posed two basic questions for schools: • Is the learning context of the students conducive to the fostering of students’ positive attitudes and actions towards the environment? • Is there an ESD plan designed for the students, in which both the contents and teaching strategies are properly organised and the contents are comprehensive? In addition, Zhu and his colleagues (2003) propose differential weightings for the quality criteria in assessment of EE in primary schools as follows: Organisational management and curriculum co-ordination
(1.0)
Educational equipment and funding availability Teacher training and educational research Development of overt curriculum: Infusion into school subjects Activity education Development of hidden curriculum Results and outcomes
(0.7) (0.9) (1.5) (1.4) (1.3) (3.2)
Taiwan In Taiwan, the basic (9-year articulated) curriculum guidelines include “environmental education” as one of the key issues and have provided competency indicators
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for each of the three stages of 9-years’ schooling (Grades 1–3; Grades 4–5 and Grades 6–9). The competency indicators were divided into five domains (with number of indicators in brackets): • • • • •
Environmental awareness and sensitivity (5) Environmental conceptual knowledge (7) Environmental values and attitudes (9) Environmental action skills (11) and Environmental action experience (9) (Ministry of Education, R.O.C. (Taiwan), 2000: 456–457).
Taking environmental action experience (Domain 5) as an example (p. 457), the competency indicators are as follows: First stage (Grades 1–2) 5-1-1: Able to accompany parents or teachers to engage in activity experience of community environmental protection or caring about the life of minorities; 5-1-2: Able to plan and implement personal and collective campus environmental protection activities Second stage (Grades 4–5) 5-2-1: Able to acquire experience of participating in surveying and solving environmental problems of the surroundings; 5-2-2: Able to plan and implement simple environmental survey activities organised by the school campus environmental protection bureau; 5-2-3: Implement green consumerism, environmental protection festivals, events and environmental caring actions Third stage (Grades 6−9) 5-3-1: Participate in school association’s and community’s environmental protection related activities; 5-3-2: Have acquired experience in participating in local and international surveys of environmental issues as well as researching and solving problems; 5-3-3: Organise activities on school and community environmental protection and caring for minorities; 5-3-4: Able to work with colleagues as a team and adopt democratic procedures in learning and planning to solve environmental issues.
(Note: The first number denotes the domain; the second number denotes the stage; and the third number denotes the serial number) These competency indicators also echo some of the indicators in other Key Learning Areas and the ten generic skills (i.e., understanding self and developing potential; appreciation, performance and innovation; life career planning and lifelong learning, expression, communication and sharing; respect, caring and teamwork; cultural learning and international understanding; planning, organisation and practice, using information technology; active inquiry and research; and independent thinking and problem-solving). It should be noticed that many of the previous examples have not given detailed guidelines on the methods of assessment or the expected levels or evidence of student learning outcomes in EE/ESD. Amidst the prevalence of managerialist approaches to school accountability in many education systems, there is always a danger in the
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mechanistic and excessive use of criteria, standards and performance indicators in evaluation of a school’s achievement in ESD. It is important to perceive quality criteria as an opportunity for quality enhancement and not as a tool for quality control (Breiting et al., 2005). In this regard, there is always a need to ensure a high degree of shared understanding and participation in the construction and review of the quality criteria by all school stakeholders, which will enhance the latter’s joint acceptance and ownership of these criteria. As such, the school will be functioning as a learning organisation.
Conclusion The focus on assessment for ESD, paraphrasing Black and Wiliam (1998), will represent a shift in the focus of attention towards greater interest in the interactions between assessment and learning for ESD and away from concentration on the properties of restricted forms of assessment which are only weakly linked to the learning experiences of students. The broadening to more authentic forms of assessment in ESD would allow opportunities for creativity, reflection and sharing of “real world” experiences. These include open-ended, multiple assessment modes that promote meaningful learning. The move towards authentic assessmentin ESD would also help achieve the multiple educational goals of the education reforms. It would significantly enhance the contribution of ESD to the broader framework of life-wide learning in the curriculum. Students would benefit from learning opportunities in a rich milieu of formal and informal environments, and develop their skills to use knowledge in real-world settings, essential for successful citizenship in tomorrow’s world. On the other hand, assessment is not just a curriculum issue. It has to be embedded in the culture and institutional practice of the whole school. In this regard, the development of meaningful quality criteria for school-self evaluation of ESD is critical to the successful implementation of whole-school approaches to ESD. There have been promising developments in the form of international and national projects. Yet the switch to an assessment for learning culture at the school level still presents a challenging task for Chinese societies.
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Hwang, J. J., Yu, C. C. and Chang, C. Y. (2006). School improvement in Taiwan: 1987–2003. In J. C. K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), School Improvement: International Perspectives (pp. 201–212). New York: Nova Science. Johnson, D. W. and Johnson, R. T. (1996). Meaningful and Manageable Assessment Through Cooperative Learning. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co. Kwan, T. and Chan, E. (2004). Using theory of learning and awareness to bring about learning through a school-based environmental field project. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 13(4), 303–328. Kwan, T. Y. L. and Lidstone, J. (1998). Understanding environmental education in the People’s Republic of China: a national policy, locally interpreted. Environmental Education Research, 4(1), 87–97. Lai, K. C. (2002a). A qualitative study of school children’s field trip experiences to a nature education centre in Hong Kong. In J. Hodgkiss (ed.), Challenges of Nature Conservation in the Face of Development Pressure (pp. 201–206), Hong Kong. Lai, K. C. (2002b). Fieldwork as meaningful learning: the role of authentic assessment. Paper presented at the International Geographical Union Regional Conference, Durban, South Africa. Lai, K. C. (2006). Fieldwork and outdoor education for environmental and geographical education for sustainability. In J.C.K. Lee, and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 155–172). New York: Nova Science. Lee, J. C. K. and Dimmock, C. (1998). Curriculum management in secondary schools during political transition: a Hong Kong perspective. Curriculum Studies, 6(1), 5–28. Luongo-Orlando, K. (2003). Authentic Assessment: Designing Performance-Based Tasks for Achieving Language Arts Outcomes. Markham, ON.: Pembroke Publishers. Marcinkowski, T. (1998). Assessment in environmental education. In H. Hungerford, W. Bluhm, T. Volk and J. Ramsey (eds.), Essential Readings in Environmental Education (pp. 171–208). Champaign, IL: Stipes Publishing L.L.C. Martin-Kniep, A. O. (2000). Becoming a Better Teacher: Eight Innovations That Work. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Mathar, R. (2006). Eco-schools and green schools. In J.C.K. Lee, and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 139–154). New York: Nova Science. Ministry of Education (MOE), The People’s Republic of China (2001). Basic Education Curriculum Reform Syllabus (Trial). MOE Basic Education [2001] document No. 17. 8 June. Ministry of Education, R.O.C. (Taiwan) (2000). The Nine-Year Articulated Curriculum Guidelines for Compulsory Education. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education. Montgomery, K. (2001). Authentic Assessment: A Guide for Elementary Teachers. New York: Longman. National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment, National Research Council (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education, National Research Council. Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (2003). Taking the First Step Forward Towards an Education for Sustainable Development: Good Practice in Primary and Secondary Schools [HMI 1658]. London: Ofsted. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/assets/3389.doc. Accessed on March 6, 2008. Palmer, J. A. (1998). Environmental Education in the 21st Century: Theory, Practice, Progress and Promise. London: Routledge. Posch, P. (1993) Approaches to values in environmental education. In OECD/ENSI, Values in Environmental Education Conference Report, SCCC, Dundee. Proudman, B. (1992). Experiential education as emotionally-engaged learning. Journal of Experiential Education, 15(2), 19–23. Robinson, J. and Shallcross, T. (2006). Education for sustainable development. In D. Kassem, E. Mufti and J. Robinson (eds.) , Education Studies: Issues and Critical Perspectives (pp 233–254 Berkshire: Open University Press.
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Sajima, T., Horiuchi, K., and Yamashita, H. (1992). Gakkou no naka deno kankyou kyouiku [School Environment Education]. Kokudo-sha Co. Ltd. Translated into Chinese by International Village Publications, Taipei, Taiwan. Sarabhai, K. V. (2005). Background: Education for Sustainable Future. http://www.ceeindia.org/ esf/esf.asp. Accessed on March 6, 2008. Shallcross T., Robinson J. and Wals, A. E. J. (2006). Constructing case studies using evaluative research. In T. Shallcross, J. Robinson, P. Pace and A. E. J. Wals (eds.), Creating Sustainable Environments in Our Schools (pp. 85–104). Stoke-on-Trent, England: Trentham. Shallcross, T. (2003). Whole School Approaches to Education for Sustainable Development through School-Focused Professional Development (The SEEPS Project). http://www.ceeindia. org/esf/download/paper51.pdf. Accessed on March 6, 2008. Shepherd, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4–24. Stimpson, P. (2006). Orientations and approaches to environmental and geographical education for sustainability. In J. C. K. Lee, and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 65–77). New York: Nova Science. Stokking, H., van Aert, L., Meijberg, W. and Kaskens, A. (1999). Evaluating Environmental Education. Gland, Cambridge: Commission on Education and Communication, IUCN. Symons, G. (1996). The primary years. In J. Huckle , and S. R. Sterling (eds.), Education for Sustainability (pp. 55–71). London: Earthscan. Tal, T. (2005). Implementing multiple assessment modes in an interdisciplinary environmental education course. Environmental Education Research, 11(5), 575–601. Teacher Training Agency. (2003). Memorandum from the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) Appendix 54 . http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/ cmenvaud/472/472we55.htm. Accessed on March 6, 2008. Tilbury, D. and Cooke, K. (2005). A National Review of Environmental Education and Its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia: Frameworks for Sustainability. Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability. Tilbury, D., and Wortman, D. (2006). Whole school approaches to sustainability. In J. C. K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 95–107). New York: Nova Science. Tse, T. K. C. (2005). Quality education in Hong Kong: The anomalies of managerialism and marketization. In L. S. Ho, P. Morris and Y. P. Chung (eds.), Education Reform and the Quest for Excellence: The Hong Kong Story (pp. 99–123). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Ubuntu Network. (2007). Ubuntu Submission on National ESD Strategy to DES. http://www. ubuntu.ie/Submission%20for%20National%20Strategy%20on%20ESD.pdf. Accessed on March 6, 2008. UNESCO (2005). United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) International Implementation Scheme. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. (2006). Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future: A Multimedia Teacher Education Programme (Version 4). http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/index.htm. Accessed on March 6, 2008. Wang M. (2005). Ke Chi Xu Fa Zhan Jiao Yu Gai Lun [Overview of Education for Sustainable Development]. Beijing: Geological Press [in Chinese]. Wheeler, K. A. and Bijur, A. P. (eds.) (2000). Education for a Sustainable Future: A Paradigm of Hope for the 21st Century. New York: Kluwer/Plenum. Wiggins, G. (1989). A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 70, 703–713. Wu, W. and Chou, J. (2003). Development and application of a schoolyard habitat for environmental education learning at an elementary school in Taipei. Journal of Environmental Education Research, 1(1), 19–50 [in Chinese]. WWF Hong Kong (2006). Education for Sustainable Development Policy and Strategy 2007–11. http://www.wwf.org.hk/chi/pdf/education/edu_resources/WWF_2007–2011_educationfor_ sustainable_flyer_revised_5.pdf. Accessed on March 6, 2008.
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Chapter 4
Education for Sustainable Development: Towards Whole School and Community Approaches Margaret Robertson and John Chi-Kin Lee
Whole school and community approaches to Education for Sustainable Development rely on a fundamental understanding of the consequences of non-participation in global agendas for our planet. As Calder and Clugston (2005) state: “The twentyfirst century will be remembered as a time when humanity pushed itself to the very limits of Earth’s capacity to support our needs and to regenerate itself to sustain future life” (p. 7). Western lifestyle models compound the issues as the developing countries of the twenty-first century are rapidly closing the gap on consumerism expectations with improving lifestyles that are greedy users of the earth’s limited resources. As justification for this alarming realisation it is salutary to refer to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Living Planet Report (see http://www.panda.org/ news_facts/publications/living_planet_report/index.cfm. Accessed on November 7, 2007). In the assessmentof the global position two main indices are used. They are the Living Planet Index or the health of the planet’s ecosystems and the Ecological Foot print defined as the “extent of human demand on these systems”. Based on an assessment of the period 1975–2003 the Living Planet Report reveals that for both indicators, North America and Europe remain at the top of the lists. The report, as it relates to human development, states: During this period, wealthy nations such as the United States of America significantly increased their resource use while increasing their quality of life. This did not hold for poorer nations, notably China or India, where significant increases in HDI [Human Development Index] were achieved while their person footprints remained below global per person capacity. (WWF, 2006: 19)
This could be interpreted as an advantage for the big populous countries. They have a little slice of time to reflect on the excesses of wealthy nations and steer their
M. Robertson (*) Faculty of Education, La Trobe University, Australia E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_4, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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economies and the lifestyle needs of their people in more sustainable directions. The Chinese government, for instance, with its centralist government initiatives can appear well-positioned to minimise the fall-out of development and temper the lifestyle expectations of the people. In moving its giant population from communism to a full market economy the warnings from the West should be better and simpler to anticipate. In reality, human nature is more complex and not so easily manipulated. Media exposure translates the Western model of lifestyle success, with all its material excesses, into the living spaces of families in modest rural and urban locations. The internetcan be controlled by filters on the system but the outside world is easily accessed through digitally transmitted images on screens, mobile devices, wireless and broadband networks which beam their temptations from satellites and cables across vast land expanses. As a rapidly building economy (25% in the same period as the Living Planet Report), China is on the move and the momentum gained is visible in the big cities and in the demand for cars, as well as digital communications, electrical goods and mechanical gadgetry. This is one quarter of the world’s population seeking their share of the goods that are now in the category of “I can’t live without” in wealthy parts of the world. Reputedly, in 2007 new cars are entering the streets of Beijing at phenomenal rates. The People’s Daily Online (see http:// english.peopledaily.com.cn/200507/01/eng20050701_193500.html. Accessed on November 7, 2007) reports the figure is as high as 2,000 extra cars per day. Others say less. Regardless, the traffic is way beyond the city’s capacity to manage and the numbers are a frightening indicator of the fall-out on the carbon emissions over the city. In brief, this is not a very satisfactory progress report for a nation with access to all the advance warnings. The messages are clear. Given these behavioural trends, the prediction for 2050 by the Living Planet Report is that globally, on current projections, we may “overshoot” the planet’s worth of natural resources by up to three planets’ worth (WWF, 2006: 22). Hence, at local levels there is a need to be critical of national trends in development issues as well as taking a responsible view of national priorities in education, development and moves towards healthier and wealthier lifestyles where access to comfortable living is possible and sustainable. China and India in particular have the most rapidly growing economies. Together their populations comprise around half the world’s people. Their opportunities for slowing the process of ecological footprints are now before the development boom translates to too much human demand for planet threatening lifestyle “necessities” including cars. Translating the reality of this rapidly changing landscape into relevant lifelong learning is fundamental for the survival of nations and their people. The dilemma for educators is paradoxical. How to modify the perfectly understandable perceptions of the people to accept a development model that does not necessarily see personal car ownership and associated indices of personal “wealth” as the goalsetting future. And, how to encourage the next generation to adopt an economic model that embraces international benchmarks for industry and commerce as a matter of responsible global and local citizenship that will slow the drain on our planet to levels that can secure the future of future generations. This cusp in the development
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process is at a precipice. We either fall over the cliff of what the planet can sustain or find ways of slowing the clearly marked trends. China’s “one child policy” demonstrates that, as a nation, the hard decisions can be made. The “greening” of Beijing in readiness for the 2008 Olympic Games is a further illustration at the local level of the nation’s sensitivity to the issues of pollution and the need for management of the modernisation process. The major challenge for China in the coming decades will be to find dozens of innovative solutions to the wants and needs of its people. Tempering outside pressures for its manufacturing capacity to feed the wants of the big consuming nations may need to be part of this national agenda. In Hong Kong, for example, local and international media have taken up the concern of the air pollution problem and the impaired visibility. In 2006, the Chief Executive Donald Tsang launched the Action Blue Sky Campaign (http://www. news.gov.hk/en/category/environment/060725/html/060725en04001.htm. Accessed on November 11, 2007). Taiwan faces similar problems. According to the Taiwan Environmental Action Network (TEAN), “Once a beautiful tropical island with magnificent scenery, Taiwan is slowly turning into an industrial wasteland. Water pollution from industrial emissions, untreated sewage, air pollution, contamination of drinking water supplies, high levels of CO2 emissions, and excess nuclear wastes are just a few of Taiwan’s environmental problems” (http://www.iepanet.org/environment2.php. Accessed on November 12, 2007). Reporting the events makes for public awareness. The dilemma for educators is to find solutions that will enable the next generation to have the resilience and human attributes to meet these challenges. All things considered, we might be tempted to consider that the current Western models for educational responses provide the best available set of examples and strategies for pedagogical responses. After two decades of realisation of the irrefutable need to develop some responses at policy and local levels the rates have slowed but the data still show that Western countries remain the big emitters (see http://www.footprintnetwork.org/newsletters/ gfn_blast_ap_report_2005.html. Accessed on November 4, 2007). International pressure on these wealthy nations and the levels of educational awareness of their population has raised the stakes for industry, commerce and consumer to respond. But, their responses are not always a good model for change. Monitoring bodies like the WWF look critically at responses such as carbon trading which appear to shift the responsibility from one part of the globe to another and as being too soft on change to the point of being the cynical trading of problems. The total effect is increased carbon emissions and a log of scientific evidence that reinforces the widely accepted (and acknowledged) view that the Western lifestyle model is not sustainable. So the lesson for developing and devising an inheritance of sustainable models for future generations of the Chinese communities may well be to look to the West for ideas, but seek solutions that are morally and culturally defensible as well as globally responsible. The challenge is to find the right balance between practical solutions to meet the immediate needs and develop a strategy for longer term maintenance of the environment. In brief, the South East Asian context or the national socio-cultural priorities within the China circle of communities (China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore
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and Taiwan) is unique. China’s share of the global economy continues in its upward spiral in line with the increasing expectations of the next generation to have their share of the best of consumer lifestyles. Indeed it is ironic that, at the time of writing, we two authors of this chapter hail from two of the primary culprits who have yet to sign the Kyoto Protocol (http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/ items/2830.php. Accessed on November 9, 2007) (Australia and China. The other is the United States of America.) But, what can we offer as an alternative? Can we deny China’s equivalent of the Generation (Gen) Y age cohort their share of the technological age of digitised living simply because the West has taken more than its share of the resources? To find solutions that will stand the test of time and be acceptable to the next generation there is wisdom in matching the starkness of the climate change report with a more philosophical exploration of what it is that counts in human behaviour terms. At the individual level, issues of social justice, equity and fairness would suggest that all the young people of the world have a right to access designer style living, including smart cars, high-end home entertainment systems, high quality fresh food produce through local urban markets and access to rapid air, sea and land transport systems. The normative paradigm of this consumer lifestyle seems set out on the global landscape as the one lifestyle goal to fulfil every person’s dreams, regardless of the level of poverty or physical, cultural and economic distance from such a reality. Dreams and reality may well differ. However, when opportunity knocks, as in China, the preparation for the environmental onslaughts of unprecedented global demand is viewed as wanting or far from ready. Reliance on existing Western models for development is flawed on all counts from the evidence. A different set of educational responses that take account of all the personal, national and global needs are needed for sustained responses in China’s current and future generations of young people. Hence, there is need to transmit the factual profile of evidence related to climate change and depletion of natural resources. There is also need to demonstrate how lifestyle expectations of modernising countries are exacerbating the problem. However, the mind needs to be linked with the heart or the will to change direction. This is a more challenging problem for educators and government officials alike. Glimpses of big picture dilemmas do not provide solutions to the pressing and immediate problems of China’s expanding economy. In an Asia-Pacific study of environmental education in the secondary school sector, which included countries such as Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand (Yencken et al., 2000: 4) it was remarked that apart from thinking globally and acting locally, “we can readily see that there are as many reasons to think locally and act globally. If we do not think locally, we may ignore rich sources of traditional environmental knowledge and devalue local understanding and experience of environmental problems. If we do not act globally, we will never solve the big issues of the global commons…”. Nonetheless, Gough (2003) asserted that in the discourses of environmental issues and education, Western science and perspectives tended to be dominant and it is not easy to think globally (embracing Eastern and other cultural perspectives). He further cautioned that it would become “thinking
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locally and acting imperially” under the influence of Western scientific discourses: “We cannot depend on Western science to the extent that Yencken et al. suggest because environmental science deals not only with physical reality, but also with the culturally shaped representations of this reality. Pretending that these representations are acultural is an imperialist act – an act of attempted intellectual colonization” (pp. 62–63). In this chapter we set out to amend this situation by considering a range of pedagogical issues that can be used for the integration of environmental education and education for sustainability across key learning areas in the school curricula of the Chinese communities. We consider the distinctive characteristics of “Chinese” teachers and learners, and the theories underpinning progressive pedagogies in Western societies with regard to their relevance for Chinese schools. Applying theory to practice is the focus of the latter part of the chapter including strategies for “greening” the school and physical surroundings, classrooms within and outside school boundaries, and the reduction of school ecological footprints through modified consumption and environmental improvements. In order to prioritise topics for the curriculum we start by considering the agreed international Millennium Development Goals (see http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/. Accessed on November 8, 2007).
Educational Context: Getting the Process Started In the global context there are educational leads for China and other rapidly growing nations to follow. For instance, looking to the agreed global guidelines for development is a useful starting point for schools in planning their ESD approaches. Notably The Millennium Development Goals make education a priority target for the world’s community. The vision is captured in the following statement from the Goals: The Millennium Development Goals commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognises the importance of creating a global partnership for development. The goals have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress.
The accepted mode of achieving these goals is education. Target three of the Goals sets this out: “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling”. The reasoning is that: Education is the foundation of all societies and globally competitive economies. It is the basis for reducing poverty and inequality, improving health, enabling the use of new technologies, and creating and spreading knowledge. In an increasingly complex, knowledgedependent world, primary education, as the gateway to higher levels of education, must be the first priority.
The question for Chinese education and schools is how best to plan for these events and prepare young people to become the next generation of planet earth’s custodians.
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To do so, we need to consider their needs and those of their local neighbourhoods, as well as national priorities and global targets. It may appear simple. The signposts for good citizenship surround us. However, China’s young people may not be so obliging. Public pressure is maintaining the need for policy makers to include an environmentally friendly “spin” in their literature – including educational curriculum developments and innovations that stress the need for sustainable futures. However, rhetoric and actual behaviours are not necessarily matched. These are warning signals for the Chinese communities. To a casual observer of Chinese urban life and the educated well paid young professionals and business people – the equivalent of Generation Y (born between 1985 and 1995) – there appears to be ample evidence of similar trappings of “success” including European cars and designer clothes. The question is how far has the horse bolted and how well can the Chinese government and its institutions manage the transition from a one child policy to responsible and sustainable lifestyles. For schools, the issues are political and educational and require considerable balancing of competing agendas. Recognition of the tensions can be a very wise starting point for sustainable whole school approaches. Although China’s situation is unique and solutions must be context specific, such global statements of the Millennium Development Goals and the experiences of other countries can be useful for gathering ideas. Citing from research in OECD countries, Robertson reported (2006): One illustration of a federally funded project is the Whole-school Approaches to Sustainability: An International Review of Whole-School Sustainability Programs (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004)… The critical success factors noted are “alignment with national government priorities; access to expertise in EE [environmental education] and/or EFS [education for sustainability] during program design and implementation; significant and continuous funding, alignment with EFS approaches; investment in professional development of program team as well as school partners; creating links with EE initiatives already in operation; establishment of multi-stakeholder partnerships” (Executive Summary). Within the Australian context this project has spearheaded the involvement of all states in the “development of a national program facilitated through the National Environmental Education Network (NEEN)”. (p. 8)
The report highlights the importance of holistic approaches and negotiation as key elements of agency and governance. In educational terms, this means the alignment of policy, management practices and associated methods of assessment, curriculum design and implementation through teaching with all participants, including students, working collaboratively together for planning, goal setting, and implementation and evaluation of outcomes. The experience is that lofty government policy will have very little flow-on effect to practical solutions and changed behaviours if there is no localised ownership of the process. The report also noted that, “schools participating in these programs are more likely to demonstrate environmental leadership and models of best practice than non-participating schools” (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004: 40). Roseland (2005) utilises this holistic approach very effectively in his book titled Towards Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments. His practical guide to actual projects recognises that action needs to be framed in
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reality-based contexts, that is, locally identified whole community or whole school projects. Transposed to the school context, the messages are clear. School-based responses need to be crafted in consultation with local authorities and seek local inputs. Field-based studies are likely to be a “winning” learning strategy. Through field-based projects students are able to utilise their digital skills with technologies where available and learn the much-needed skills of negotiation and dialogue with their community members. The skill to negotiate for effective outcomes is part of the process of learning how to change and become more effective citizens. It also helps to break down barriers that are perceptible in children’s propensity to isolate themselves socially or seek companionship and social interactions through the chat rooms of the internet. In the context of China, these experiences are valuable. Policy operates at the macro-level of nations for leveraging change. However, effective change will only occur in sustainable ways if there is committed local leadership and a thorough understanding of the knowledge landscape at and between all levels in the decision making chain (Robertson, 2007a). The will to enact change processes and maintain the change directions needs to be “led” by teams of skilled teachers who have a working knowledge of the issues, the support of their leadership team and adequate provision of resources to sustain the new directions. Again, all very well in theory but away from all the media influence what of localised value systems and folklore? Common knowledge or local intuition? Consider the following.
Globalisation, Collectivist and Localised Culture; Environmental Ethics/Morality As noted above, one of the many dimensions of global society is access to common bodies of knowledge. Arguably, media phenomena transcend traditional boundaries of knowledge and pose threats to the traditional gatekeepers of knowledge and morality. Young people (Generation Y) are adept at by-passing the restrictions their adult parents and teachers may pose. Reflecting this dilemma is a growing literature aimed at social geographies of children and moralities (Holloway and Valentine, 2000; Pain, 2001; Valentine, 2001; Lee and Smith, 2004). The distinction to be made is the difference between our “spatial and temporal paths” (Lee and Smith, 2004: 2) and the subjectivities we all have that mediate our worlds. The issues are worthy of some comment. If we take on the conservative view that globalisation is leading towards normative views then we should be worried by the role models available to young people through the Western thought dominated media. For instance, reflecting on Generation Y (born between 1985 and 1995), Kennedy (2001) makes an interesting observation. Writing in the OECD publication Schooling for Tomorrow, Kennedy (2001) noted evidence in the West of the “growing political cynicism” of young people. Perhaps because of the complexities of growing up and successfully making the transition from school to work there appears to be a phenomenon of societal
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disaffection or not being part of the political machinery that makes policy and [can] change behaviours. Others refer to a more pervading individualism that characterises contemporary living in wealthy countries. The quality of life enjoyed for so long by the baby boomers of the West and their indulged offspring is not about to be disturbed without a major shock close to home. There is no assumption in this assessment of youthful behaviour that there is an absence of social awareness or a conscience regarding environmental excesses. Indeed the rhetoric of climate change, using less and becoming better and more efficient energy users, is common place in the Western media. Western imperialism, past, ongoing and projected, raises serious issues related to social justice and meaning-making in contemporary social contexts, including schools. The social networking of the multi-media landscape begs the questions of who controls our behaviours and how can we make informed judgements about our lifestyles that are morally and educationally sound. As Trudgill (2003) asks, “For what and why?” need to be starting points in the development of “new geographies”. In the context of physical geography, they promote the value of looking to local wisdom for advice. This is emphasised in the broader context of sustainable development in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in South East Asia. Thanawood (2007) uses this knowledge related to meaning-making in a course for undergraduate students in Southern Thailand. His argument is that there is a need to integrate the “big picture” view of ESD with the local folklore and embed the educational practice in more personalised meaning-making. The approach utilises the subjectivities of the learners for transferable learning for understanding. The theme is consistent with the view that the most effective learning is likely where the acting locally and thinking globally strategy is adopted. The folklore at local levels will be an important dimension in crafting sustained educational responses. So far this chapter has considered the issues of education for sustainable development (ESD) from the perspective of a global observer. The next section is aimed specifically at the agendas within the Chinese cultural context and learning approaches traditionally associated within Confucian educational practices.
Chinese Teachers and Learners Since the 1980s, the notion of the Chinese learner based on the Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) has attracted increasing attention by educators (e.g., Watkins and Biggs,1996; Wong, 2000; Kennedy and Lee, 2008). There are statements in the literature suggesting that Chinese learners tended to be rote learners who developed their understanding through memorisation (Watkins, 2000). On the other hand, some scholars linked Chinese learner characteristics with the CHC, highlighting diligence, attribution of success to effort and a belief in “practice makes perfect” (Wong, 2000). To some extent, this has been interpreted as the influence of collectivism, which is prevalent in the Eastern/Asian culture (e.g., Wong, 2001). Concomitant with the cultural influence and pressure of examinations in the
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Chinese communities, there is a proclivity for a teacher-dominated and highly structured pedagogical culture. Jin and Cortazzi (2006: 12) further enriched succinctly the interpretation of the Confucian heritages of student learning, which contradicted the stereotypic image of the Chinese learner as a passive learner. They argued: …the teacher is often regarded as an authoritative parent to whom respect and obedience are due, but this classic image of the relationship of filiality overlooks the reciprocity of caring, concern and cherishing which also characterises it in Chinese tradition. While the common picture is one of heavy memorizing and disciplined reciting of texts in a transmission model of learning, this ignores the strong traditional elements of the student’s own efforts, the need for reflective thinking and independent interpretation, for internalisation of understanding, and putting what is learned into practice.
Regarding the reflective processes in student learning, the CHC emphasises the processes of reading and pondering; raising doubts and asking; understanding; and internalising in actions (p. 13). Illustrations are useful guides to understanding these processes. In the context of environmental and geographical education activities in the Hong Kong Chinese setting, Kwan and Chan (2004) adapted the theory of learning and awareness promulgated by Marton and Booth to design a meaningful issuebased field inquiry for secondary school students. The key features of their design were to display the following three aspects of variation in opening up the space of learning in the field: variation in the types of environment (the natural, urban, industrial and rural environments) to be studied; variation in students’ learning activities (e.g., different types of group investigation activities, group presentation) and their interactions (e.g., role-playing); and variation in the level of the learning tasks (three levels, ranging from recording the names of the plants in the school garden to holding a photographic exhibition to share their experiences with peers) and the learning outcomes. While the design is useful to stimulate students’ environmental learning, it is cautioned that “the lack of readiness of students towards a genuine student-focused learning can be a major barrier for such design” (Kwan and Chan, 2004: 317). In another example, taken from English language teaching in China, Jin and Cortazzi (2006) put forward a multi-dimensional participation model. The model contains elements of cognitive engagement, meta-cognitive engagement, creative engagement, socio-cultural engagement and affective engagement, emphasising a learning-oriented approach and requiring teachers to “model thoughtfulness, creativity and socio-cultural awareness in their own behaviour; giving students examples and encouraging relevant uses of English, recognising thoughtful and creative contributions” (p. 17). In line with these insights, Gerbic (2005) identifies some features of computer-mediated communication (CMC), which might contribute positively to the Chinese students’ learning: having text-based nature and promoting them to think; requiring peer interaction through reading and writing as a discussion medium (more preferable to face-to-face discussion); having close alignment with assessment; and having the teacher act as a mentor for facilitating on-line discussions.
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As regards the rhetoric of teaching and learning in the curriculum documents in the Chinese communities (e.g., Hong Kong, China and Taiwan), the curriculum reform document Learning to Learn (Curriculum Development Council, 2001:10) in Hong Kong proposed that “a learner-focused approach should be adopted. We should understand their needs, learning styles, interests and abilities, in order to decide on appropriate learning, teaching and assessment strategies”. In the Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools (Curriculum Development Council, 1999: 11–12), it was advised that “learning should be experiential rather than instructional” and “individual contribution and participation should be encouraged”. Thus, experiential learning and participation in community-oriented activities are strongly encouraged. In implementing education for sustainable development, it was further suggested that schools could consider adopting an issue-based approach, a life-wide, cross-curricular approach and a whole-school approach (http:// www.arch.cuhk.edu.hk/serverb/resch/livearch/esd/sugg-3guidelines.htm. Accessed on November 12, 2007). The document on basic curriculum reform in China emphasised that the teaching-learning process should encourage teachers to interact and co-develop with students and maintain a good relationship between imparting knowledge and cultivating competencies. Teachers should facilitate students to question, investigate, enquire and learn through practice so that they could become autonomous, independent learners able to learn actively and personally. They should also cater for students’ individual needs and differences (Ministry of Education, The People’s Republic of China, 2001). In the Guidelines for implementing environmental education in primary and secondary schools, the suggestions on implementation of teaching practices included both teaching strategies and enquiry and action research. For teaching strategies, the following principles were suggested (Ministry of Education, The People s Republic of China, 2003: 35–36): using multiple teaching approaches and methods integratively; placing an emphasis on students’ autonomy; facilitating students to look for questions from “being accustomed to something” (xi yi wei chang); starting to work from “resolvable problems” (at the classroom, school, family and local community levels); and creating a harmonious and mutually supportive interpersonal environment. Enquiry and action research focuses on authentic problems and encourages students to plan and take actions for resolving problems. It is interesting to note that, in a vast country like China, there are many minorities having different cultures and habits that affect the environment. In the Environmental Educators’ Initiative project (EEI) in China, the ESD Centre of Qinghai Normal University (QNU) provided a unique and outstanding example of blending local needs and culture with the main trends of EE/ESD. One of the achievements was to help develop a regional/local curriculum and a school-based curriculum including projects such as “Concepts of Being a Person of Zang Nationality”, “Zang Traditions of Sustainable Development”, “Drawings of Zang Nationality”, “Folk Art of the Zang Nationality” and “Folk Dance of the Zang Nationality”. Many of these projects were linked with the local culture and nine pilot schools conducted experiments on these topics. For example, students were involved in learning traditional knitting techniques to help alleviate poverty. They learned about other
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Chinese nationality cultures through student exchange activities with their counterparts in Beijing EEI pilot schools. School-community linkage was also promoted through the “Loving Water Activity”. In addition, collaboration was established with the Shangri-la Institute where the focus was on the development of teaching materials related to Tibetan Buddhism and ESD and curriculum development in plant medicine and botany. Moreover, an ESD Centre was set up in collaboration with a monastery as a cultural, educational and religious centre. Finally, the ESD Centre of QNU set up a web-site (www.cte.edu.cn) with a section on education for sustainable development. In the 9-year articulated curriculum reform document in Taiwan (Ministry of Education, R.O.C. (Taiwan), 2000), the curriculum promoted integration of subjects and Key Learning Areas (KLAs) (languages, health and physical education, mathematics, life, social studies, arts and humanities, nature, life, science and technology, integrated activities and important issues) as well as six key issues (including environmental education), cultivation of generic skills (see Chapter 3) and school-based curriculum development. While the documents had no stipulations or clear suggestions on teaching and learning approaches, teachers were encouraged to adopt “team/collaborative teaching” (http://teach.eje.edu.tw/ Policy/10623992040. Accessed on November 12, 2007). It is noteworthy that aboriginal or indigenous languages need to be taught in Taiwan’s basic education curriculum in schools admitting aboriginal/indigenous children and some schools have developed environmental education programmes/activities in collaboration with aboriginal communities. For example, Sinsing Elementary School (http:// www.shsps.ttct.edu.tw), a green school in Taitung County, had about 80 students, most of whom were Paiwan people, an aboriginal tribe of Taiwan. Students learned traditional arts and crafts and knew clearly the names of plants growing inside the school campus. They also engaged in making chairs and tables in the classroom. The school used solar energy to generate electricity and used waste water from the village for recycling. Such an example revealed an integration between the school campus and the local indigenous culture (http://www.greenschool.org.tw/ node/6987. Accessed on November 12, 2007). In Hong Kong, four primary schools worked in collaboration with professors from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Knowledge Community Limited (a private organisation) in launching a project titled “3–I Project Learning: Learning ecology in primary schools through knowledge community” (Tan, 2004). This project made use of information and communication technology (e.g., Knowledge Community as a tool) in promoting project learning related to environmental education, which contained the following key 3–I pedagogical practices (pp. 5–6): interdisciplinary studies; inter-school learning communities; international exchange (e.g., through a visit to Singapore). In addition, the constructive learning culture consisted of the following instructional principles (p. 7): “anchor all learning activities to a larger task”, “support students to own the problem”, “design an authentic task”, “design a task and the learning environment to reflect the complexity of the environment”, “give students ownership of the process used to develop the solution”, “design the learning environment
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to support and challenge the students’ thinking” and “encourage testing ideas against alternative views and alternative contexts”. It follows that there is a call for a student-oriented approach to learning and an interactive approach for teaching but some scholars, such as Marton (2000 : 288), argued that we should not throw the “Chinese” baby out of the Chinese bath tub: “the pedagogy practiced in Hong Kong is surely an offspring of Chinese pedagogy, the oldest and maybe the most efficient pedagogy (in its more advanced forms) of which we know. Developing this pedagogy further seems to be a much better idea than doing away with it”. It seems that Western educators could benefit from actively exploring the extension of interactive Chinese pedagogy based on the culture and educational practices in the Chinese communities (Lee et al., 2003). On the other hand, there is a need to emphasise community participation in environmental education and more work could be done not only in eradication of community but also in caring about the indigenous population and their living environments. More specific illustrations of current practices in Chinese contexts follow including literature related to students’ environmental learning experiences in the Chinese communities (Hong Kong, Taiwan and China) and a more general discussion of possible socio-cultural and gender differences in environmental attitudes and action.
Students’ Environmental Learning in Chinese Communities In Hong Kong, there has been a dearth of studies on environmental education in general and children’s environmental learning at the primary level in particular (Lee, 1997). Chan (2001) conducted a survey on environmental knowledge and interest in environmental activities of Hong Kong primary schools. The main results showed that students’ knowledge about environmental issues, such as water, hazardous substances and nuclear waste, oceans, coasts and wetlands as well as environmental problems, was very good. By contrast, their knowledge about biological diversity, desertification, solid waste and sewage was on average weak, as was their knowledge about such specific issues as world population, atmosphere and climate and energy. It was interesting to note that schools were perceived as the major source of environmental information. In addition, students reporting families as their major source of information had lower environmental knowledge scores than students reporting other informational sources such as books, newspapers and magazines, and radio and television. Lee and his colleagues (2000), basing their study on earlier Australian work, compared broadly the environmental concerns and opinions of Hong Kong and Beijing students, using open-ended question items. It was found that upper elementary students tended to be concerned more about their immediate personal environments and social environment relating to society, while junior and senior secondary students expressed more concern about the natural environments as well as the social environment relating to nation and global issues. As only two elementary schools and two secondary schools were involved in that study, a larger scale of study may help to confirm the patterns of students’ environmental opinions.
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In a recent study of Grade 5 students’ environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, it was found that girls tended to have higher scores on environmental attitudes and behaviour, but have lower scores in environmental knowledge than boys. Compared with their counterparts in Victoria, Canada, the environmental performances of Taiwanese children was better, probably because Taiwanese children tended to appreciate informal nature experiences that in turn affected their sense of environmental responsibility. Nonetheless, Taiwanese children had lower confidence in implementing actions compared with their Canadian counterparts probably because of protective and conservative parenting styles, social conventions and education (Huang and Yore, 2003). Huang and Yore (2003) noted that “teachers and educational practice in Kaohsiung’s elementary schools utilise teacher-directed instruction with paper and pencil student work emphasising knowledge…Children in Taiwan learned from a traditional curriculum without being provided relevant contexts; this approach might develop knowledgeable children without the competence to apply the knowledge to real environmental problems and issues” (p. 444). In China, there was a large-scale environmental survey conducted in the mid1990s of primary and secondary students (Wang, 2001, 2002). The results revealed that environmental education was taught mainly through nature studies, geographyand moral education in primary schools (Wang, 2001). Primary school students who obtained their environmental knowledge through “propaganda activities of environmental protection” and broadcasting and television revealed stronger environmental awareness than those who obtained their environmental knowledge from other channels (Wang, 2001). In addition, primary school students’ scores on expected environmental behaviour and attitudes towards participation in environmental education activities tended to be higher than those of environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes. Also, environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes had significant correlation (r = 0.4542), which suggested that enhancing primary school students’ environmental knowledge would be a priority (Wang, 2002). More recently, a survey in the Mentoughou District of Beijing showed that 60% of the primary school students (Grades 4 to 6) considered school education as the main source of environmental knowledge. The results, however, revealed that, while students had a good level of environmental knowledge, their environmental participation still needed improvement (Lu, 2004). Another survey in Urumqi, Xinjiang, found that Han Chinese had better environmental knowledge and received more environmental knowledge in class than minority primary students in the schools (Aslya et al., 2003). Nonetheless, minority primary school students displayed better environmentally friendly behaviours such as “not to throw rubbish”, “turn off the tap with flowing water”, “debating with friends about environmental issues” and “watching television programmes related to environmental knowledge” than their Han Chinese counterparts. Past studies suggest gender differences are a further dimension to consider in the environmental educational context. Zimmerman (1996: 42) asserts that, “…males generally display greater knowledge, and females report stronger feelings and verbal commitment”. This contrasts with the findings in a review of studies in the 1990s by Zelezny et al. 2000 which revealed that, contrary to the conception that
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females tended to be “passive, indifferent, or unconcerned about the environment” (p. 455), the findings of a stratified sample of primary and secondary school students in California were “consistent with the adult studies that were reviewed earlier in this article. Females, regardless of age (i.e., youth or adult) reported more concern for the environment and proenvironmental behaviours than males” (pp. 449–450). In another study across 14 countries (without the involvement of Chinese communities) reported in the same paper, females tended to display “stronger NEP [New Environmental Paradigm] environmental attitudes, stronger value-based ecocentric environmental attitudes and greater participation in proenvironmental behaviours, although gender differences in environmental attitudes and behaviours within countries were less convincing” (p. 452). Seeking possible reasons to explain such differences, the authors reported another study that indicated a stronger “other orientation” and a stronger level of social responsibility of females compared with males “implicitly support gender socialization as an explanation for gender differences in environmentalism” (p. 454). The above findings, to some extent, echoed other studies suggesting that female children tend to be more receptive to alternative visions of peaceable or ecologically sustainable science and technology than their male peers (e.g., Hutchinson, 1997) and that female students tended to hold more positive environmental attitudes and were more willing to participate in proenvironmental behaviours (e.g., Chan, 1996; Reid and Sa di, 1997; Lee, 2000). While research findings may vary across cultures and contexts the message is clear that gender values or orientations may differ. Educational responses for sustainable development practices and learning outcomes need to be mindful of the gender differences in environmental knowledgeand attitudes. Perhaps more importantly, there is a need to become critical of the dominant and hegemonic discourses of environmental conservatism institutionalised in schools that maintain the current order of male over female, culture over nature and knowledge over affect (e.g., Barron, 1995; Greenall Gough, 1993; Lee, 2000).
Implications for ESD in Chinese Communities The need for bottom-up education for sustainable development approaches is signalled by the literature (Buttimer, 2001) and existing frameworks of enquiry both within Chinese cultural settings and in other global contexts. Robertson (2007b) and her colleagues suggest the value of support for the localisation of curriculum themes through local area networks designed to build community capacity for selfhelp projects. One of the projects relates to water management in Beijing, Macao and Hong Kong (Wu et al., 2007). Referring to examples in such public spaces as schools, parks, hotels and local government initiatives for housing, simple water saving strategies, such as recycling, quotas and efficient technologies for daily living, provide a wealth of practical strategies for community responses.
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The evidence is clear. Educational practices need to tap the hearts and minds of the learners. Perhaps enough has already been stated in this regard. Throughout this chapter we have made the call for whole community and whole school approaches to sustainable development agendas. The human imprint of development can only be controlled by individuals in their personal habits. These can start in schools with practical projects aimed at a range of purposeful behaviours such as: • Water harvesting and conservation, including the use of grey water in toilets. • “Greening” of the school grounds and surroundings. • Developing a school garden. The “green” targets can be easily attained through the development of school gardens with possibilities for technological devices for water management and soil management – thus linking a range of subject matter, including science, mathematics and environmental education. • Linking schools closely to students’ households and/or local communities. This practice is already part of the redevelopment policy of rehousing in China and helps to minimise pressure on public transport systems at peak times. • Encouraging after school supervised community based projects, especially those with indigenous populations, that help the greening process. • Conserving “waste” and developing better and more efficient recycling techniques. • Modelling sustainable communitiesusing virtual spaces such as Second Life (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life. Accessed on November 9, 2007). Setting such school-based targets and then connecting them with young people’s social networks is a pragmatic way of combining multiple agendas. For instance, if the sustainable development arguments will allow, it makes perfect sense to be using the digital technologies that young people like as part of the project scoping in any learning activity. Social networking through multi-media channels is not only a mechanism for the digital natives (young people) to socialise, they are an essential part of their lives. Social motivation, linked with serious learning outcomes related to prescribed content of curriculum statements, may have a better and more lasting impact on these young custodians of the earth’s future if they monitor their own behaviours through their own networks at school, in their communities and with their families. The data are freely available and the agendas for sustainable lifestyles are well documented – they can be made “fun” behaviours to adopt if we use the opportunities which technologies permit. Localised spaces make up our personalised identities (Massey, 2005). We own them, we live in them and we can make them or destroy them.
References Aslya, K., Su, Z. and Aniwaer, M. (2003). An investigation and comparative analysis on the environmental consciousness of the primary school students of Urumqi city. Journal of Xinjiang Normal University (Natural Sciences Edition), 23(4), 31–35.
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Barron, D. (1995). Gendering environmental education reform: Identifying the constitutive power of environmental discourses. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 11, 107–120. Buttimer, A. (ed.) (2001) Sustainable Landscapes and Lifeways. Cork: Cork University Press. Calder, W. and Clugston, R. (2005). Editorial. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29 (1), 7–12. Chan, K. K. W. (1996). Environmental attitudes and behavior of secondary school students in Hong Kong. The Environmentalist, 16, 297–306. Chan, K. K. W. (2001). Environmental Knowledge and Interest in Environmental Activities of Hong Kong Elementary School Students. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Baptist University. Curriculum Development Council (1999). Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department. Curriculum Development Council (2001). Learning to Learn: Life-Long Learning and WholePerson Development. Hong Kong: Printing Department. Gerbic, P. (2005). Chinese Learners and Computer Mediated Communication: Balancing Culture, Technology, and Pedagogy. Paper presented at the ASCILITE Conference 2005: Balance, Fidelity, Mobility: Maintaining the Momentum? Queensland University of Technology, December 4–7 2005. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/27_Gerbic.pdf. Accessed on August 16, 2007. Gough, N. (2003). Thinking globally in environmental education: Implications for internationalizing curriculum inquiry. In W. F. Pinar (ed.), International Handbook of Curriculum Research (pp. 53–72). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Greenall Gough, A. (1993). Founders in Environmental Education. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University. Henderson , K. and Tilbury, D. (2004) . Whole-School Approaches to Sustainability: An International Review of Sustainable Schools Programs. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing and Printing. Holloway, S. and Valentine, G. (eds.) (2000). Children’s Geographies. London: Routledge. Huang, H-P. and Yore, L. D. (2003). A comparative study of Canadian and Taiwanese grade 5 children’s environmental behaviors, attitudes, concerns, environmental dispositions, and knowledge. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 1(41), 9–448. Hutchinson, F. (1997). Our children’s futures: Are there lessons for environmental educators? Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 189–201. Jin, L. and Cortazzi, M. (2006). Changing practices in Chinese cultures of learning. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19(1), 5–20. Kennedy, K. (2001). A new century and the challenges it brings for young people: How might schools support youth in the future. In Schooling for Tomorrow: What Schools for the Future (pp. 303–216). OECD Report. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Kennedy, K. and Lee, J. C. K. (2008). The Changing Role of Schools in Asian Societies: Schools for the Knowledge Society. London: Routledge. Kwan, T. and Chan, E. (2004). Using theory of learning and awareness to bring about learning through a school-based environmental field project. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 13(4), 303–328. Lee, J. C. K. (1997). Environmental education in Hong Kong. Environmental Education Research, 3(3), 359–372. Lee, J. C. K. (2000). Environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviours: Cross-cultural views. In M. Robertson and R. Gerber, (eds.), The Child’s World: Triggers for Learning (pp. 294– 314). Melbourne, Australia: The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Limited. Lee, J. C. K., Baosheng, A., Chan, K. K. and Kwan, T. (2000). Students’ environmental concerns and opinions: A Chinese perspective. The Environmentalist, 20, 141–155. Lee, J. C. K., Lam, W. P. and Li, Y. Y. (2003). Teacher evaluation and effectiveness in Hong Kong: Issues and challenges. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 17(1), 41–65. Lee, R. and Smith, S. (eds.), (2004). Geographies and Moralities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
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Lu, Y. (2004). Analysis of environmental quality education in primary school. Journal of Capital Normal University (Natural Science Edition), 25(3), 95–99 [in Chinese]. Marton, F. (2000). Afterword – The lived curriculum. In B. Adamson, T. Kwan and K. K.Chan (eds.) Changing the Curriculum: The Impact of Reform on Primary Schooling in Hong Kong (pp. 277–292). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Massey, D. (2005). For Space. London: Sage. Ministry of Education (MOE), The People’s Republic of China (2001). Basic Education Curriculum Reform Syllabus (Trial). MOE Basic Education [2001]document No. 17.8 June Ministry of Education (MOE), The People’s Republic of China (2003). National Environmental Education Guidelines (Trial). Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. Ministry of Education, R.O.C. (Taiwan) (2000). The Nine–Year Articulated Curriculum Guidelines for Compulsory Education. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education. Pain, R. (ed.) (2001). Introducing Social Geographies. London: Arnold. Reid, I. and Sa’di, I. (1997). Jordanian and British primary schoolchildren’s attitudes towards the environment. Educational Studies, 23(3), 473–480. Roberts, M. (2004). Learning Through Enquiry. Sheffield: Geographical Association. Robertson M. (2007a) School governance and pedagogical reform – a matter of trust. International Journal of Learning,13, http://www.learning-journal.com. Accessed on April 2, 2008 Robertson, M. (ed.) (2007b). Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Development: Networking Local Area Parnerships with Teachers and Young Scientists – A Case Study Approach. Camberwell: ACER Press. Robertson, M. E. (2006). Australia – Environmental education and cultural change in a land of ‘plenty’. In J. C. K. Lee and M. Williams, (eds.) Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts (pp. 215–228). New York: Nova Science. Roseland, M. (2005). Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments. Canada: New Society Press. Rosenberg, M. J. (2005). Beyond E-Learning. San Francisco, CA: Wiley. Tan, C. Y. G. (ed.) (2004). 3–I Project Learning: Learning Ecology in Primary Schools Through Knowledge Community (QEF Funded). Hong Kong: Summit Design & Printing Company. Thanawood, C. (2007). Capacity building for disaster management in southern Thailand. In M. Robertson (ed.), Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Development: Networking Local Area Partnerships with Teachers and Young Scientists – A Case Study Approach (pp. 63–78). Camberwell: ACER Press. Trudgill, S. (2003). Meaning, knowledge, constructs and fieldwork in physical geography. In S. Trudgill and A. Roy, (eds.) Contemporary Meanings in Physical Geography (pp. 25–45). London: Arnold/New York: Distributed in the United States of America by Oxford University Press. Valentine, G. (2001). Social Geographies. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd. Wang, M. (1997). Analysis of primary and secondary school students’ channels of obtaining environmental knowledge . Curriculum, Teaching Materials and Teaching , 5 , 30 – 33 [in Chinese]. Wang, M. (2001). The relevance between the students’ different channels of obtaining environmental knowledge after school and their environmental awareness. Journal of Subject Education, 2, 42–46 [in Chinese]. Wang, M. (2002). The relationship research among environmental awareness, attitudes and desired action of primary and middle school students in China. Environmental Education, 3, 9–11 [in Chinese]. Watkins, D. (2000). Learning and teaching: A cross-cultural perspective. School Leadership and Management, 20(2), 161–173. Watkins, D. A. and Biggs, J. B. (eds.) (1996). The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/Victoria, Australia: The Australian Council for Educational Research. Wong, K. C. (2001). Culture and educational leadership. In K. C. Wong and C. W. Evers, (eds.) Leadership for Quality Schooling: International Perspectives (pp. 36–53). London: Routledge.
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Wong, N. Y. (2000). Mathematics Education and Culture: The ‘CHC’ Learner Phenomenon. http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~nywong/eng_conf/icme9-zh.docAccessed on August 15, 2007 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) (2006). Living Planet Report 2006. Switzerland: World Wide Fund for Nature. Wu, S., Zhang, G., Chen, Y. and Yiin, Y. (2007). Water-saving in a city: A case study of Beijing city. In M. Robertson, (ed.), Sustainable Futures: Teaching and Learning: A Case Study Approach (pp. 79–100). Camberwell: ACER Press. Yencken, D., Fien, J. and Sykes, H. (2000). Environment, Education and Society in the AsiaPacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses. London: Routledge. Zelezny, L. C., Chua, P-P. and Aldrich, C. (2000). New ways of thinking about environmentalism: Elaborating on gender differences in environmentalism. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 443–457. Zimmerman, L. K. (1996). Knowledge, affect and the environment: 15 years of research (1979–93). Journal of Environmental Education, 27(3), 41–44.
Chapter 5
Leading Curriculum Change for Education for Sustainable Development in Schools Gwyn Edwards and John Chi-Kin Lee
It could be argued that education for sustainable development (ESD) is rapidly becoming the clarion call for educators in the twenty-first century. That this is so clearly indicates the magnitude, complexity and immediacy of the social, economic and environmental problems currently confronting us. While the nature and extent of these problems remain the subject of much debate, few would dispute that they are real and call for urgent and wide-ranging action. For instance, the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) concludes that “… warming of the climate system is unequivocal” (p. 1) and could lead to impacts that are “abrupt or irreversible” (p. 13). Lovelock (2006) is even more pessimistic. He likens the future of humankind to “…that of the passengers on a small pleasure boat sailing quietly above the Niagara Falls, not knowing that the engines are about to fail” (p. 7). He believes that global warming is now irreversible and that humankind should instigate “a sustainable retreat” (p. 8) to alleviate the impact of the turmoil that will inevitably follow. Be that as it may, sustainable development is being widely championed as a viable means of dealing not only with global warming but also with a host of other current and/or impending global problems. And in pursuit of sustainable development, education has been positioned firmly in the vanguard. As UNESCO (1997) optimistically asserts, “…education is best hope and most effective means in the quest to achieve sustainable development” (Para 40). As discussed in Chapter 2, sustainable development was first mooted in the early 1980s and subsequently gained widespread recognition through the publication in 1987 of the World Commission on Environment and Development report (WCED, 1987) Our Common Future. It appears to have immediately struck a chord in that
G. Edwards (*) Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_5, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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by 1992 Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio Janeiro Earth Summit, was calling for the reorientation of education towards sustainable development (UNCED, 1992). This call was echoed five years later at the International Conference on Environment and Society: Education and Awareness held at Thessalonika, Greece. The Declaration of Thessalonika (UNESCO, 1997) reaffirmed the recognition of education as “one of the pillars of sustainability” (Para 6) and recommended the elaboration of action plans for formal education for environment and sustainability, “with concrete targets and strategies” at local and national level. It was proclaimed that this orientation was a “moral and ethical imperative” that encompassed “not only environment but also population, health, food security, democracy, human rights and peace” (Para 10). Subsequently, in 2005, UNESCO launched the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The goal of this initiative is to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning in order to encourage behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations (UNESCO, 2005). Many countries now have curriculum policies, frameworks or guidelines that explicitly legitimate “sustainable development” as an educational goal. In Chapter 2 England was highlighted and there it is the government’s objective that “Young people will acquire the skills, knowledge and value base to be active citizens in creating a more sustainable society” (SDEP, 2003: 9). Likewise in Australia, it is expected that when students leave school “they should have an understanding of, and concern for, stewardship of the natural environment, and the knowledge and skills to contribute to ecologically sustainable development” (MCEETYA, 1999, Para 1.7). Even though the call for ESD is increasingly being heeded, the means by which it is best accomplished remains a matter of conjecture. The tendency so far has been to focus on its implications with regard to the formal curriculum. Some scholars in the field of education contend that ESD can be achieved most appropriately through the traditional subject-based curriculum that still prevails in most countries of the world. For example, Stables and Scott (2002) argue on pragmatic grounds that teachers are nurtured through disciplines and, therefore, if what they know and profess needs to evolve, “it had better be approached from within the confidence of disciplines” (p. 57). Thus, their preference is for a “within-discipline” approach to ESD. Others contend that ESD can only be achieved through a curriculum that transcends the fragmentation of a subject-based curriculum and embraces a more holistic approach. Bonnett (2002), for example, acknowledges that given our limited ability to regenerate the education system as a whole, a within-discipline approach would be more realisable in practice. However, he maintains that to take environmental concerns seriously requires a radical transformation of the whole education enterprise at the metaphysical level. This would entail “a reconsideration not only of what the central purpose(s) of education should be but the kinds of knowledge and values around which it should be oriented, and thus of the fundamental attitudes towards the world that it should convey” (p. 561). The main thrust of this chapter is the claim that educational systems have been fashioned by the very worldview that is responsible for the social, economic
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and environmental problems that they are now being expected to help rectify. Consequently, if the educational enterprise is to play a significant role in addressing these problems then, as Bonnett suggests, it will need to undergo a radical transformation at the metaphysical level. We maintain that the reorientation of education for sustainable development takes us beyond the formal curriculum and raises fundamental issues about the ways in which schools and the educational systems that comprise them are governed, managed and led. As UNESCO (2005: 24) contends, ESD “should not be seen as one more subject to be added to an overcrowded curriculum but as a holistic or ‘whole school approach’ where sustainable development is seen as a context for delivering existing aims of education and not as a competing priority”. In a similar vein, ESD in England is envisaged “not as a bolt-on extra or a series of projects or initiatives, but as an integral component of the ongoing life of the school” (SDEP, 2003: 9). We contend that such an education requires leadership that places sustainability at the heart of school policy, planning and practice and engenders democratic and participatory whole-school decision-making processes. In this regard, our chapter discusses issues relating to developing schools as learning organisations with systematic monitoring, reflection and evaluation, regular professional development for teachers and stakeholders, the promotion of practitioner research for enhancing teachers’ reflective practices, and reciprocal community, family and stakeholder partnerships. Given the inertia in educational systems, systemic change on the scale envisaged will not be easily accomplished. But, if it is not accomplished, then ESD will amount to little more than a flight of fancy. An informed understanding of how change is most effectively accomplished in educational systems would, therefore, appear to be an appropriate starting point in the quest for ESD.
Understanding Change From the 1960s onwards, wave after wave of educational reforms have swept through the educational systems of most industrialised countries, usually leaving a trail of debris and confusion in their wake, but with the deep structures of the systems invariably surviving relatively unscathed. A few individual schools do manage to bring about radical change but the change rarely last or spreads (Hargreaves and Goodson, 2006). It is our contention that the repeated failure of educational reform is a consequence of being “geared to the wrong learning story” (Wenger, 2005) or using “faulty maps of change” (Fullan and Miles, 1992). By and large, approaches to educational change have been, and continue to be, informed by a worldview that originated during the seventeenth century Scientific Revolution and the eighteenth century European Enlightenment. The crux of this worldview is Cartesian dualism which reduces reality to two fundamentally separate realms – that of mind, the “thinking thing” (res cogitans) and that of matter, the “extended thing” (res extensa). The metaphysical separation of human consciousness from the natural world underpins Newtonian physics which visualises the entire universe as a vast
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clockwork mechanism with each component functioning unfailingly according to a system of fixed mathematical laws. It is assumed that these laws are determinable through the reductionist methods of scientific enquiry in which wholes are broken down into discrete components and subjected to precise and careful measurement. It is expected that by applying knowledge thus derived both physical and social processes can be rendered amenable to rational control, offering the prospect of unimpeded human progress. Over the centuries, the Cartesian–Newtonian worldview has proved extremely successful in that it has provided the foundation for many discoveries that have benefited humankind. However, there is a mounting argument that it is an inadequate basis for understanding the complexity of the world in which we now live, its reductionist tendencies failing to take account of the essential relationships that exist between entities (Hutchinson, 1998). Accordingly, it is increasingly being seen not only as the cause of many of our social, economic and environmental problems but also as a formidable barrier to their resolution. The work of eminent physicists such as Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr and Max Born in the early part of the twentieth century exploded the myth of the Cartesian–Newtonian universe, sweeping away many of the cherished beliefs and unquestioned assumptions that had endured for centuries. Subsequently, a number of leading-edge scholars – Gregory Bateson, David Bohm, Fritjof Capra, Ilya Prigogine and Isabella Stengers, Rupert Sheldrake and Donah Zohar, to name but a few – have drawn on the legacy they bequeathed to argue for an ecological or organic worldview that, in essence, “regards all phenomena in the universe as integral parts of an inseparable harmonious whole” (Capra, 1982: 336). This perception of reality, Capra (1975: 326) explains, goes “beyond the scientific framework…to an awareness of the oneness of all life, the interdependence of its multiple manifestations, and its cycles of change and transformation”. In the words of Mumford (1964: 379), it “deals not with cause-and-affect alone, but with patterns of almost inextricable and indescribable complexity, flowing through time and constantly interacting”. Understanding of the world is not achieved by examining reductively its component parts but by looking holistically at the ways in which its parts are enfolded into each other and into the whole. Thus, the processes of interconnection between phenomena have greater import than the phenomena themselves. Significantly, the newly emerging ecological worldview strikes a chord with, and indeed often draws upon, a number of non-Western religions and philosophies that emphasise the unity and interconnectedness of all things. For the Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn (1988: 64), the “interdependence of all things” or “interbeing” means that: “Cause and effect are no longer perceived as linear, but as a net, not a two-dimensional one, but a system of countless nets interwoven in all directions in multidimensional space”. Integral to the ecological worldview is complexity theory that originated in the physical sciences and subsequently made its way into the social sciences. Indeed, one of the attractions of complexity theory is that by eradicating the division between the natural and social sciences it provides the means to explore the overlaps and
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parallels between the physical, biological and social worlds (Urry, 2005). Essentially, complexity theory rejects the Cartesian–Newtonian worldview, which seeks to explain physical and social phenomena in terms of predictable, causeand-effect relationships, in favour of a view of the world as non-linear and organic, characterised by uncertainty and unpredictability (Marion and Uhl-Bien, 2001). Within the Cartesian–Newtonian worldview, order is taken to be the natural state of the universe. Disorder is seen as an aberration that must be rectified. Complexity theory rejects such “either–or” thinking. It posits order–disorder as a duality rather than a dualism. As Wheatley (1992: 21) puts it: “Throughout the universe, order exists within disorder and disorder within order”. From the perspective of complexity theory, organisations are seen as “complex adaptive systems” composed of a collection of interacting adaptive agents whose dynamic interactions generate novel behaviour that transforms the organisation from its current state to a largely indeterminate new state. Order emerges through the self-organisation of interacting elements within a system. As such, change is non-linear and spontaneous and, therefore, beyond rational control. Minor changes can lead to unanticipated effects that escalate exponentially and unpredictably over time – the so-called butterfly effect (Lorenz, 1993: 181–184). Thus, long term planning is rendered not just difficult, but futile. In his Changing Forces trilogy, Fullan (1993, 1999, 2003) provides a compelling analysis of curriculum change through the lens of complexity theory. He calls into question some of the orthodoxies that pertain to the prevailing approach to educational change such as vision and strategic planning, site-based management, strong leadership, collegiality and consensus, accountability and assessment. The challenge for him is to understand how to make the educational system a learning organisation – “expert at dealing with change…as a way of life” (1993: 4). From the perspective of complexity theory, he maintains that rationally constructed reform strategies do not work. The reality, he claims, is that, “the link between cause and effect is difficult to trace, that change (planned or otherwise) unfolds in non-linear ways, that paradoxes and contradictions abound and that creative solutions arise out of interaction under conditions of uncertainty, diversity and instability” (1999: 4). Fullan (2007) maintains that the strategies associated with rationally constructed reform – such as standards, assessment, curriculum, and professional development – are not necessarily wrong but that “they are seriously incomplete theories of action because they do not get close to what happens in classrooms and school cultures” (pp. 29–30). His position is broadly consistent with a widely held view that in order to bring about sustainable change in education the school must be the basic unit of change. A vast body of research indicates that power-coercive strategies of change might gain surface compliance but rarely affect prevailing values and attitudes. As Elmore (2004: 73) puts it: “Organisations that improve do so because they create and nurture agreement on what is worth achieving, and they set in motion the internal processes by which people progressively learn how to do what they need to do in order to achieve what is worthwhile”.
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Consistent with the view that the school is the basic unit of change, there is growing advocacy for “organisational learning” and “professional community” as means of bringing about educational reform. Although the meanings of these terms are far from clear, it could be argued that professional community provides the conditions that are necessary for organisational learning to come about. According to Louis et al. (1996) and others such as Lee and Song (2006), the hallmarks of professional community are shared norms and values, collective focus on student learning, collaboration, deprivatised practice and reflective dialogue. However, there is no guarantee that, in itself, professional community will lead to the kind of organisational learning necessary to bring about substantial change. Much depends on the kind of learning that professional community fosters. Argyris and Schön (1978) make a useful distinction between two types of organisational learning. Single-loop learning involves an incremental updating of the knowledge necessary to maintain the efficiency of existing organisational practices in conditions of relative stability. Double-loop learning, in contrast, involves the generation of the knowledge necessary to deal with ill-structured and complex problems that arise in an unstable environment. It is “those sorts of organisational inquiry which resolve incompatible organisational norms by setting new priorities and weightings of norms, or by restructuring the norms themselves together with associated strategies and assumptions” (Argyris and Schön, 1978: 18). Thus, established ways of looking at the world are subjected to critical scrutiny, and abandoned if found inadequate. Arguably, both types of learning have their place. Single-loop learning allows for the establishment of more effective day-to-day practices and double-loop learning creates the conditions for organisational transformation. However, Argyris and Schön argue that most organisational learning is of the single-loop type, for the purpose primarily of maintaining the status quo. For Senge (1990), the key to organisational learning is systems thinking. In essence, systems thinking “is a discipline for seeing wholes” (Senge, 1990: 68). It is premised on the assumption that all things in the world are connected in some way or other. As Nishitani (1982: 149) puts it, the universe is seen as “a dynamic fabric of interdependent events in which none is the fundamental entity”. Systems thinking looks at problems and goals not as isolated events but as components of larger structures with a view to enhancing awareness of complexity, interdependencies, change and leverage (Senge et al., 2000). Heifetz (2003) makes a distinction between technical problems that are amenable to current expertise and adaptive challenges that are not. The former can be fixed by an expert, the latter requires people in the community to change their values, attitudes and behaviour, and to learn new ways of doing things. Clearly, the problems that ESD seeks to address are adaptive challenges and cannot be resolved through single-loop learning, although by and large this is the approach currently being adopted with the tendency to go for quick-fix, technocentric prescriptions, within existing institutional structures and normative frameworks, that maintain business as usual. Their resolution is dependent on the generation of kinds of understanding that lie beyond our current capacities and that can only be brought about by double-loop learning and systems thinking.
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Change and Leadership It goes without saying that the change necessary to reorient education for sustainable development will remain a mere pipedream unless appropriate leadership is fostered at every level of the educational system – from classrooms to government departments. Without effective multilevel leadership, change is likely to be sporadic and feeble. Indeed, lack of effective leadership in the Department of Education and Skills has been highlighted as a significant factor in the “patchy” integration of education for sustainable development in the school curriculum in the UK (House of Commons Environment Audit Committee, 2005). Leadership, Fullan (2005) maintains, is the longest lever we have at our disposal. But, what kind of leadership is likely to be most effective in bringing about the degree of change that ESD implies? The answer to this question is far from straightforward given that leadership is a highly elusive and essentially contested concept. Indeed, Stodgill (1974: 259) claims that, “there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept”. But notwithstanding the formidable conceptual challenges encountered, interest in leadership has grown exponentially in recent years. Books, journals and courses on leadership have proliferated, and in many countries specialised institutions have been established to study and/or promote leadership across a wide spectrum of enterprises, including education. Moreover, governments throughout the world are increasingly viewing leadership as a panacea for a plethora of social, economic and environmental ills. Over the years, various theoretical orientations have been adopted for the purpose of studying and/or enhancing leadership. In the literature, four broad theoretical orientations are widely recognised. Trait theories postulate that certain individuals have innate qualities that enable them to lead, and it is these qualities that distinguish them from non-leaders. From this perspective, Northouse (2004) identifies “intelligence”, “self-confidence”, “determination”, “integrity” and “sociability” as the five primary traits associated with effective leadership. Behaviour theories focus on the activities of leaders, rather than on their qualities. House and Mitchell (1974), for example, identify “directive”, “supportive”, “participative” and “achievement oriented” leadership behaviours. These different patterns of behaviours are often categorised as leadership styles. Contingency theories claim that there is no one best way to lead. A style that is successful in some situations may be ineffective in others. Effective leadership is, therefore, contingent upon leaders picking up cues in the environment and adapting their behaviours and actions accordingly. Transformational theories focus on the influence of leaders on followers. Transformational leadership occurs when leaders motivate followers to pursue goals that transcend their immediate self-interest. It is brought about through the idealised influence (charisma), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration of leaders vis-à-vis their followers (Bass, 1997). Leaders and followers engage with each other in such a way that they are raised to higher levels of motivation and morality and exceed previous levels of accomplishment
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(Burns, 1978). As Blunt (1991: 65) puts it, “the effective leader…shapes and shares a vision which provides direction, focus, meaning and inspiration to the work of others”. Transformational leadership is invariably contrasted with transactional leadership. The intent of the latter is to motivate follower compliance with leaders’ requests and organisational rules, predominantly through the exercise of rewards and punishments. Transformational leadership has emerged as the dominant normative theory of leadership, at least in the West. Claims as to its efficacy are impressive, studies having shown that it is positively related to subordinate satisfaction, motivation and performance. That organisations can be transformed through the visions and actions of individual transformational leaders is an appealing idea but one that has been found wanting on a number of counts. The transformational leader, “working from the top of the hierarchy is expected to articulate a vision, redefine organisational problems, suggest solutions, transform and energize followers and be an example and mentor to followers” (Evers, 2000: 224). In stark reality, such leaders are not available in sufficient numbers. Moreover, research suggests that both active and aspiring leaders have no desire to be burdened with such a huge expectation. Research also suggests that effective leaders do not necessarily conform to the stereotypical transformational leader image. As Collins (2001) found, many good-to-great leaders are not charismatic as transformational leadership theory popularly portrays them. Rather they are “self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy” (pp. 12–13). But above all, there is a growing awareness that organisations are far too complex to be transformed in such a unidirectional manner. A counter position is emerging within leadership studies that rejects the solo or stand-alone leader as the primary unit of analysis. Instead, it envisages leadership as being distributed across multiple people, sites and situations (Gronn, 2000, 2002, 2003; Harris, 2003; Spillane et al., 2004; Timperley, 2005). Distributed leadership theory deconstructs the notion of “leader” by postulating that leadership materialises not in a fixed leader–follower dyad but “in the flow of activities in which a set of organisational members find themselves enmeshed” (Gronn, 2000: 331). Thus conceived, leadership is a fluid and emergent process in which every organisational member can be implicated in one way or another. Followers do not bend unwitting to the will of leaders but engage as purposeful agents in emergent leadership practices. In short, they are active creators of leadership, rather than passive recipients of it. Fullan (2005) fully endorses the need for leadership to be distributed across a broad spectrum of individuals rather than concentrated in a single leader. For him, the question is how to develop and sustain a greater number of leaders who are “systems thinkers in action” (preface). He calls this kind of leader the “new theoretician” (ibid.). These are leaders at all levels of the system who work “on the real problem of transforming real systems, learning by doing it” (p. 14). He contends that if more and more people become systems thinkers they will alter people’s mental awareness of the system thereby contributing to altering the system itself. As should now be evident, leadership theory has focused predominantly, if not exclusively, on individual leaders and largely ignored the complex, dynamic systems and processes that constitute leadership. This predilection, we contend, is an upshot
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of the dominant view of organisations that emerged in organisational theory over the course of the twentieth century. In keeping with the Cartesian–Newtonian worldview discussed earlier, organisations are seen as, “equilibrium-seeking systems whose futures are knowable” (Plowman et al., 2007: 341). Hence, leaders are perceived to be those individuals who are given formal responsibility for managing the organisation so that it either maintains a state of equilibrium or changes according to some predetermined rational plan. In recent years there has been a growing challenge to this linear, mechanistic view of organisations and organisational leadership. Within the field of organisation science, leadership research is increasingly turning to complexity theory. Uhl-Bien et al. (2007), for example, suggest a paradigm of leadership that, “frames leadership as a complex interactive dynamic from which adaptive outcomes (e.g., learning, innovation, and adaptability) emerge” (p. 298). They note that the majority of leadership research has focused on leadership in formal, most often managerial, roles and has not adequately addressed leadership that occurs throughout the organisation. The Complexity Leadership Theory (hereafter CLT) they propound envisions three “entangled leadership roles” (ibid.) that reflect a dynamic relationship between the bureaucratic, administrative functions of the organisation and the emergent, informal dynamics of complex adaptive systems. Administrative leadership is predicated on traditional bureaucratic notions of hierarchy, authority and control and refers to the actions of individuals or groups in formal managerial roles who are responsible for planning and coordinating activities in order to accomplish organisational goals. Adaptive leadership does not reside in individuals but is an “emergent, interactive dynamic” (p. 306) through which adaptive outcomes emerge non-linearly and unpredictably in an organisation. Emergent leadership serves to establish the conditions in which adaptive leadership can thrive and to mediate between the bureaucratic and emergent functions of the organisation. The term entanglement is used to characterise the manner in which three leadership functions intertwine. The strength of the CLT framework is that it focuses on identifying and exploring the strategies and behaviours that foster creativity, learning and adaptability when appropriate complex adaptive systems dynamics are enabled within contexts of hierarchical co-ordination. Thus, it does not rule out the possibility of emergent dynamics within the bureaucratic superstructures that continue to prevail in many organisations, including schools. In a Chinese context the framework has considerable merit in that is offers a view of leadership which accommodates the hierarchical social relationships embedded in local cultures while providing the means for examining the opportunities and constraints that these relationships engender in the context of change. This is an issue we shall return to later.
Leadership and Sustainability Currently, we are witnessing a turn to “sustainability” in the field of educational leadership, as indicated by the number of recently published books or journal articles on leadership that bear the words “sustainable” or “sustainability” in their titles
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(Fullan, 2005; Hargreaves and Fink, 2005; Davies, 2006, 2007). Sustainability, according to Deal (2007: 95), “is today’s hot idea in good currency” and it has captured the attention of policy-makers and academics alike. However, this sustainability turn in educational leadership has little to do with the reorientation of education for sustainable development. Arguments are made for leadership that will bring about “sustained school improvement” (Harris, 2004: 12) in terms of “student learning outcomes” (op cit.: 11), “sustainable improvement” (Hargreaves and Goodson, 2006: 21) and “sustainable strategic success” (Davies, 2006: 11). Needless to say, such imperatives may be commendable in their own right but they have little to do with “sustainability” as understood in the context of addressing the interrelated social, environmental, and economic problems discussed at the beginning of this chapter. What we are witnessing is the colonisation of the discourse of sustainability, in many cases for fundamentally instrumental ends. As Hentschke (2007) observes, the concept of sustainability, arising originally from concerns with resource depletion, “has been significantly modified during the course of its journey into the compulsory schooling world” (p. 137). In many parts of the world the environment in which education takes place is being substantially reconfigured in accordance with the competitive ethos of the marketplace. Good schools are being seen as those that maximise and sustain their effectiveness, measured in terms of their students’ performance in relation to externally imposed goals. For example, throughout the 1990s, schools in England expended considerable amounts of resources and energy fine-tuning the performance of their students on standardised national tests, in order to hike up their “league table” positions and, thereby, gain a competitive edge on their rivals. From the perspective of ESD, the National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG) issued by the Ministry of Education (2003: 31–32) in China stipulate that environmental education should be incorporated into the working schedule of principals and all management officers. In addition, all school staff should be encouraged to participate actively in the democratic mechanisms of school management and environmental protection. Moreover, schools are encouraged to establish longterm relationships with the government, enterprises, environmental protection organisations and other organisations to improve community environment. In the Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools in Hong Kong (Curriculum Development Council, 1999, section 6.1), it is suggested that: “The school head can play a key role in • initiating an atmosphere of a learning organisation within the school that is conducive to collaborative work for the implementation of environmental education; • facilitating discussions and exchange of views among teachers for the formulation of an environmental policy for the school; • motivating teachers and students to participate actively in the school-based environmental education programmes; • providing concrete and strong support in the form of physical, human and financial resources where appropriate, for the implementation of environmental education; and
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• monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the school’s environmental education programme to ensure that it is consistent with the established environmental policy of the school.” It seems that the principal is expected to play a “transactional” role (working with partners) rather than a “transformational” role (changing the structure and culture of related communities) in implementing ESD. A more appropriate conception of the relationship between sustainability and leadership is offered by the Sustainability Leadership Institute (hereafter SLI). The SLI defines sustainability leadership as, “conscious engagement in individual and collective actions that nurture and sustain the economic, environmental and social well-being of organisations and communities” (SLI, undated). Essentially, it entails taking responsibility by understanding and tackling complex issues that impinge on the lives of people today and in the future, and working collaboratively with others who are endeavouring to make a difference. A “sustainability leader” is, therefore, “anyone who consciously chooses to engage in collaborative, transformative change aimed toward the goal of a sustainable future” (ibid.), regardless of role or position. This notion of sustainability leadership represents a significant departure in that it is directed unequivocally to the interrelated moral imperatives of social justice, environmental integrity and economic viability, as opposed to more instrumental ends such as “learning capacity”, “strategic success” or “improvement”. In essence, sustainability leadership is moral leadership writ large.
Leadership East and West and Curriculum/School Change in Chinese Communities Although studies on leadership have proliferated over the last two decades, most have been carried out predominantly in Western cultural contexts. Consequently, the degree to which the theories and practices thus derived are universally applicable has been called into question. For example, it is argued that Western notions of leadership are not applicable to East Asia, the major reason having to do with significant differences in values concerning authority, group loyalties and interpersonal harmony (Blunt and Jones, 1997). While no one seriously disputes that leadership as a phenomenon is universal across cultures, there is widespread support for the view that the way in which it is exercised is culturally specific. It is now generally recognised that societal culture is an important situational variable in leadership beliefs and practices. Even so, within the research community there is ongoing debate regarding the extent to which leadership behaviours are culturally universal or culturally specific. Den Hartog et al. (1999) found that certain attributes and behaviours associated with charismatic/transformational leadership are strongly and universally endorsed as contributing to outstanding leadership across cultures, although others are culturally contingent. In a similar vein, Yu et al. (2002)
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note that many of the qualities historically valued in Chinese leaders, such as kindness, benevolence and trustworthiness, resonate strongly with qualities typically ascribed to transformational leaders. However, the universal endorsement of leadership attributes and behaviour does not preclude cultural differences in their enactment. For example, contingent rewarding has been identified as a universal leadership behaviour (Dorfman et al., 1997) but, as Yokochi (1989, cited in Bass, 1997), found, it is more explicit in some cultures than others. Other research has highlighted significant differences in approaches to leadership across societal cultures. Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1997), for example, found that, compared with their Western counterparts, East Asian leaders think more holistically than analytically; are more inclined to collaboration than competition; are more communitarian than individualistic; are more attuned to outer-direction than inner-direction; are more ascriptive of status than achievement oriented; value reciprocal human relationships above contractual compliance; and are more oriented to synchronous time than sequential time. Above all, East Asian leaders appear to be more disposed to incorporating the values of other cultures into their own, as opposed to regarding them as antagonistic. Their “both–and” thinking contrasts sharply with the predominantly “either–or” thinking of leaders in the West. Within the field of education, Cheng (1998) argues that educational values and practices in East Asia are deeply rooted in the societal cultures of the region and are difficult to change by simple advocacy or even through formal educational policies. Education policies, he maintains, are likely to be effective only when they are in line with the cultural values embedded in the larger social context. He further claims that policies that run counter to the society’s cultural norms rarely succeed in changing educational practice. More specifically, Dimmock (2002: 41) points out that “relationships are valued over tasks in many collectivist cultures (such as in Chinese organisations), Western notions of impersonality, objective measures, and personal achievement become troublesome when deciding upon the form appraisal should take…Given the group-orientation of the many Chinese societies, it is likely that a group form of appraisal process would be more efficacious…The Chinese are generally uncomfortable with disclosing their inner self and criticising or praising their own performance even in a group context”. It would appear therefore that cultural norms do have an effect on the way in which leaders think and act. In Chinese cultural contexts, Confucian values are deemed to be particularly influential. As has been emphasised in Chapter 1, Confucianism places considerable emphasis on harmonious social relationships and, consequently, the avoidance of confrontations and conflicts. Harmony is more easily accomplished when social relationships are clearly defined and power is unequally distributed. Hierarchy is therefore considered the natural way to order social relations, with a tacit acceptance that the authority of those who lead is right and proper and should prevail. However, it is important not to essentialise societal culture. Cultures are not immutable and, given appropriate conditions, can undergo rapid and radical transformation. This was clearly seen in the impact of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. Thus, we cannot assume that cultural norms and practices that
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have prevailed in the past will continue to prevail in the future. For instance, it would be reasonable to speculate that globalisation, and the increasing affluence and social mobility it is likely to generate, will lead to the emergence of a more individualistic society in China, despite its time-honoured collectivist tradition. As Giddens (1998: 15) observes, “nothing is more dissolving of tradition than the ‘permanent revolution’ of market forces”. Indeed, findings of the Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour and Effectiveness (GLOBE) Research Project suggests that such change is already underway (Fu et al., 2007). The findings suggest that, although traditional values are still highly respected, internal desires to become more competitive, together with external pressure to do so, are pushing Chinese business leaders “toward Western modern ideologies, encouraging them to challenge the norms” (p. 905). In the context of education, it is interesting to note that the apparent contradiction of traditional (Confucian), socialist and market values, in the case of China, appears “…‘unproblematic’, and ‘taken-for-granted’ inside schools. At a pragmatic level, school leaders simply accept the mix of values and seek to provide the best education possible within their limited resources” (Bush and Qiang, 2002: 182–183). In the case of Taiwan, the democratic movement has gradually transformed the power structure of schools and principals are being encouraged to assert diverse styles of leadership, such as transformational leadership, cultural leadership, moral leadership, empowering leadership and so on (Pan, 2007: 282).
Implications We have argued in this chapter that any meaningful implementation of ESD is contingent upon a fundamental reordering of the way we think about the world. The Cartesian–Newtonian worldview has, within limits, served us well in the past but is patently inadequate to deal with the complexity of the world in which we now live. In order to gain a holistic understanding of the intricate balance of the earth’s social, environmental and economic systems, we urgently need to embrace the emerging ecological worldview that stresses the fundamental interrelationships and interdependencies of all phenomena. For education, this will have profound implications not only for how the curriculum is conceptualised and organised but also for the way in which schools are governed, managed and led. Of course, the question will inevitably be raised as to the extent to which the changes implied are feasible, or indeed desirable, in Chinese communities where Confucian cultural norms emphasise hierarchical social relationships that demand deference and obedience to those with higher social standing. Addressing this question is not easy given the dearth of studies on leadership and curriculum change in Chinese communities. Moreover, the research that has been carried out so far is largely inconclusive. In Hong Kong various studies during the 1990s revealed that school principals’ leadership focused primarily on managing internal operations. Principals were
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found to be proficient operational managers and familiar with the traditional leadership skills but were comparatively weak in the political and cultural leadership that was deemed necessary to meet the challenge of the educational reforms that were being progressively launched (Cheng, 2003). Lee and his colleagues (2001: 51), also remarking on the Hong Kong experience (quoted in Macbeath, 2002: 113), conclude that: “the emphasis of harmonious relationships with fewer conflicts and disputes hinders the generation of new ideas among teachers. It also exerts a strong norm for teachers to follow the existing practices. This culture would become an obstacle for the school to cope with the coming educational changes”. A study of primary school teachers’ perceptions of transformational leadership in Hong Kong showed that principals needed to strengthen distributive leadership and the building of collaborative structures for enhancing teachers’ decision making (Yu, 2002; Kennedy and Lee, 2008: 127). In the context of China, the country is further affected by both the “socialist culture” and the “enterprise culture”, which interact to promote “market socialism” (Bush and Qiang, 2002). Despite the dominance of respect for elders and authority, there have been some significant changes in educational organisations in Mainland China. As Bush and Qiang (2002: 177) comment, …one of the main ways in which group approaches are manifested in Chinese schools is through the jiaoyanzu, which are groups of teachers, usually subject-based, focusing on teaching and research. The collectivist assumptions of the jiaoyanzu operate alongside the bureaucratic elements of school management, including the hierarchy headed by the principal, and the teaching deans who have overall responsibility for the jiaoyanzu.
What Bush and Quing describe seems to correspond closely to the three entangled leadership roles identified by Uhl-Bien et al. (2007) in their Complexity Leadership Theory. In the case of Taiwan, school leadership has not been ready for substantial educational change. Pan (2007: 278) has argued that: In response to the establishment of a Teachers’ Association, some schools ignore it, some struggle to hold onto their waning power, and some persist in using the association as an instrument for leadership to fight against new advances. Such styles of leadership only bring endless strife to schools…[and] as curriculum leadership is a new role for school leaders, many principals are not familiar with it.
Specifically in relation to ESD, case studies on the adoption of EE in Hong Kong primary schools revealed that principal leadership and the support of a dedicated nucleus, or “critical mass”, of die-hard teachers is an essential element. Initiating small EE/ESD initiatives, progressive development and minimising disturbance to the majority of teachers at the early stage of development are keys for successful changes (Lee, 1999). A former principal of a green school in Hong Kong explained that the determination of the top management, professional leadership and the wholehearted commitment of teachers were crucial factors to facilitate the development of a green primary school (Leung, 2003). A study of green schools in Taiwan revealed that one of the factors increasing the motivation of administrators in promoting environmental education (EE) was the principal’s attention to EE
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(Liu, 2002). In the case of China, the Education for Environment Population and Sustainable Development (EPD) project promoted a model of school management that combined vertical, layered management with horizontal and networked management (Wang, 2005: 49). So the question remains: Are participative and distributed forms of leadershippredicated on Western liberal democratic principles and, therefore, not totally and directly transferable to other cultural contexts? Our response this question is both “Yes” and “No”. For the response “Yes”, we concur with Dimmock and Walker (2005, p. 200) that: What is seen as ‘appropriate’ school leadership and management in a particular society is at least partly a function of accepted ideas and practices of curricula, teaching and learning. Since the latter appears to be culture dependent, it follows that what is assumed to be effective or suitable leadership and management in one system, may not be in another. Even when the more democratic form of leadership is asserted and practised, the mode of operation in a different cultural context may be different. In case of school leadership in Thailand, it was found that there was a subtle combination of traditional Thai leadership based on hierarchical position with participatory decision-making demanded by the nature of the reforms. (p. 203)
For the response “No”, following Wheatley (1992), we contend that these forms of leadership are consistent with changing perceptions of the organising principles of the universe. For educational institutions to flourish it is imperative that they are organised according to the same logic that makes it possible for life in general to flourish. As Wheatley (1997: 22) points out: “Every living thing seeks to create a world in which it can thrive”. Schools can do so as well. The challenge is to reconceptualise and redesign schools, wherever they are, as self-organising systems capable of bringing about continuous self-renewal. New configurations of social relationships and new ways of working might be difficult to establish in some cultures, but this does not provide grounds for claiming that they should not be established. Moreover, culture is far too complex to be reduced to simple dichotomies. “Eastern” and “Western” are essentialist notions that serve to mask the fact that there is likely to be as much variety within cultures as there is between them. Societal cultures are not monolithic entities. They comprise multiple and often contradictory traditions and discourses. ESD will not be served by pitting one essentialised set of cultural values against another. “Either–or” thinking will not take us far. What we need are creative syntheses of multiple cultural perspectives based on “both–and” thinking. As Kennedy and Lee (2008: 138) remark, “Dialogue between the Western and Eastern perspectives might create tensions but at the same time facilitate creative solutions for each of the two worlds”. To develop our argument further, we maintain that ESD will amount to little if schools are unable to procure a critical mass of sustainability leaders who are consciously committed to engaging in collaborative, transformative action aimed towards the goals of social justice, environmental integrity and economic viability. Anyone thus committed would qualify as an ESD leader and therefore leadershipwould be distributed throughout the school. Without such leadership, it is difficult to see how ESD could materialise in any meaningful sense of the term. Such leaders
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would need to be “systems thinkers in action” (Fullan, 2005: preface), capable of establishing and maintaining self-generating networks within their institutions. ESD requires leadership that nurtures change but does not direct or contain it. The art of leadership for ESD is therefore to establish the conditions that will enable change to emerge spontaneously and unpredictably as people “continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire” (Senge, 1990: 3). ESD is unlikely to flourish without a substantial change in the way teachers think and act. Schools, therefore, need to be recast as sites of learning not only for students but also for teachers. Traditionally, teachers’ professional development has been separated from the site of professional practice. A genuine rapprochement of theory and practice in education is long overdue. While off-site professional development courses can benefit individual teachers, they cannot create the synergy necessary to bring about transformative change at the school level. Optimal synergy is created when teachers work collaboratively and with a critical reflexive stance over a sustained period of time on issues that are directly related to their practice and in which they have mutual interest. Collaborative groups could be built around forms of practice such as action research, lesson study, school-based curriculum development and school-self evaluation. Education may indeed be the best hope and most effective means in the quest to achieve sustainable development, but the kind of education required cannot be provided in and by schools working alone. ESD requires not just a whole-school approach but also a community-wide approach. Schools need to dismantle the formidable barriers that often separate them from the communities they purportedly serve and actively seek partnerships and alliances with stakeholder groups and organisations on sustainability related issues. This would necessitate the development of boundary spanning roles within schools and the development of individuals to the capabilities to fulfil these roles.
Conclusion Al Gore (1992), an American politician and environmental activist, once declared that, “We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilisation”. Today, his declaration sounds somewhat hollow. Despite the rhetoric of sustainability, neo-liberal economic doctrine continues to champion a world of unfettered economic expansion and, thereby, inevitably exacerbating harmful effects on the environment. As Ferdig (2007) observes, one does not have to be a geologist, meteorologist, economist or sociologist to see “the accelerating decline of natural systems in the face of increasing human consumption”, or to be aware of “the growing economic and social turmoil that holds our planet in its grip” (p. 25). Reference is frequently made in the ESD literature to Einstein’s dictum that: “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it”. However, while in agreement with the need for a fundamental epistemological shift in order to better understand the complex and interrelated social, environmental and economic
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dilemmas that confront us, we are not advocating an outright rejection of postEnlightenment Western thinking. Rather, we are suggesting that there is a need to bring to the surface, and subject to critical scrutiny, those aspects of it that have been rendered problematic from the perspective of an ecological worldview but which remain deeply embedded within our collective subconscious and, therefore, which continue to exert considerable influence on the way we organise certain aspects of our lives, including the process of education. This would involve taking cognisance of those non-Western philosophical and religious traditions that lay stress on the interrelatedness of all things in the world.
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Chapter 6
Education for Sustainable Development Projects and Curriculum Reform in China: The EEI and the EPD John Chi-Kin Lee and Yu Huang
Environmental education in China has been greatly influenced by international trends. As early as 1972, the first of the series of United Nations conferences about environment and development was held in Stockholm and it stimulated the Chinese government to pay attention to the issue of environmental education. While the Chinese government had sent representatives to attend this and subsequent international conferences, the influence of thoughts, theories and practical matters related to international environmental education was slow and indirect. There can be no doubt that the Rio Summit in 1992 was an important turning point for environmental education at both the global level and the Chinese national level. In that Summit, formally known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 as well as its attendant documents were presented (Lee, 1998; Lee and Williams, 2006). In terms of education for sustainable development, Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 was especially important. Here, the status of environmental education was recognised and emphasised. In December 1992, the Chinese government held a national-level Environmental Education Working Committee meeting in Beijing and asserted that “environmental education as the basis of education” was a basic principle. From this important meeting it is possible to trace environmental education in China through progressive stages of development. On the one hand, these have echoed international trends in environmental education and, on the other hand, they have been integrated into the cultural and educational context of China, demonstrating a special uniqueness. The Chinese government has attempted to align policies for environmental education with national policies for sustainable development. In March 1994, the China Agenda 21 document was approved by the 16th Standing Committee meeting
J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] Y. Huang Education College, Hokkaido University, Japan,
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of the State Council. Chapter 16 of China Agenda 21 (http://www.acca21.org.cn/ indexe6.html. Accessed on May 21, 2008) states the need: “…to enhance the consciousness of sustainable development of those being educated, pass the message of sustainable development through the whole education process, from basic to secondary education”. It goes on: It was then envisaged that the meaning and relationship between education and environmental protection were revisited and extended and environmental education was considered as one of the main approaches to realising sustainable development in China. In 1995, the former Vice-Director Li Lanqing pointed out in the National Environmental Education Recognition Ceremony that “environmental education” is an important component of educational enterprise of the whole country. As a new disciplinary area, it not only contributes to significant accomplishments by enhancing the environmental awareness of all races and cultivating professional expertise but also injects active and fresh content into the educational enterprise of our country.
In December 1996, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)) and the State Education Commission published the National Environmental Communication and Education Action Guides. These stated that, by 2000, the mass of citizens including young people and children should be able to master basic knowledge about environmental protection. Further, by 2010, the environmental education system in China would become formalised and legalised. In 2002, the United Nations (UN) World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, followed by the launch of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD)(2005–2014) initiated by the UN and other agencies. This was intended to “integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning” and “encourage changes in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations” (http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID = 27234&URL_DO = DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION = 201.html. Accessed on November 12, 2007). These international efforts have guided the Chinese government to adopt environmental education for sustainable development as a major direction. This was founded on the intricate relationships among environment, society, development and education. As regards environmental education in the formal school curriculum, before 1992, content related to environmental education (EE) was taught mainly through the secondary school subjects of geography and biology. Then, between 1996 and 2001, it was gradually spread to other subjects such as the junior and senior secondary school subjects of physics, chemistry, biology, geography, politics, history, arts and physical educationas well as the primary school subject nature (Wang, 2002; Tian, 2002). Alongside this “infusion approach” of EE through different school subjects in China, some Chinese environmental educators introduced, from overseas sources, new environmental education concepts and methods through individual projects. Since 1992, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also started to participate in environmental protection and education endeavours in the Chinese
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Mainland. These innovative projects have provided important experience and reference points for implementing EE in other schools. In 1997, UNESCO together with SEPA (now MEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the China International Economic and Technological Exchange Centre, sponsored China to develop a project on producing interactive learning materials on environmental education (e.g., Ren and Liu, 2000). Another two remarkable examples of development work in ESD are the Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) (1997–2007), co-developed by the State Education Commission (now the Ministry of Education), WWF-China and British Petroleum and the UNESCO Project on Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development in China (EPD-China Project) (1998 to the present). In addition, the Centre for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)(now the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)) has launched the Green School programme and its associated activities (2000 to the present) (see Chapter 7). All these projects and activities have helped promote innovative environmental educational ideas and methods in primary and secondary schools. Interestingly, the ideas and principles advocated by these projects and programmes have dovetailed seamlessly with the essence of the large-scale nation-wide basic education curriculum reform that commenced in 2001. The development of environmental education in China since 1992 has reflected three trends. First, Chinese environmental education followed the international trend of a shift from environmental education (EE) to education for sustainable development (ESD). Secondly, environmental education endeavours worked closely with national educational reform, providing environmental education with a strong driving force and in turn it has become the frontier of educational reform. Thirdly, the increasing participation of NGOs signified a shift in Chinese environmental education from government-dominated implementation to multiple partners’ participation. Through the interactions between the ESD movement, the alignment with educational reform and multiple partners’ participation, the rhetoric and practices of environmental education in the Chinese Mainland were enriched and diversified. Among these various endeavours, two representative, nation-wide projects with the support of NGOs and the Chinese government bureaus, namely the Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) project and the Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development(EPD) project, have made a significant impact.
The EEI Project - A Partnership Between the Government, a NGO and a Transnational Corporation In the EEI Project, for the first time, three major organisations in China, a government body (The Ministry of Education, The People’s Republic of China), an international non-profit organisation (WWF) and an international corporation (British
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Petroleum), have worked together on a single educational project lasting 10 years (1997–2007). EEI was divided into three phases. In Phase I (1997–2000), focusing on establishing ESD roots in China, a teacher-training programme for environmental educators was initiated. Four institutions, Beijing Normal University, Southwest Normal University (now called Southwest University), East China Normal University and the People’s Education Press, were given the responsibility to provide future environmental education workshops in China. During this period, environmental education was quite marginalised in the school curriculum and it was mostly implemented in schools in the form of sporadic activities. Phase II (2000–2004) expanded the EEI’s scope, establishing EE/ESD centres in nine universities: South China Normal University, Fujian Normal University, Central China Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Hunan Normal University, Northwest Normal University, Tibet University and Nanjing Normal University, together with associated pilot schools. This increased the training of teacher-advisors/teacher supervisors to over 3,000 by the end of 2003. In Phase III (2005–2007), the main foci were the institutionalisation of EEI in primary and middle schools nation-wide and assistance given to schools in understanding and implementing the essence of the NEEG. An additional nine new education for sustainable development research and training centres were set up at Guangxi Normal University, Liaoning Normal University, Xinjiang Normal University, Qinghai Normal University, Hainan Normal University, Guizhou Normal University, Shanxi Normal University, Inner Mongolia Normal University and Mianyang Normal University (http://www.wwfchina.org/english/sub_loca. php?loca = 14. Accessed on August 25, 2007). The project objectives varied during the three phases of the EEI project and they included: • Increasing capacity-building in EE/ESD in China (especially in Phases I and II) • Integrating conservation and sustainability goals into education policy and the core curriculum (in Phase II) and supporting the implementation of the NEEG (in Phase III) • Increasing the use of environmental education resources in pilot schools (in Phase I) and cultivating a culture of research, monitoring and evaluation among project participants (in Phase II) • Enhancing communication and understanding about the nature of EE/ESD (especially in Phases I and II) and • Providing opportunities for the professional development of teachers in EE/ESD (in Phase II) and integrating ESD into the training of China’s future educators (in Phase III) Table 6.1 shows that the main stakeholders and beneficiaries are the university EE educators and teacher supervisors (teacher advisors), primary and middle school teachers, university students and school children.
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Table 6.1 EEI stakeholders and beneficiaries Types of stakeholders and beneficiaries
Numbers
Schoolchildren who, potentially, will be affected by the EEI’s National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG) Teacher advisors/supervisors trained in EEI’s ESD approaches. They will become the main driving force for promoting EE/ESD in primary and middle schools nation-wide Master teachers based in the Education Centres who come from a broad range of university curriculum subjects. These teachers concentrate on the development of local and national ESD curricula, assisting in project implementation in the pilot schools and providing training to local government partners University students, from ten of the EEI’s Education (EE/ESD) Centres who participated in ESD related courses Primary and middle schools from different parts of China that are implementing EEI projects with their students (aged 7–14). These schools provided updated raw materials for environmental education research and innovative EE/ESD practices
200 million 5,000
160
10,000 86
Needless to say, the EEI has an extensive reach to a large number of different stakeholders at national, provincial/city and university/school levels. The Centres actively contributed to capacity building in ESD through working in partnership with various groups using various modes, including: • Pilot schools that initiated school-based curriculum development, green school projects and student-centred action research • Higher education institutions that conducted research into ESD theories and promoted the concept of a green university and offered elective ESD-related courses to university students • Community groups that conducted sustainable communities campaigns • Municipal and provincial education bureaus that provided ESD action plans to Centres • Prefecture education bureaus that received NEEG training based on action plans from the Centres • 5,000 EEI teacher advisors/trainers who led NEEG workshops for primary and secondary school teachers The design of the EEI, especially in the first phase, had been influenced by world trends in EE/ESD in general and, in particular, the valuable advice and input of a project consultant, John Huckle who conducted a series of workshops between 1997 and 2006. Shi et al. (2000: 210) quoted the following workshop participants’ remarks: Whether in terms of content or form, the workshop was new and original; it changed our perception. The trainer opened a broad new scope of inquiry learning for us, which is very enlightening to primary education…(it) enhances communication between teachers and students and widens thinking.
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The cross-curriculum mode of environmental education has helped us to realise our expectation of integrating environmental education in different subjects.
In addition to training workshops, the EEI promoted innovative approaches to teaching and learning in primary schools, including: From education about the environment to education for sustainability; Learning through experience; and Cross-curriculum mode (Shi et al., 2000: 209–210). These new approaches continue to be at the forefront of international trends in thinking and practice and they have provided the impetus for change in EE in China. In the First Phase (1997–2000) of EEI, university teacher educators from the EE Centres of Beijing Normal University, Southwest Normal University (now called Southwest University), East China Normal University and teachers from 27 pilot schools worked together to produce the Sustainable Development Education Teacher Training Handbook (EE Centres of Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University and Southwest University, 1999) based on the earlier EEI workshop. The handbook had two important features: emphasising the linkage between EE and ESD and highlighting enquiry learning, embracing notions of equality, openness and democracy, and active learning, active participation and continuous exploration in the educational process as well as variety and diversity in modes of activities (p. 1). This handbook, the first ESD training manual in China, continues to be an important, high quality and influential publication on EE/ESD teacher training. EEI has also worked with the Environmental Education Centre of the People’s Education Press, that co-ordinated different subject experts to produce the Education for Sustainability Model Lessons for Grades 1–9 in 1999. In the Second Phase (2000–2004), one of the main accomplishments was the preparation and delivery of the National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG), jointly developed by experts from the MOE, representatives from EEI Centres and members of the WWF Education Team. The NEEG is certainly a landmark in the history of Chinese environmental education since it was the first official document on implementing EE in schools. EEI, because of the launch of the NEEG, was the only educational project to receive the Gift of the Earth Award, the highest award of the WWF in 2003. In 2002, Beijing Normal University launched a 2-year postgraduate level-equivalent course for training environmental educators. Starting from 2001, the EEI has also developed other offspring initiatives, one of which was known as The Education Initiative for Water (EIW) which has the following descriptions (http://www. wwfchina.org/english/sub_loca.php?loca = 13andsub = 93. Accessed on November 12, 2007): The Education Initiative for Water (EIW) aims at building the capacity of teachers and students to develop an ethic of responsibility towards the environment through communitybased projects. Designed as part of WWF China’s Environmental Educators’ Initiative, EIW focuses specifically on primary and middle school students in Beijing and introduces an alternative to the current educational system in the form of student-centred, active learning through real world problem-solving and community service.
In Phase III (2004–2007), the total number of EE Centres was increased to 21. While teacher training remained a key task, some of the Centres, in echoing the
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DESD, were turned into ESD Centres with a focus on promoting education for sustainable development. The EEI had broken new ground and made impressive achievements. The EEI project was designated one of the first Top 10 Social Public Welfare Model Project awards in China in 2006. It was selected from more than 200 welfare projects and subjected to the most professional, comprehensive and authoritative evaluation in the social public welfare sector in China. More importantly, EEI was the only environmental conservation/education project included in the ten awardees. Moreover, there have been value-added achievements in the EEI project through the linking of EE/ESD with community or ecological improvement, not clearly spelt out in the project objectives. There were also good examples of the efforts of EE pilot schools and EE/ESD Centres in not only equipping students with environmental knowledgeand inquiry skills but also in fostering students as future citizens with creative problem-solving skills in environmental improvement through individual and collaborative actions. There were several factors contributing to the success of the EEI project, particularly the dedicated efforts (in the spirit of self-sacrifice) of project participants including the Steering Committee members, Programme Officers, EE/ESD university educators and teachers from the EEI pilot schools. There were, however, several important challenges encountered in the EEI (Lee, 2007). The most outstanding challenge was the shortage of appropriately trained and qualified personnel especially professionals with EE/ESD expertise and there were insufficient funds for supporting EE/ESD activities. There was also a lack of readiness in some institutions at all levels to engage in substantial curriculum reform, together with difficulties in establishing the requisite infrastructural changes. In addition, breakdowns in communications between institutions at various levels occurred and difficulties were experienced in establishing the necessary collaborative partnerships. With regard to the development of school-based curricula in schools, there were difficulties both in organising team teaching and in using particular themes for integrating content from various subjects. Examination pressures hindered the development of EE/ESD programmes or activities at senior secondary levels. In some schools, EE/ESD or pilot school leaders were not too enthusiastic about the promotion of EE/ESD as it was not a top priority for school development. For some Centres, the personnel tended to focus on scholarly pursuits or theoretical enquiries rather than supporting school-based EEI development. In some economically backward areas, Centres often faced constraints associated with the lack of expertise and commitment. Finally, some local educational bureaus were not sufficiently supportive of EEI programmes/activities, making it difficult to disseminate and extend successful experience to other schools. There were many logistical constraints such as: the inflexibility of timetables in some schools; resistance to curriculum change at all levels; inadequacy of incentives for teachers to engage in curriculum reform; anticipated difficulties in sustaining EE/ESD once the EEI had formally ended; the heavy teaching loads of teachers; problems of dissemination in a nation the size of China; conflicting curriculum
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priorities, e.g., competition from literacy, second language learning, science, and mathematics. Perhaps the biggest hurdle was to find ways of sustaining the project once all the funding and training support had dried up. At the end of the project, it was initially planned that a local NGO − Education for a Sustainable China − might be established to sustain the vision, resources and network but, at the time of writing, this had not materialised.
A Localised International Project – The EPD Project In 1994, UNESCO first proposed a project titled The Environment and Population Education and Information for Development (abbreviated to EPD). This was followed in 1997 by another UNESCO project titled Educating for a Sustainable Future: Environment, Population and Sustainable Development. The EPD project was based on the recommendations of the United Nations Rio Summit and the Population and Development conference in 1994. Since 1996, it has inherited the International Environmental Education Programme (IEEP) and has become a flagship programme in the field of environmental education. Despite the international orientation of EPD, only a few countries and regions have launched the EPD project, mostly with a research character. In October 1998, the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO acted as the liaison organisation between the Chinese government and UNESCO and supervised the introduction of the EPD project to China, starting in January 1999. While the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO sent staff to attend conferences and training seminars on an irregular basis, it seemed that UNESCO had not given direct financial, management and technical support to the EPD project in China. Also, while the EPD project carried the banner of UNESCO, it enjoyed relatively high levels of autonomy and independence. The objectives of EPDin China are to: • Enhance awareness and capability of educators in primary, secondary schools and colleges to promote education initiatives for environment, population and sustainable development • Help teenagers to acquire knowledge and skills about environment, population and sustainable development, and cultivate awareness and readiness to act positively in support of ESD • Prepare a new generation of citizens with creativity and consciousness of sustainable development and relevant capability • Work together with partners among the Member states to integrate sustainable development with education of environment and population to improve the living environment so as to promote the sustainable development of human beings The EPD project in China disseminated its messages and activities mainly through national level workshops and training seminars. Eight national level workshops were organised, mostly in Beijing. During the period from 2001 to 2006, many conferences, exchanges and exhibitions were held and gradually an impact on both
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the international and national communities was built up. The management and implementation of the EPD project was operated through the educational administration system, which mobilised primary and secondary schools to participate in activities. In the context of the Chinese Mainland, through a centralised, government-led (top-down) approach, this is an effective way of implementing educational innovations. Most of the EPD project schools were located in Beijing and Shanghai and some others were spread though the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxu, Shandong, Hunan, Hebei, Zhejiang, and Inner Mongolia, and Hong Kong. According to the stipulations of the EPD project in 2001, the highest body in the organisation is the Experimental Schools’ Representatives Meeting with the National Steering Committee comprising education experts and leaders of related bureaus as the advisory body. The National Working Committee, responsible for organising the implementation of day-to-day operations in the EPD project, has also established Regional Steering Committees and Regional Working Committees for organising EPD experimental schools to develop activities in various regions. In fact, the relationship between EPD and the regional (province and city) education bureaus is close because of the regional network. Leaders of regional education bureaus are often the influential members of the Regional Steering Committees and Regional Working Committees. In the case of Beijing, the Vice-Chairman of Beijing Education Commission concurrently assumed the Directorship of the Beijing EPD Working Committee. Under the Beijing EPD Education Working Committee, various district/xian EPD working committees were set up. Leaders of these districts/xians were normally appointed as honorary directors; leaders of the district/xian education bureaus as directors; leaders of the environmental protection bureaus/tourism bureaus as deputy directors; and some school principals, directors of educational research institutes and certain representatives of education commission as members. Such membership of the EPD Working Committee reveals strong government support and recognition, which then attracts more attention from schools than other innovative projects. 2001 and 2005 were two points of departure for the EPD project in China. Before 2001, the EPD project had held four large-scale workshops, with the participation of more than 400 principals and teachers. Nonetheless, at that time the project seemed to lack specific project targets and an over-arching programme as well as a rigorous management structure. Its association with the UNESCO brand and the educational and administrative power of the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences attracted schools joining the project to it. After 2001, the EPD made good use of opportunities arising from the nation-wide large-scale curriculum reform in basic education. In the same year, the EPD established project regulations, formulated clear guiding principles, a basic rationale, principles of implementation, and related activities. In addition, a three-tier (national, regional (provincial/city) and school levels) structure was set up. In Beijing, models of classroom teaching and extra-curricular activities, that were in line with the essence of the curriculum reform, were the subject for experimentation and they had generated valuable and successful experiences.
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In 2005, the EPD project, because of the close connection with the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, was incorporated into the framework of the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). Since 2005, the EPD project has been seen as a form of localised promotion of UNESCO’s ESD in China, which was publicised widely through workshops, seminars, newspapers and magazines as well as in series of book publications, the “Sustainable Development Education Collection”. The pro-activeness and prompt actions in recent years have ensured that the EPD is one of the most highly influential projects within the DESD framework in China.
A Comparison Between EEI and EPD As shown in Table 6.2, there are some interesting differences between the EEI project and the EPD project. Nonetheless, both projects demonstrated the strong influence of three forces: the international environmental education movement, China’s curriculum reform, and national and international NGOs. Also, they have demonstrated the advocacy of international environmental education and sustainable development and made use of the opportunities arising from basic education Table 6.2 A comparison between the EEI project and the EPD project (Lee, 2007; EPD (http:// www.eepdinchina.com/index.asp. Accessed on November 12, 2007); EEI(http://www.wwfchina. org/aboutwwf/whatwedo/ecb/eei.shtm. Accessed on November 12, 2007)) Source of the project Project management
Project start year Number of project schools School sector Keywords of the project
EEI project
EPD project
WWF WWF–Beijing Office; BP and MOE
UNESCO Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences 1999 More than 1,000 schools
1997 Around 86 (another 15 EIW schools) Primary and secondary Primary and secondary Environmental education, Environmental education, education for education for sustainable sustainable development, China’s development, China’s basic education curriculum reform; basic education curriculum subjective education reform; teacher training, school and community Principles of schoolCross-disciplinary, studentClassroom teaching model: subjective based curriculum centred, local, community inquiry, synthesis infiltration; codevelopment/ renewal service, action research operative activities; and innovative development. Extra-curricular activity model: subjective inquiry; concern for the community; co-operative experience and innovative development (continued)
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Table 6.2 (continued) Main achievements
EEI project
EPD project
Help to promote EE/ESD and helping transform Chinese environmental education gradually with an increasing emphasis on ESD Enhance capacity building through the training of 5,000 teacher advisors and 160 university educators who help promote EE/ESD in schools Exert policy influence through the preparation and implementation of the NEEG, which has the potential to affect 200 million primary and secondary school students Produce 57 different types of EE/ESD resources and journal articles Help to establish an ESD network involving 21 EE/ESD Centres and 86 pilot schools in 31 provinces (including municipal cities and autonomous regions) and Help to promote the interactions between school and community, especially in the Shangri-la project
Publicise widely scientific knowledge and thoughts about environment, populationand sustainable development; enhance participants’ awareness of the educational significance of the EPD Promote widely innovation of educational and teaching models in project schools; encourage experimentation with new classroom teaching and learning models and thematic activities; promote curriculum reform effectively in project schools and enhance the overall quality of classroom teaching and whole-person development Develop different kinds of teacher training and enhance overall teacher quality, build up a team of enthusiastic principals and teachers in ESD Organise project schools to care about environmental education, health and life education so as to harness the schools’ functions of acting as a base for culture and civilisation, enhance community residents’ environmental awareness, health awareness and overall level of civilisation
curriculum reform in China. Moreover, they have illustrated the notion of “implementing curriculum reform through engaging in the project” under the funding or administrative support of local or international NGOs. It is important to notice that the EEI worked closely with the EE/ESD Centres in various teacher training (normal) universities in China in areas of school-based curriculum development and teacher training. The EPD project worked closely with national and local education bureaus in promoting ESD. Despite the two projects having different specific objectives, both of them have made great efforts to disseminate and promote the concept of sustainable development through the vehicle of school-based curricula. In addition, some of the activities from both projects have shared some broad similarities, including community participation and interactive approaches to teaching and learning. In terms of achievements, the EEI made great accomplishments in terms of policy changes (e.g., the formulation of the NEEG), teacher training, and social impact in many
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provinces. In contrast, the EPD had generated an impact in terms of the number of schools, more than 1,000, and it still has great potential for scaling new heights and extending its breadth and depth in the years to come. As regards the approach to school-based curriculum development, the Education Initiative for Water (EIW) proposed that school-based curriculum development for sustainable development, following the direction of the basic education curriculum reform, should have five basic principles: cross-disciplinarity, student-centredness, localised, community service and action research. In addition, it was advocated that there should be teamwork bringing together different subject teachers, inquiry teaching approaches, localised knowledge and community resources, service learning, and teacher action research for realising such principles. The particular, local school and community contexts of different schools were considered when the school curriculum was amended, extended and integrated. Also, schools were encouraged to set up “integrated practices activities” for implementing ESD. As teachers are the key to school-based curriculum development (SBCD), the EIW adopted a teacher action research model for SBCD as shown in Fig. 6.1. In this model, the basic operation is as follows: • Experimental or pilot schools were chosen and teachers were invited to participate in training provided by the EE/ESD Centres of normal universities. • Teachers, having undergone training, were asked to submit school-based curriculum proposals for different themes, taking account of the uniqueness of the school and community, personal circumstances and being in line with the five principles of implementation. • After the proposals were reviewed by experts and revised, the proposals were confirmed and teachers could implement the proposal within the school with autonomy. • Project working team members communicate with teachers on an irregular basis, exchange experience and discuss plans for resolving problems during the process of implementation. • The project might choose appropriate themes and organise a second teacher training workshop to help resolve teachers’ new practical problems and sustain the momentum of school-based curriculum development. The EPD project proposed that “subjective education” (considering students as the subjects of education and nurture them to be pro-active learners (Li and Yin, 2002)) Teacher training Reflection and improvement
Development of school-based curriculum
Experience exchange
Fig. 6.1 The development of school-based curriculum for EIW
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and education for sustainable development are two basic concepts to be articulated and integrated through curriculum design and implementation in both formal and informal curricula. In addition, the EPD project laid down the principles of a constructivistic classroom teaching model: “subjective inquiry, integrated infusion; co-operative activities; and innovative development” and principles of extra-curricular activities: “subjective inquiry; concern for the community; co-operative experience and innovative development”. The EPD advocated an infusion approach to introducing knowledge and promoting awareness of the environment and sustainable development. It was to be introduced through languages, mathematics, foreign languages, politics, chemistry, physics, biology, history, music and the arts in the formal curriculum and through project-based learning in co-ordinated subject activities in physics, chemistry, biology and geography. The experiences generated in 15 schools of EIW revealed that, despite an early success with the support of teacher training and the design of feasible school-based curriculum plans, teachers found it difficult to master and apply innovative and updated educational concepts and strategies, including service learning and crossdisciplinary teaching. There were likely to be serious challenges to attempts to implement these pedagogical practices on a large scale. On the other hand, the strong administrative support system had facilitated the development of more than 1,000 EPD project schools in a few years even though there were no pre-specified operational routines and uniform SBCD strategies. Inevitably, there were significant variations in the quality (theme, form and content) of implementation. These experiences raised the question of whether more emphasis should be placed on the fidelity approach which emphasised centralised guidance, training and monitoring, as in the case of EIW of EEI or a mutual adaptation approach which encouraged more school autonomy and less focused support from the centralised body, as in the case of EPD.
Two Primary School Case Studies of ESD Through School-Based Curriculum Development An EEI Project School: Experiences of Xiao You Primary School (Ya’er Hutong Primary School) One of the authors (Huang) started interviewing and observing in Xiao You Primary School from 1997, when the school started joining EEI activities. Formal and informal interviews were carried out with the principal, teachers, teachers who were responsible for EE/ESD, and students. Xiao You Primary School is situated on the north shore of Shi Cha Hai (a fresh water lake) in the western part of Beijing. The school neighbourhood is located in the old city area with the famous hutong landscape. This consists of houses of famous people, relics of mansions of princes and courtyard dwellings (si he yuan). Xiao You Primary School is one of the primary schools in Beijing which had been
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involved in environmental education in earlier years. Since 1986, the school has accumulated rich experiences and earned nearly 400 prizes and awards at the district, city and national levels. In early 2004, Xiao You Primary School merged with Ya’er Hutong Primary School to form a new Ya’er Hutong Primary School, with 13 classes, 400 students and more than 40 staff. Ya’er Hutong Primary School, is one of the outstanding experimental schools (1996−2000) in Beijing. It has a tradition of developing science and technology education and extra-curricular activities, paying close attention to educational research and reform. Relevant Events and Personnel In June 1998, Xiao You Primary School joined the EEI project network and became one of the pilot schools in Beijing. The principal and teachers participated in the EEI teacher training programme to learn the concepts and approaches of EEI and to develop activities under the auspices of the EE Centre of Beijing Normal University. In February 2001, the school further participated in the sub-project, the Education Initiative for Water (EIW), of EEI as a pilot school. Four teachers of language, physical education, social studies and nature participated in the first training programme. In 2002, the school received sponsorship of RMB$58,000 from EIW for 3 years and started activities from grades 1 to 6. In addition to sharing experiences with other schools, the school principal and one teacher also joined a study tour to Hong Kong to extend their horizons on environmental education. In 2003 and 2004, the school took part in the second and third training workshops, which enhanced their understanding of the connection between EIW/EEI and strategies such as the play approach, school-based curriculum development and teacher action research. They also had the opportunity to discuss issues related to the development of curriculum resources. In 2005, teachers from the school participated in the fourth training workshop and two of them joined a study tour to Qinghai. The school started some exchange activities with their counterparts in Qinghai. In May 2006, a project proposal on “Constructing a unique school-based curriculum on green sustainable development” was approved, and this built on previous work in ESD. Curriculum Development and Implementation The uniqueness of the school-based curriculum in Xiao You Primary School (Ya’er Hutong Primary School), with the training and support of experts from Beijing Normal University, is characterised by the approaches of “integrated practices activity lessons” and “community service and social practices”. The processes of curriculum development and implementation can be briefly summarised in this way: • Understanding by the whole school The school first organised all teachers to participate in a seminar and a training workshop so that they could understand the spirit of the curriculum reform and enhance their own capacity for school-based curriculum development. Then the
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school set up a school-based curriculum leadership team led by the principal. This directed teachers to formulate a curriculum proposal under the guiding curriculum principles of “raising environmental awareness, reinforcing classroom infusion, enriching practising activities and cultivating environmental qualities”. The schoolbased curriculum was then implemented through various channels of classroom teaching, regular whole school assemblies, extra-curricular activities as well as students’ community services and social practices and parent education. • Designing a curriculum framework The school mainly adopted curriculum enrichment, extension and adaptation approaches to curriculum development. The curriculum development team first surveyed the school’s educational contexts and the curriculum resources in the school’s surroundings. Then the team used an activity teaching approach as a basis and prepared school-based teaching materials for low, middle and high grades. In the low grade the focus was on the objective of knowing, initially, simple environmental knowledge. In the middle grade the emphasis was on the formulation of a willingness to protect and improve the environment and highlighted the objective of actively resolving local environmental problems. In the high grade the emphasis was placed on students’ ability to take actions in protecting and improving the environment. • Integrating with teacher’s professional development The main agents of curriculum development are teachers who translate teaching plans into good teaching lessons in reality and, after refinement, add these lessons in the curriculum. The school has built up a teaching research system in which teachers are organised to study curriculum development problems, share the progress of research with others, listen to their opinions and reach a consensus for improvement. The collection and statistical analysis of data and documentation were emphasised. Teachers in the curriculum development team established a school-based portfolio containing records of research outputs, including thematic class assemblies, teaching examples, teaching records and instructional designs. In addition, the school provided funding support and recognition to steer the direction of curriculum development and monitor the quality. • Preparing school-based teaching materials with “activities” as the core The school-based curriculum was composed of “activities”, each of which has set objectives, time, preparation, process and conclusion. The process of such activities placed emphasis on students’ own operations, students’ autonomy in exploration as well as students’ understanding and mastery of basic knowledge and skills. These activities aimed to cultivate students’ creativity and practical abilities so as to enhance their overall development. They were divided into four themes: “loving school” education based on the school’s history; patriotic education based on the surrounding houses of famous people and sites of armies; social education based on a community survey and community service; and history education based on the surrounding’s cultural heritage. In addition, teachers compiled the teaching cases into a casebook and compiled students’ insights on participating in activities and their compositions into a learning portfolio.
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Curriculum Evaluation and Impact Despite having initiated a school-based curriculum in Xiao You Primary School (Ya’er Hutong Primary School) it has not grown to full maturity. Positive effects were generated during the process of curriculum development and implementation. Findings from formal interviews of a random sample of four students in June 2004 showed that they were highly satisfied with the “activities” derived from SBCD. Students considered their own intellectual and skills development during the activities were far better than those based on the traditional curriculum. Teachers also felt that students’ overall quality was enhanced, particularly their confidence and ability in problem-solving. Interviews with the principal and teachers revealed that SBCD had extended teachers’ horizons, facilitated their formulation of new educational views and enhanced their teaching skills. The example of Xiao You Primary School (Ya’er Hutong Primary School) illustrates the uniqueness or non-replicability of school-based curriculum development (SBCD), targeted at students, developed by teachers and based on the school’s own context and the local community. It also reflects the importance of teachers’ professional development in the SBCD model as advocated by the EEI project. Ding (2001) considered that teachers’ professional development depended on five aspects: in-service training; partnership; resource support; student participation; and school culture. In this case study school, teachers participated in workshops and SBCD activities and shared with their peers in formal meetings or internal sharing and during their casual sharing. The school had engaged in SBCD with time, manpower and financial support and had built up a good collaborative relationship with the local community and the university. The school-based curriculum had provided students of different grades with a variety of appropriate activities. The school had built up a 20-year tradition of environmental education and the principal and teaching staff of different ranks were very willing to develop and implement the EE/ESD school-based curriculum. With the interactions of these five positive forces, Xiao You Primary School (Ya’er Hutong Primary School) had formed a dynamic process of SBCD, stimulating a sustained drive for teacher’s professional development.
A Case Study of an EPD School in Beijing: Bai Jia Zhuang Primary School Bai Jia Zhuang Primary School was built in 1956 and is a well-developed Beijing primary school with four campuses. Altogether, there were 55 classes, more than 160 teaching staff and nearly 2,000 students. The school is situated in a business centre and an area of high technology enterprises in Zhao Yang District. The mission of the school was to create a “happy garden” for students and a “happy learning garden” for every student to develop to his or her maximum potential. The school was recognised by the district education bureau as “a school with outstanding
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results of quality education and significant development” (http://www.tfbx.net/ page/intro/index.php. Accessed on May 16, 2008).
Relevant Events and Personnel In March 2001, the school was confirmed as one of the first batch of EPD experimental schools. Teachers attended the fifth national workshop. In 2002, the school decided to use social studies as the basis for developing a school-based curriculum. In 2003, the school presented a lesson example of “The past and present of Beijing snacks” in its school-based curriculum. In 2004, the school representatives participated in the seventh national workshop. In 2005, the school presented the experience and status of its own school-based curriculum development and won an award in EPD’s International Forum on Education for Sustainable Development. In 2006, the school participated in the eighth national workshop and the principal made a keynote address on the school’s EPD project experiences.
Curriculum Development and Implementation Since 2001, the school started to use social studies as a starting point to develop a school-based curriculum, taking into account students’ interests. It focused on objectives concerned with caring about nature and caring about society. First, the school developed a three-layered school-based curriculum structure based on a series of themes, such as “life experience category”, “subject teaching category” and “integrated social studies category” and then a set of school-based teaching materials on “caring about society and starting from myself” (Zu, 2006). According to the design, the “life experience category” curriculum was implemented in grade 5. The first term touched upon the exploration and experience of traditional Beijing culture. The second semester highlighted an enquiry into factors affecting student health. The “subject teaching category” curriculum was implemented in the first term of grade 6 with a theme of “The relationship between tourism and the conservation of the Chinese natural and cultural heritage” for enquiry. The “integrated social studies category” was implemented in the second term of grade 6 with an enquiry theme on factors affecting environmental protectionand measures for resolving problems. The main achievement of Bai Jia Zhuang Primary School was school-based curriculum research and the development of a “culture of taste” in 2006, mainly through the vehicles of “integrated practices activities” and “project-based learning”. This new school-based curriculum was based on an extension of the section on Beijing traditional culture with an objective of “starting from enquiring into the Beijing characteristic culture so that students could encounter, understand and publicise Chinese characteristic culture and cultural heritage”. A school-based curriculum development team was set up to decide the syllabus and explore the scope of curriculum research. A set of textbooks, Tasting Old Beijing Characteristic
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Culture, for the senior grade students was produced, containing two parts: Cultural readings and Practical guidance. In each part, there were columns such as “read and read”, “think and think”, “teachers’ words”, “speak and speak”, “do and do” and “evaluate and evaluate”, intended to “impart knowledge” and “cultivate abilities” (Zu, 2006). Apart from curriculum design, implementation and research, the school organised teaching seminars to facilitate teachers and students to share their experiences and feelings. In addition, the school-based curriculum was extended beyond social studies which is about “Hutongs in Beijing”. For example, “Toys in Beijing” was taught in fine art lessons, “Beijing welcomes you” was taught in music lessons, doukongzhu (a traditional toy which is made of bamboo and can produce sounds) was taught in physical education lessons. The school even renovated one of the buildings into “Beijing characteristic cultural building” containing the tower and the decorative archway on one floor, a hutong and courtyard dwellings on the next floor and a display of Beijing New Year culture on another (Zu, 2006). Student assessment played an important role in the school-based curriculum. Students had to engage in proposal evaluation, mid-progress evaluation and final evaluation as well as self-evaluation and peer evaluation within a group, teacher evaluation, parent evaluation and community evaluation.
Curriculum Evaluation and Impact Like the curriculum of Xiao You Primary School (Ya’er Hutong Primary School), the school-based curriculum of Bai Jia Zhuang Primary School was still in the stage of experimentation and needed some time to grow to maturity. Nonetheless, the school had generated some remarkable positive experiences. The principal Zu (2006) remarked that school-based curriculum development (SBCD) had boosted the reform of other curricula and stimulated physical and cultural changes. It was evident that both teachers and students had made progress. For example, from the teachers’ perspective, the students’ sense of responsibility, self-directed learning ability and independence had been enhanced. In addition, students were able to develop and apply new skills and their co-operative learning capability and etiquette had been improved. On the part of teachers, their educational beliefs and conceptions had been changed and teaching research capability had been enhanced. The SBCD in Bai Jia Zhuang Primary School adopted a “small step” approach, including the “culture of taste” curriculum as a small part of the curriculum. It restricted the school-based curriculum to the senior grade of social studies, extending only to the non-core subjects of art and physical education without affecting the major subjects. In a country with a centralised curriculum management system, at both the national and school levels, like China, it seems that the adoption of a prudent and slow progressive approach would be desirable for most schools. Nonetheless, one of the breakthroughs in this school was the wide use of projectbased learning as a learning strategy at the primary level. Although the term
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project-based learning was not spelt out clearly, students were engaged in the processes of research, survey, inquiry, proposal writing and report presentation, that were in line with the essence of project-based learning. While project-based learning was commonly used in secondary schools, the practical experiences of Bai Jia Zhuang Primary School provided many useful insights for other primary schools.
Conclusion It is clear that the basic education curriculum reform in China provided good opportunities and a platform for implementing environmental education (EE) or education for sustainable development (ESD) in schools, especially through the channel of school-based curriculum development (SBCD). However, SBCD remained a new concept for school practitioners, and a consensus about its nature and modes of implementation had not been reached. Using the novel concept of SBCD to be associated with the other difficult, innovative notion of sustainable development made the launch of school-based EE or ESD curriculum a formidable task in the educational context of China. Both of the projects that we have discussed have broken new ground in both primary and secondary school sectors in China and have provided good lessons and case studies for future school-based curriculum development. According to the experiences of two projects and two case study schools, the selection of suitable schools with an appropriate capacity for curriculum change and committed frontline teachers as bases for SBCD would be crucial for the success of the project or any other curriculum reform efforts. Such conditions were in line with the existing literature that argues that curriculum change and implementation necessitates a clear school mission, democratic and open school organisational structure, highly professional and enthusiastic teachers and adequate community or school curriculum resources (Wu, 1999; Pan, 2000; Lo, 2001; Lee et al., 2006). To some extent, schools joining the EEIproject or the EPD project had not been chosen at random. For example, EEI project schools needed to be approved through the processes of initial investigation, recommendation of the school leadership, voluntary submission and auditing by the project team. These processes have ensured that schools had more readiness or capacity for curriculum change, accounting for smooth and successful changes at a later stage. SBCD as an innovative concept needed clear guidance and professional support for its implementation especially in the early stage of nation-wide curriculum reform. Otherwise, the school-based curriculum development could become a chaotic, laissez-faire process or at best an exploratory process of “tracing stones to cross a river”. In the context of China, SBCD might sometimes be loosely understood as “elective courses”, “activity lessons”, “extra-curricular activities”, and school-based or teacher self-designed textbooks or teaching materials (Cui, 2000). The EEI project and the EPD project had designed clear implementation principles to help steer schools in the direction of SBCD. The EIW of the EEI project had
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established five principles: cross-disciplinarity, action research, student-centredness, community service and localisation. These principles, on the one hand, reflected the concepts of ESD and echoed the trends of basic education curriculum reform in China, on the other. The realisation of these principles in schools in China could help build unique school-based curricula for EE/ESD. As regards SBCD through action research, there are generally two entry points, one from teaching methods and another from curriculum development (Ding, 2001). Curriculum development originated from teaching methods tended to be more aligned with teachers’ daily work. Thus, both the EEI and the EPD projects adopted an approach of SBCD through reform or improvement of teaching methods. The EEI project, for example, used “inquiry teaching” as its core and implemented methods such as co-operative learning, experiential learning, participatory learning and education in the environment. The EPD project instead used “student subjectivity” as the theoretical basis and designed a “subjective inquiry, integrated infusion” classroom teaching model, which emphasised the progressive use of student-centred pedagogy in traditional classroom practices and initiated the reform of teaching methods as a small starting step. The initial experiences revealed that this progressive approach was positively received by teachers and students and became a breakthrough for a school’s curriculum reform. Appropriate and substantial training of teachers is one of the critical factors for success in implementing EE/ESD. The EEI project, for example, emphasised centralised training and experience exchange. The EPD project also organised national workshops and seminars to provide guidance for schools. What then are the future implications of the lessons from the EEI or EPD project for China? In a review of China’s ESD project (2004–2006) during the eighth national workshop, Shi Gen Dong proposed that in the next 10 years, China’s ESD should adopt a “one body and two wings” (one centre and two foci) approach. The body or centre should be “sustainable development values education” while two wings or foci are “environment and resources thematic education” and “culture and society thematic education” (see Table 6.3).
Table 6.3 Future development of China’s ESD: “one body and two wings” approach (http://www. eepdinchina.com/chinese/listContent.asp?Cate = 国家讲习班andCateId = 34andSubCate = 第八 次国家讲习班andSubCateId = 88andPath = National%20workshopandSubPath = 8thSeminar. (Accessed on November 12, 2007)) One body: “Sustainable devel- One wing: “Environment and One wing: “Culture and opment values education” resources thematic education” society thematic education” A. Respect present and future generations B. Respect differences and diversity C. Respect the environment
Environmental protection education Conservation of resources education Sustainable lifestyle education
D. Respect Earth’s resources
Recycling economy education
Humanity spirit education Excellent traditional Chinese culture education Excellent world culture education Population education
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The Chinese journey of curriculum development and implementation for EE/ESD will both be evolving and exciting in the remaining years of the DESD. There is a need to have concerted efforts among the government bureaus, the NGOs (including the universities) and schools to make sustained curriculum reform for EE/ESD a success. A progressive approach integrating traditional and student-centred pedagogies and the “think big, start small” approach to SBCD will be called for in the future.
References Cui, Y-H. (2000). From ‘elective subjects and activities’ to ‘school-based curriculum development’ – case study of the school-based curriculum of Jiangsu Xishan Senior High School. Exploring Education Development, 2, 22–26 [in Chinese]. Ding, G. (2001). A school-based curriculum development that focused on teacher professional development. Education Research, 2, 50–53 [in Chinese]. Lee, J. C. K. (Li Zijian) (1998). Theory and Practice in Environmental Education in Primary and Secondary Schools: Towards Sustainable Development. Beijing, China: Beijing Normal University Press [in Chinese]. Lee, J. C. K. (2007). Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) Final Evaluation Report. Beijing: WWF–Beijing Office. Lee, J. C. K. and Williams, M. (eds.) (2006). Environmental and Geographical Education for Sustainability: Cultural Contexts. New York: Nova Science. Lee, J. C. K., Williams, M. and Lo, L. N. K. (2006). Teachers, learners and curriculum. In J. C. K. Lee and M. Williams (eds.), School Improvement: International Perspectives (pp. 49–63). New York: Nova Science. Li, S. and Yin, H-B. (2002). Reflecting and constructing the study of subjectivity education. Journal of Southwest China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciencs Edition), 28(3), 48–52. Lo, Y. C. (2001). The development of school-based curriculum: the 3 case studies in Hong Kong. Exploring Education Development, 4, 44–47 [in Chinese]. Pan, X- Z. (2000). The development of school-based curriculum. Teaching and Administration, 8, 31–33 [in Chinese]. Ren, N. A. and Liu, W. Y.(eds.), (2000). Interactive Environmental Education Readings. Beijing: Higher Education Press [in Chinese]. Shi, C., Hutchinson, S. M. and Yu, L. (2000). Moving beyond environmental knowledge delivery: environmental educators’ initiative for China. International Journal of Environmental Education and Information, 19(3), 205–214. Tian, Q. (2002). Towards a sustainable environmental education system – a comparison between China and Japan (Report on results of basic research of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). The Effects of Basic Education Reform in China to Environmental Education (pp. 30–37). Tokyo: Tokyo Gakugei University. Wang, Y-J. (2002). Towards a sustainable environmental education system – a comparison between China and Japan (Report on results of basic research of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). The Effects of Basic Education Reform in China to Environmental Education (pp. 10–16).Tokyo: Tokyo Gakugei University. Wu, G-P. (1999). Analysis of types of school-based curriculum development activities. Exploring Education Development, 11, 37–41 [in Chinese]. Zu, X-Y. (2006). Using the concept of sustainable development education as guideline to improve the quality of education – the development and practices of school-based curriculum. Sustainable Development Education in China, 25(5), 40–43 [in Chinese].
Chapter 7
Green Schools in China Hongying Zeng, Guang Yang and John Chi-Kin Lee
Loud thunder but small raindrops (Chinese saying)
The Law of Compulsory Education of the People’s Republic of China, announced in 1986 and revised in 2006, stipulates that children reaching the age of six should be enrolled in primary education for 6 years. Students normally attend primary schools without payment, though they may be required to purchase schoolbooks and pay for transport to school. Nation-wide there are some 340,000 primary schools run by education departments and communities, including a small number of non-state/ private (minban) schools and schools run by non-education departments. Most primary schools have 6 years while some run for 9 years. There are also schools provided specifically for minorities. The primary school curriculum consists of two major subjects, language and mathematics with English Language starting at Grade 3. In the lower grades, students generally study moral education and life and in the upper grades, students will study two subjects, moral education and society and science. The school curriculum also encompasses physical education, arts (fine art and music) and integrated practices activities (including information technology education, project-based learning, community service and social practice as well as labour and technological education). Each school is normally open for 35 weeks per year, with morning assemblies, inter-class meetings and technological, cultural and physical activities. Schools do
H. Zeng Center for Environmental Education and Communication, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, China G. Yang (*) Capital Institute of Basic Education Development, Capital Normal University, China E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_7, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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not have regular sessions for environmental education (EE) and this is normally incorporated or immersed in related subject curricula. In 2001, China initiated the basic education reform and since then more attention has been given to EE. Of course, there is some distance between what the government wishes to provide and what is actually provided. In remote rural communities there are problems in providing schools, Part-time schools and peripatetic teachers are not unusual in such areas. Inevitably, the curriculum is restricted and ensuring that students attend schools is difficult. As in many other countries, a distinction has to be made between government pronouncements about educational reform and actual reality in individual schools. In 2003, the National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG) and syllabuses for special topics education on environmental education for primary and middle school student were issued (see http://www.greenschools.com.cn/greenschools/index_GB/index.htm and http://www.moe.gov.cn/base/jckecheng/13.htm. Accessed on March 11, 2008). In recent years, environmental degradation has aroused public concern, stimulating the Chinese government to initiate policies that promote the construction of resource-saving and environmentally friendly schools. One of the key issues has been how to promote environmental education and it is against this background that green schools in China have gradually developed. The origin of green schools in China can be traced back to The Action Guides on National Environmental Communication and Education (1996−2010) (herein after referred to as Action Guides) published jointly by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)(now Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)) and the Ministry of Education of the Peoples’ Republic of China (MOE/PRC). Here it was stated that, starting from 2000, the whole country would gradually promote green school activities and such activities would be publicly visible. Green school is no longer a new term in the field of environmental education in China. Using Google to check the Chinese term green school (luse xuexiao), more than three million entries were found. (Accessed on July 1, 2007.) The term “green school” was officially defined for the first time in the Guide to China’s Green Schools (The Centre for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) of the SEPA (now the MEP) (2003: 5) “Green school” means that on the basis of realising the basic educational functions and guided by the thinking about sustainable development, the school incorporates management measures in daily management tasks that are conducive to the environment and fully utilises all resources and opportunities inside and outside the school for enhancing the environmental literacy of teachers and students.
Given the increasing number of green schools, as shown in Table 7.1, there has been a call for a more formalised system for assuring the standards and quality of green schools. In addition to the publication of the Guide to China’s Green Schools, the SEPA (now MEP) issued in 2004 the Normative requirements of application materials for dissemination and, 2 years later, Requirements and procedures for sampling evaluation. Moreover, the environmental protection offices at different levels established evaluation criteria for green schools and launched the development of green schools at xian (county), city (region), province (municipal city) and
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national levels. During the “11−5” period (the abbreviation used to refer to the Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan), the development of green schools moved towards a mature stage. In a document related to decisions on strengthening environmental protection and realising the views of scientific development (http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2005– 12/13/content_125736.htm. Accessed on April 15, 2008), it was suggested that the development of green schools should become a part of national development planning focusing on the construction of a “resource saving society” and a “pro-environmental harmonious society”. It should be integrated with other activities such as the development of environmental protection exemplary or ecological cities, environmentally friendly enterprises and green communities. In 2007, the SEPA reinforced its linkage with green schools world-wide by registering China as a member of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). From 2000 to 2006, the Centre for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) of the SEPA recognised four batches of green schools. At the national level, 705 Green Schools received awards presented jointly by the State Environment Protection Administration and the PRC Ministry of Education. As can be seen in Table 7.1, by the end of 2006, China had more than 35,000 green schools in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipal cities at various levels. More than 90% of cities had developed green schools revealing a positive prospect for green schools in China. From an international perspective, the green school concept originated in the eco-schools project in Europe (see Chapter 3) and, in the case of China, the development of green schools was closely linked with the Chinese Environmental Protection Movement, relating to a document issued by the State Council on building green schools, green communities, environmentally friendly enterprises and environmental protection exemplary cities as measures for enhancing environmental protection (http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2005–12/13/content_125736.htm. Accessed on April 15, 2008). One of the green school’s salient features is the active involvement of the state government as well as collaboration between environmental protection offices and bureaus at various levels and a good management system of green schools in China.
Table 7.1 Green schoolsand National Awarded Green Schools in China Year Number of participating provinces Number of green schools Number of National Awarded Green Schools Number of National Awarded primary schools
2000
2001
2002
16
23
31
31
31
31
31
3,207 105
3,414
4,750 179
13,813
17,636 204
25,144
35,849 217
38
63
2003
2004
81
2005
2006
76
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Green School Project/Scheme: An International Perspective The literature on green schools drawn from many countries reveals that each of the green school schemes has its own theoretical framework and unique features. In the following sections we make a brief comparison of the basic conditions, curriculum implementation and administrative management of these major green school projects or schemes. Table 7.2 briefly outlines the characteristics of these schemes in China, Taiwan, Europe, Japan, Canada and the US.
Basic Conditions It is noticeable that most countries included in Table 7.2 have embarked on the development of green schools since the 1990s. While China launched the green school scheme through the national government’s co-ordination and input, the development of green schools in other countries has been achieved mainly through the auspices of the government and co-ordination by university scholars, a university or relevant professional organisation. Taking the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan (GPPT) as an example (see Chapter 11), this made reference to the eco-school project in the UK and the SEEC in Canada. It operated through the co-ordination of the Graduate Institute of Environmental Education in Taiwan Normal University and the Chinese Society for Environmental Education under the auspices of the Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE). In North America, the development of green schools has been promoted through the concerted efforts of nongovernmental organisations, universities, state and local governments. Apart from the differences in the agencies responsible for co-ordinating green school development in various countries, there have been differences in the orientation and focus of attention in green school development. Japan, for example, has given more attention to the development of equipment and school infrastructure in accordance with green architecture and facilities. The Alliance to Save Energy supported the green school project in the US and encouraged schools to improve their technical facilities for energy saving and to conduct energy-related teaching and learning activities. On the other hand, eco-schools in Europe and green schools in Taiwan tended to promote the development of green schools through networking and commending those schools that were voluntarily contributing to environmental education through citing them as green schools.
Curriculum and Teaching in Green School Projects As regards curriculum and teaching in green schools, many countries have made use of integrated curricula, project learning and environmental protection activities that were in line with the goals of environmental education and education for
Green school
Greenschool Sponsored by the MOE and Partnership Project operated by the Graduate in Taiwan (GPPT) Institute of Environmental Education of Taiwan Normal University and Chinese Society for Environmental Education
Eco-school
Green school
Green school
Green school
The People’s Republic of China (PRC)
Taiwan
Europe
Japan
Canada
USA
Naming/recognition
Award mechanism
Fourteen states having their own green school scheme and supported by different organisations
SEED
MEXT
Supported by the European Union and some big firms; managed by the FEE
Giving a green leaf label and selecting a few outstanding schools for recognition (having a school badge and a financial award)
Having a quota for allocation in different states; for schools submitting saved funds
School receptive to the principles and ideas and then submitting an application with achievements
For schools having improvement in school building and facilities
Returning saved funds with support
Giving school badges, certificates, flags and prizes
Financial support and assistance in improvement
Schools recognised on a non-regular Need to apply again for the title every basis; sometimes naming a school 2 years after school naming as a through auditing eco-school
For schools receptive to the principles and ideas of partnership and getting registered in the network
MEP and MOE as main organ- Four levels (national, provincial, city, Formal naming at National level of isers; the steering commitcounty); application by school green school by the MEP and tee housed in CEEC and then audited and approved MOE every 2 years (a school by the Environmental Protection badge and certificate) and reBureaus at respective levels assessed every 4 years; green schools below the provincial level for selection every 1−2 years
Name of green school Management institution
Country/region
Table 7.2 Comparison between the green school award or scheme in China and selected countries (China Green Schools (Environmental Communication and Education, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the PRC) (http://www.cgsp.cn); Foundation of European Environmental Education (http://www.ecoschools.org/html/about.htm); Taiwan Green Partners Web (Environmental Education Centre, National Taiwan Normal University) (http://www.giee.ntnu.edu. tw/greenschool/); SEEDS (Canada) (http://www.greenschools.ca/seeds/agreenno.html); Alliance to Save Energy - green school programme (http://www.ase. org/section/program/greenschl); Liu, J-H. (2001). The background and promotion of green schools in Japan. (http://www.cgsp.cn/main/cgsop/abroad/detail_7. jsp) (All sites accessed on January 2, 2008))
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sustainable development but with different emphases. The US, for example, placed more emphasis on cultural elements. Teaching about the local environment and the students’ home village was highlighted in Taiwan while teaching specific environmental themes was emphasised in Europe. Hong Kong and China tended to adopt an infusion approach that incorporated environmental concepts into conventional subject teaching. China has given more attention to environmental management of the school campus, school-based curricula and “integrated practices” lessons as modes of promoting environmental education that echoed new trends in curriculum reform. With respect to the criteria for green schools, US green schools highlighted components of curriculum integration especially the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach that used “environment” as the area for integration. This was often referred to as EIC − Environment as an Integrated Context or Environment as an Integrated Context for Learning (http://www.ecs.org/ or http://www.seer.org/. Accessed on March 6, 2008). Green schools in Taiwan have tended to attach more importance to linking environmental education with the local environment (especially the rural environment), outdoor education, the local community, environmental walking trails as well as promoting action research on environmental issues.
Project/School Management in Green Schools Green school management has been achieved through administrative support, provision of resources, training in professional skills and information support. In the US, green school guidelines, school philosophy and culture as well as professional development and planning were emphasised in the component of administrative support. The assessment of administrative management in eco-schools in Europe focused on aspects such as the school committee, environmental auditing, action planning and monitoring. In Hong Kong, the green schools’ assessment of school management encompassed environmental policy, environmental co-ordinating teams, green management, environmental education training and environmental information dissemination. Taiwan green schools encouraged teachers and students to conduct regular campus-wide environmental surveys and environmental audits, co-develop policies for improving the school environment and establish environmental action groups with the commitment and support of principals and school leaders.
Unique Features of Green Schools The Guidelines for Green Schools in the US tended to emphasise community-based education with the following four aspects: fostering partnerships on the school campus; service learning projects; community and school activities; and partnership with
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local institutions. The eco-schools in Europe gave more attention to publicity and codes of behaviour. For example, students were required to know the actions of their own eco-schools and be able to demonstrate to visitors the essence of ecological codes of behaviour. Taiwan green schools highlighted school life and the planning of space in the implementation of environmental education. For example, teachers and students have been encouraged to practise simple, environmentally friendly lives, create a school campus with biodiversity and produce teaching materials that were infused with community culture and the natural environment. In Hong Kong, green schools have tended to emphasise the effectiveness of environmental education, such as the evaluation of environmental awareness, attitudes and behaviour as well as teachers’ understanding of environmental issues and environmental awards.
Main Strategies for Enhancing Green School Development in China Through the practices developed over more than 10 years, China has gained some valuable experiences in promoting green school development. These unique experiences include: Setting up a four-tier (national, provincial (region), city and county levels) network of green school management, supported and assured by policy at governmental level, for promoting multi-level breadth and depth of green school development In 2000, SEPA and MOE housed the Office of the Steering Committee of National Green Schools Commendation under the Centre for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) which contained the Education Office to implement the green school project through the concerted efforts of two to three officers. Since 2001, the provincial-level and city-level green school network was gradually established and environmental protection bureaus stared to integrate the construction of green schools with other environmental protection activities (e.g., the construction of green community and ecological cities/counties) and work closely with education bureaus at local levels. All these activities have become important parts of the administrative management work of the government. In addition, the CEEC has defined national green school evaluation criteria and devised a management system for managing all green school projects. To cope with the four-tier (national, provincial/regional, city and county levels) network of green school management, many environmental protection bureaus at the provincial/ municipal city levels have established an effective management system and Green School Leadership Office for managing green schools. • Formalising the management of green school construction through: a web platform; public occasions for recognition; and workshops and seminars as to promote the sustainable development of green schools
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In 2003, the CEEC of SEPA (now MEP) published the Guide to Chin’s Green Schools, set up a framework and formalised the procedures for commending green schools at various levels. Regular training seminars and conferences on environmental education, based on appraisal through comparison, were organised to help school personnel understand the framework of green schools. In 2006, the CEEC issued the document “11−5” (the Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan) National Green School Development Planning and re-formatted the web-site on green schools (www. cgsp.cn), creating a communication and display platform for green schools. • Offering multiple forms of training on project management, teachers’ professional training and student exchange projects so as to enhance the internal development of green schools First, the quality of the teaching force has gradually improved. From 2001 to 2005, in the whole of China there were 2,450 green school leaders and teachers directly receiving training on green schools and environmental education provided by the CEEC of SEPA. More than 40,000 man-hours of training were conducted for green school principals and teachers both by the environmental protection and education bureaus at provincial and city levels. Such training activities greatly enhanced teachers’ capacity for implementing environmental education. Secondly, curriculum reform worked well together with the advocacy of green school and environmental education. In implementing a school-based curriculum, environmental protection related activities as well as environment-related themes in “integrated practices” activities tended to be dominant. Some green schools had developed unique school-based curricula with a strong environmental education orientation. Thirdly, green schools had provided exemplary examples in school campus environmental construction and school’s re-culturing. The SEPA had co-developed a project on “School campus environmental management – good housekeeper” with an introduction of a simplified version of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) institution management system into schools, that had generated positive results. Lastly, some provinces, such as Guangdong, had organised green school training and exchange activities, enhancing inter-school communication and sharing. At the international level, MEP worked with the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University in Sweden in running the project titled Young Environmental Masters and organised students to participate in the Global Youth Environmental Congress. This had extended the influence of green schools to other countries. • Setting up national and international collaboration networks, participating in related research projects so that the green school project could keep track with world trends At an international level, the CEEC of SEPA has worked with partners in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Sweden and Germany in organising academic conferences and has embarked on a number of collaborative research projects. In June 2007, China joined the FEE, the management organisation of international eco-schools. In addition, valuable findings were generated from the CEEC’s
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research project on China green school development strategies and operational management, further strengthening the theoretical foundations of green schools.
Comparisons Between Green Schools in Different Regions Green schools in China have exhibited remarkable differences because of the interactions of many of the following factors: regional differences; differences in school history; differences in the direction of school development and strategies; and differences in teachers, student intake and economic foundations. This section analyses the differences in green schools from the perspectives of regional differences, school environmental management, uniqueness of teaching and success factors.
Regional Differences in Green Schools China is a vast country with multiple races and a diversity of cultures. There are remarkable differences in the level of economic development and variations in culture and social environment. These differences are reflected in the number and quality of green schools. There was a greater number of green schools in the Eastern coastal areas (e.g., Zhejiang, Jiangxu and Guangdong) where environmental protection bureaus in provinces and cities actively promoted the internal construction and development of green schools. In the middle and western regions (e.g., Xizang, Hainan and Ningxia), where promotion of environmental protection started slowly and late, green schools of different tiers were relatively fewer in number. In 2003, the criteria for green schools in 13 provinces (and municipal cities) and those of Guangzhou (which is considered to be the most mature example as it included 28 green school indicator systems) were compared (Yang, 2003). The findings revealed the following patterns: • Imbalanced development of green schools Using a total of 28 indicators as the basis for comparison, it was found that all provinces had, on average, more than 60% of the school evaluation criteria ranging from 39.29% to 85.71%. Such a range of around 46% reflected the phenomenon of imbalanced development in different provinces and regions. In general, it appeared that the level of green school development was higher in the South than in the North; higher in the East than in the West; and higher in the more developed regions than in the less developed regions. • Different foci for green school development in various regions For the same criteria, the extent of adoption in a total of 14 provinces (including municipal cities) varied. The range of adoption for different criteria varied greatly from 14.29% to 100%. Most provinces paid attention to the infusion of environmental
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education into lessons in all subjects, the internal environmental education and communication climate and the greening of the school campus. More than 80% of the provinces placed an emphasis on the leadership team, teacher training and teaching research, complete documentation, original data and files of the green schools, environmental attitudes, environmental behaviour, number of awards, hygienic conditions and pollution control. More than half of the provinces adopted criteria related to teaching facilities and sites and financial support, organisation and management of teaching, activity lessons, practices/thematic activities/participation in community activities, thematic education as well as the impact of environmental practices on society and community. As regards green primary schools, some provinces such as Guangdong Province placed much emphasis on integrating Young Pioneers (a mass youth organisation for children) and EE. In addition, the green school criteria of Guangdong Province included a weighting of 10% for environmental awareness and environmentally friendly behaviours. Some student associations in primary schools were quite unique. For example, Honghu Road Primary School in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, joined the Hand-inhand Earth Village Organisation and started from recycling activities. The Nature Interest Group of Tingziqiao Centre Primary School in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, organised activities related to monitoring noise and water quality investigation, where students produced a large number of valuable short essays and research reports. Some primary schools, such as Wuyi Primary School in Qiaodong District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, Yubei Experimental Primary School in Chongqing City, No. 11 Primary School in Chuanying District in Jilin City, Jilin Province, and Lixin Primary School in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, have joined the GLOBE project where students learned how to observe weather and climatic changes, collect climatic data and acquired skills for discovering and solving surrounding environmental problems. • Variations in the level of development in different regions Overall, the criteria adopted in Guangdong Province and the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou were more comprehensive than other provinces, attaining more than 78% of the criteria. In the area of organisation and management, Guangdong Province and the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou reached 75%; in the area of delivery of environmental education in lessons, Zhejiang Province, Fujian Province and Shanghai reached 75%; in the area of extra-curricular activities, the cities of Guangzhou and Shanghai attained 71.4%; in terms of educational effects, the cities of Beijing and Shanghai and Guangdong Province reached 100%. These figures revealed that Guangdong Province and the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou were at a more mature stage of development than other provinces and cities. At the level of practice and implementation of environmental education in green schools, not only were there discrepancies between regions but also there were disparities or inequalities within regions and between the urban and rural areas. It was noticeable that better green school performance was found in the cities than in towns and villages. Most national level green schools in the first three batches were located in cities and towns with better economic conditions and fewer green schools were found in rural areas.
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Generally, green schools in the Eastern region had better economic support and better infrastructure but in the Western region, green school development in individual provincial cities was quite good. In addition, the development of the information (web) platform gradually became one of the key components of green schools. For example, Guangming Primary School in Chongwen District of Beijing (http://www. gmxx.com.cn/. Accessed on March 6, 2008), Nanyou Primary School in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province (http://www.sznyxx.cn/. Accessed on March 6, 2008) and Sungang Primary School in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province (http://sgxx.school. luohuedu.net/sgxx/. Accessed on March 6, 2008) have built their web-sites. Green schools in less developed regions tried to obtain equipment and teaching materials necessary for environmental education as well as to set up an environmental education (EE) resource room and an EE library section so as to provide environmental education information for teachers and students. Some green schools have become resource or mentoring schools for other schools and communities. For example, Baiyun Road Primary School in the Xicheng District of Beijing has established a garden of sustainable development education so as to provide rich environmental education learning resources for other schools and the local community in the district. In the backward area of Liaoning Province, Xibin Hope Primary School in Panshan County is a rural school for deprived children. Despite the constraints of low capital input, the staff and students have been mobilised to clean ditches, plant trees and green the school campus and students have been provided with environmental education.
Examples of Green Schools This section focuses on examples of green schools with reference to particular aspects such as school-based curricula, innovative teaching practices, and campus management. Much data for these examples were collected by the writers at firsthand and came from submission materials, direct visits and commendation activities, seminars, competitions, appraisal for selection, green school training and CEEC annual meetings among green schools. Our examples are representative of green schools that displayed unique characteristics in school-based curricula, innovative teaching practices, and/or campus management. There is no suggestion that these green schools should be seen as representing the highest quality in China.
Mini Case Studies of Green Schools with Distinct School-Based Curricula A school-based environmental education curriculum, on the one hand, meets the requirements of the new curriculum reform and, on the other hand, green schools strive to explore building their own school-based curricula so as to help enhance
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students’ lifelong sustainable development. Changpan Primary School in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, has arranged a school-based curriculum known as “Environment”, providing students with environmental knowledge on energy saving, ecological conservation, reduction of air pollution and rubbish as well as enhancing their understanding of the negative consequences of resources destruction and the urgency of protecting the environment (http://www.chinaeol.net/greenschools/zhglsxx/gd/110702.htm. Accessed on March 6, 2008). Through such a curriculum, lasting 20 sessions per term per class (25 minutes per session), it is hoped that students could cultivate their environmental consciousness and attitudes towards conserving the environment from a young age. Huanghua Primary School in the Yuexiu district of Guangzhou city has developed a set of twelve EE teaching materials from grades 1–6 known as the Sequence of Subject EE Activity Lessons and has published books entitled Green Education and Let Green Walk into Hearts. Such a school-based curriculum has equipped students with environmental science inquiry skills and has helped foster their positive environmental attitudes. Shiqiao Centre Primary School in the Panyu District of Guangzhou city has also developed a Primary School EE school-based curriculum, consisting of two parts each with eight chapters: basic knowledge of environmental protection and local environmental conditions. This curriculum was aimed at promoting students’ environmental awareness through systematic and planned guidance, practices and experience. The content focused on the natural and ecological environment with an emphasis on local climate, water resources and environmental conditions. Huanqiu Primary School in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, promoted green consumerism and has produced school-based teaching materials. The Teachers’ Handbook included such topics as commodities and consumption, consumption and environmental protection, and consumers’ rights while the Children’s Readings covered such areas as consumption and environmental protection, consumption and health, consumption and rights, with lively photographs and pictures, local examples and guidelines for social practices.
Mini Case Studies on Innovations in Teaching Practice Many green schools in China have displayed a variety of innovations in EE teaching practices and have exerted great influence on other schools in green school development. First, innovative teaching practices were linked with a variety of environmental issues. Secondly, environmental education was promoted through activities organised by the Young Pioneers. Teachers of Qingchuan Primary School in Nanning city, Guangxi Province, for example, intentionally infiltrated environmental issues into classroom teaching. In Chinese language lessons at Grade six students compared two passages, Sea of Forest and Wind, and, through the use of blackboard design, picture display and image projection, students began to understand the benefits of nature conservation to humankind and the penalties for human beings resulting from environmental degradation. This example revealed that students not only acquired knowledge
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about culture but also assimilated knowledge about environmental protection. In addition, the Young Pioneers organised a series of EE activities, ranging from an essay competition, a quiz competition, cultural arts performances, a drawing competition and a children’s song, in the “Tree Planting Festival”, “Loving Birds Week”, “Earth Day”, “World Environment Day”, and so on. Another example comes from Huaqiaocheng Primary School in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, where teachers have prepared a document Reference materials on incorporating environmental education (EE) into primary school moral education, language, nature and social studies. Teachers identified textbook passages for these four subjects which were linked with EE, confirmed the key EE concepts and provided teachers with suggested teaching strategies. The school also organized “lesson study” on “how” and “when” to introduce EE into language lessons and stipulated that the nature subject would have an EE class every month using school-based teaching materials. The Young Pioneers also organised environment-related thematic activities every term, including an environmental quiz competition, environmental publicity and small environmental performances, so that students could learn environmental knowledge, laws and regulations. Thirdly, moral education in green schools focused on environmental values education and the cultivation of environmentally friendly behaviour. Qingchuan Primary School in Nanning city, Guangxi Province, for example, issued Codes of environmental protection behaviour of Qingchuan Primary School Green “Three Words Song” of Qingchuan Primary School, “Ten Good” Norms of ecological behaviour of Qingchuan Primary School and other documents intended to arouse students’ interest in environmental protection. Shaowu Experimental Primary School in Fujian Province organised different types of EE activities, including a drawing competition, a publicity activity on environmental day, a “Watching environmental movies” competition and a “Protecting our green garden” speech competition. The student editor of the school’s campus television also produced a 20-minute environmental film. Fourthly, EE has been integrated with outdoor activities for nature appreciation. Qingxin Primary School in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, organised summer camp activities in Gulin and Hainan so that students were stimulated to develop an affection for the environment. Qingchuan Primary School organised activities to appreciate flowers in summer and fruits in autumn and then watch the green scenery in spring and the mountains in winter. Students were also asked to participate in competitions through making drawings, making mini-surveys, and writing small reports and essays as well as acting as “environmental vanguards” and “environmental messengers” to protect beautiful natural environments and spread environmental protection messages.
Examples of Green School Management Cultivation of a positive school ethos is part of the hidden curriculum of a green school where students are mobilised to participate actively in a school’s column for publicity, construction of different green slogans, cartoons and greening of walls, classrooms and the school campus.
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Nanyou Primary School in Nashan District of Shenzhen city in Guangdong Province adopted the objective of constructing an ecological educational environment to guide school development and proposed the transformation of the school into a combination of “flower garden, learning garden, e-garden, fun-filled Garden”. A plaza was built with a variety of trees and tropical forests, a big fish tank and sculptures of different marine organisms. A roof-top garden was built and the green area of the school was up to 86% of the total area. Display cards for plants, EE slogans (in Chinese and English) and publicity boards with cartoon displays were arranged. “Marine culture walls” with marine-based themes such as “marine forest” and “ocean wide and open sky” were decorated from the first to the sixth floor of the Teaching Building. Students were encouraged to use waste paper pulp to make dolphins for a city-wide competition and a team of “Golden Dolphin Brigade” was formed. Some schools adopted a whole school design approach to sustainable development. Baiyun Road Primary School in Xicheng District, Beijing, was not only a nationally Awarded Green School but also an experimental school in the UNESCO Project on Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development (known as the EPD). The school has developed codes of behaviour for students, teaching syllabuses for implementing sustainable development education through subject teaching, an ESD garden and an ESD web-site. As regards environmental protection and resource management, lower grade students were required to put out the lights, turn off the water taps and sort different types of rubbish. Upper grade students were required to become “environmental volunteers” to encourage them to participate in publicity activities in their spare time. In addition, government departments offered support in the form of activities and training for sustained improvement of green schools. Changsu Experimental Primary School in Jiangsu Province, for example, joined the project “School campus environmental management – good housekeeper” organised by SEPA, GTZ and the Heinrich-Boell Foundation. The school engaged in identifying its own problems, designing its own audit questionnaire that surveyed the management offices, general affairs, canteen and academic affairs, analysing the causes and proposing improvement measures. After achieving significant results in energy reduction, the school reported its findings to the whole staff and students. The school had also made remarkable progress in treating rubbish. In 2006, more than RMB$6000 was saved in reducing trash food in the school canteen. In addition, double-page printing helped to save more than RMB$5700 from September to November 2006.
Examples of Green Schools Providing Diversified Learning Environments for Students The provision and construction of a vivid learning environment, including both the school’s equipment and the curriculum, is one of the features of green schools. Tingziqiao Centre Primary School in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, built up a “Red
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Scarf Base” within the school and a training ground for “green soldiers”. Each class was assigned an area for protection and each team was assigned to take care of flowerbeds so that students could actively engage in school campus beautification and greenery. Students also went out to wash the traffic barrier, clean up the flowerbeds and pasture as well as to adopt some famous 100-year-old trees. These activities helped to promote “green seedlings” and EE messages to home and community.
Examples of Green Schools Building up or using Environmental Education (EE) Bases Inside and Outside the School Environmental education bases need to provide a variety of teaching materials and activities as well as to provide support for EE research activities. Baiyun Road Primary School in Beijing, under the auspices of the Western District, built up a 1,000 km2. “Sustainable Development Education Garden” in 2000. This provided a site for students and the public to engage in EE. On the school roof top, a green education centre was established, containing the following sections/zones: an Earth sculpture zone; an ecological corridor, a display area for students’ work; a water thematic room; a teachers’ working area; an activity classroom; a resource area; a knowledge display zone; an interactive display zone; and a nature corner outside the building. The school also contained water saving equipment; solar-energy lighting; rainwater collection equipment; and rubbish sorting and recycling facilities. These facilities, together with the publicity boards for environmental themes in the teaching building, also have EE functions.
External EE Bases Often Give Green Schools a New Impetus for EE Development An interesting example of a green school providing a new impetus for EE development is to be found at Longdong Primary School in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. This school worked with Guangzhou No. 89 Secondary School and the Longdong village committee to build a “Youth EE base”, involving a partnership with Guangzhou Tianlu Drinking Ltd. The base provided teachers and students with samples for water quality monitoring and testing and student training in methods for testing water quality. It also helped the school to build an environmental protection test laboratory. Some institutions have provided support to local green schools for implementing EE activities. In the Chi Feng city of Inner Mongolia, the Environmental Protection Science and Teaching Museum provided EE support to primary and secondary schools and local communities through equipment for displaying pictures, videos, computer touch screens as well as animal and plant specimens and sand tables.
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In addition, some primary schools in the Western region made good use of unique local resources for developing environmental education (EE). Ke’erle No. 1 Primary School in Xinjiang Province, for example, used the Bazhou Agricultural Institute Labour Base as a site for EE. Each spring the school used the seed sowing period to organise hiking-labour-spring trip activities. Students walked for 6 km to visit the fruit base and experimental fields of wheat and paddy rice. They helped to pollinate the seeds, prune the branches, apply fertilisers and water the crops. Through these labouring activities, they put their knowledge of agriculture into practice and appreciated difficulties in planting. The Bazhou Environmental Protection Bureau acted as an EE centre and organised, in the long term, environmental protection activities that involved student participation through the “Red Scarf Weather Observation Group” and “Nature Activities Interest Group”. “Environmental Protection Summer Camps” were organised during the summer vacation by the Bureau and, under the guidance of teachers and Bureau leaders, students were able to visit the paper making factory and water pollution plant where they were introduced to the causes and treatment of polluted water.
Examples of Green Schools Collaborating with Society, Community, Environmental Protection Bureaus, Enterprises and Families (Small Hands Joining Big Hands) A primary school is an important part of the local community and it often extends the concept of EE to the society at large, which then may affect the masses. The concept of “small hands joining big hands” has gradually gained acceptance among the green schools (Ye, 2007). Surveys from Fuyang Experimental Primary School in Zhejiang Province, as an urban school, revealed that students displayed some habits of saving resources such as turning off water taps, putting out the lights and collecting waste paper but they did not cultivate a good habit of treating uneaten food (like throwing unused food away) or saving other resources. The school developed home–school education on “saving electricity” through organising science talks, visiting power stations and issuing energy-saving agreements, leading to positive results. Xinhua Primary School in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, formed a volunteer group of parents for environmental education. The members made full use of publicity materials and a parental school to provide parents with environmental knowledge, issue environmental surveys so as to understand parents’ level of understanding of environmental issues, mobilise parents and children to use waste materials for making small products and organise parents to accompany their children as participants in environmental education activities. Through such activities, parents were encouraged to enhance their environmental awareness and cultivate positive environmental behaviour. Some parent members made use of their own advantages in offering students visits to their workplace or delivering lectures to students at school.
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Factors Affecting Successful Experiences in Green Schools Analyses of successful green schools have revealed that their successes were related to support from various sources. The following factors emerged as very important in sustaining successful green schools in China: • Building up an organised management team of the green school, which actively promotes the construction of the campus physical environment and school culture. This is one of the key green school management strategies for effective implementation of EE programmes and activities. For example, the Xinhua Primary School of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, set up a school environmental education leadership team consisting of the principal (as team leader) and leaders from the Union, Communist Party, Academic Affairs Office and General Affairs Office. • Identifying the unique features and vision of a green school is an important internal factor affecting wide recognition. How to integrate the rhetoric and practice of a green school and how to utilise fully the advantages of a school’s location and its teaching force are important directions for future green school development. For example, the Nanyou Primary School of Shenzhen adopted “Marine Education” as the special theme while the Baiyun Road Primary School promoted education for sustainable development as the direction for school development. Searching for continuous self-improvement by teachers so as to enhance teaching effectiveness is a driving force for green school success. Some teachers self-designed school-based teaching materials that were later published. This showed that the teachers had achieved certain professional growth. For example, 12 teachers from Huaping Primary School in Shanghai participated in the “Green Education Action Training Classes” orgainsed by the East China Normal University and, under their leadership, teachers of different subjects produced documents such as Incorporating green education into subject teaching project, Code of environmentally friendly student behaviour and Grade level objectives of green education. These were used for cultivating students’ environmental awareness, positive attitudes and behaviour ( http://www.chinaeol.net/greenschools/zhglsxx/ shanghai/111601.htm. Accessed on March 10, 2008). • Improving students’ environmental awareness as well as their passion and interest for environmental protection and construction. Students’ active participation in a school and community’s environmental protection activities is one of the important demonstrations of green school effectiveness. Many students from the green schools, for example, were recognised and awarded by submitting proposals for improving the surrounding environments through the Friends of Nature and China Shell’s “Better Environment” project (http://www.better-environment. net/. Accessed on March 10, 2008). • Creating a social climate of support and encouragement for a green school as well as providing recognition and care by the society for setting up a green school. The honour and sense of belonging brought to green schools is a guarantee of increasing green school development. The Baiyun Road Primary School in
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Beijing, for example, has won the Earth Prize in 2001, gaining societal recognition of a primary school contribution to environmental education. • The influence of global environmental policies and international EE development, the construction and implementation of the EE infrastructure in China as well as international green school collaboration are external driving forces for the success of green schools. Several primary schools, for example, have joined in a ChinaGermany collaborative project on school campus environmental management.
Key Factors Affecting Green School Development in the Primary Sector Despite the successes of green schools in China, there still exist many challenges and there is room for future improvement. There are several major factors contributing to green school improvement. First, the principal’s role in EE capacity building and his/ her knowledge of EE or education for sustainable development (ESD) is critical. Only when the principal realises the potentials and advantages of a green school will he/she devote additional efforts to green school development. This is why, in the past, at the national level there was an emphasis on the training of green school principals. Secondly, as regards EE/ESD capacity building, the division and centralisation of responsibilities among principals and middle managers (cadres) affects the implementation of EE policies and practices in long-term green school development. So the construction of effective green school management systems will be one of the foci of future attention. Thirdly, the receptivity of teachers towards EE/ESD at the level of practice determines whether the rhetoric of green school development would be translated into plans and implemented. Thus, whether teachers could engage in sustainable learning and professional development and provide a model for students to emulate is one of the key factors for enhancing the quality of green schools. So, more attention should be placed on providing teacher training in EE/ESD and facilitating teachers’ professional development. Fourthly, the orientation of the government in restoring regional imbalances could be a factor in affecting green school development. Some provinces, such as Zhejiang and Guangdong, have placed a high priority on green school initiation, which has become part of the assessment indicators of environmental protection. This has provided strong assurance and governmental backup for green school development. Some provinces and cities have included green schools as a basis for the appraisal for the selection of model schools (in material development and cultural and ideological progress). In the recent “11−5 planning”, green school appraisal was included as an agenda item in the construction of an ecological province. However, the influence of public examinations at the senior secondary level was still a constraint on green school development because no additional marks would be given to students in green schools.
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Finally, social recognition was an important factor. Some schools saw naming a school a green school as one way of improving a school’s image. However, some green schools have over-emphasised the pursuit for public citation and neglected internal school development. This adversely affected societal perceptions of a green school. There is a need for the government and the schools to realise the vision and sustainability of green schools in the years to come.
Problems and Prospects of Green School Development in China Despite the success of developing green schools in China, there are still challenges for long-term green school development. Chen Nan, Director of the Centre for Environmental Education at Guangzhou University, remarked that, “During the construction of green school, formalism and the trend of emphasising gains deserve attention”(Dong, 2006). The following issues have aroused concern:
Need for Formalisation and Longevity of Green School Project Management From our direct observations through field visits and training workshops and seminars in different parts of China, the organisation of environmental education activities and initiation of green schools under the direction of local government has, in some places, been characterised by the expression, “Much said, but little done ” (reflected in the Chinese saying, “Loud thunder but small raindrops”). During the development of green schools, some schools emphasised more the meeting of the criteria and coping with the procedures of appraisal and less promoting the essence of environmental education. Some frontline practitioners have expressed concern that, in their schools, the quest for commendation or having a green school badge became the means to an end rather than a search for the successful fulfilment of ends. The organisation of diversified activities during special days (e.g., the Earth Day) became formalised and reflected a spirit of performativity or signs of impression management (Ball, 1999; Lee, 2001). Once the special days were passed and people had gone away, the school became an ordinary school again, without a green label.
Need to Care About the Balanced Regional Development of Green Schools The distribution of green schools across China has revealed a serious regional imbalance: the number and quality of green schools in the Eastern region is far greater than those in the Western part. This was partly due to the lack of sufficient
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attention and funding support from the regional governments. In addition, there was a need to reinforce the collaboration of NGOs and education bureaus at the local, grass-roots level because many environmental protection workers lacked training and experience in promoting environmental education. Moreover, more publicity and communication was necessary to enhance the social awareness of green schools at different levels.
Need to Position and Enhance the Image/Brand Name and the Initiation of Green Schools There has been a need to enhance the essence of green schools by developing environmental education related projects, such as the Young Environmental Masters project and the School Campus Environmental Management – Good Housekeeper project that would attract public attention and recognition. In addition, there might be some room for integrating green school development with the senior secondary curriculum reform, which highlighted an elective module approach, through the development of a “sustainable development” module.
References Ball, S. J. (1999). Educational Reform and the Struggle for the Soul of the Teacher [Educational Policy Studies Series No. 17]. Hong Kong: Faculty of Education, Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research. Centre for Environmental Education and Communication (CEEC) of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (ed.) (2003). Guide to China’s Green Schools. Beijing: CEEC of SEPA. Dong, W-M. (2006). What Kind of Environmental Education We Need? http://news.163. com/06/0810/09/2O5H0FMA00011GHE.html. Accessed on January 2, 2008. Lee, J. C. K. (2001). Editorial: Reflections on educational reform. Journal of Basic Education, 10(2)/11(1), 3–12. [in Chinese] Yang, G. (2003). The Study on Implemental Framework of Environmental Education in China Green Schools – Based on Middle Schools by “Second National Green School Awards”. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China. [in Chinese] Ye, X-L. (2007). Small hands joining big hands, save resources together. The Green Future, 8: 32–35. [in Chinese]
Chapter 8
The Education for Sustainable Development Project in Hong Kong John Chi-Kin Lee, Wing-Po Lam and Michael Williams
In Hong Kong, the Chief Executive made it clear in his 1999 Policy Address our endeavour to building Hong Kong into a world-class city and making Hong Kong a clean, comfortable and pleasant home would require a fundamental change of mindset. Every citizen, every business, every Government Department and Bureau needs to start working in partnership to achieve sustainable development. (Council for Sustainable Development, 2008)
The familiar stereotype of Hong Kong portrays a busy commercial harbour surrounded by serried ranks of skyscrapers. The predominant streetscape comprises very tall buildings, congested traffic and crowded pavements. However, outside the densely populated urban areas there are areas of natural conservation seen in the varied landscapes of the numerous islands, mountains and coastlines. Environmentally, Hong Kong experiences many difficult challenges. The air pollution in downtown areas, the water pollution throughout the commercial harbours and the noise pollution in residential areas are obvious even to the casual visitor. Sustaining commercial and industrial development while providing a good quality of life for residents and an attractive environment for tourists is high on the political agenda. Curbing the excesses of commercial expansion and residential growth is difficult in a society that prides itself on its entrepreneurial spirit and its thrust to sustain a dominant position in commerce and trade in South-East Asia.
J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] W-P. Lam Centre for University and School Partnership, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong M. Williams Swansea University, Wales, UK
J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_8, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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While Hong Kong has implemented a wide range of measures to improve its urban and natural environments, including country parks and marine parks, it has been unable to control the environmental pressures emanating from the adjoining mainland, and especially the rapidly growing urban complex of Shenzhen. It is against this backcloth that one needs to reflect on educational initiatives associated with education for sustainable development. In 2003–2004, the Education for Sustainable Development Project (ESD project) was one of eight projects funded by the Sustainable Development Fund in Hong Kong. This chapter provides an overview of this project. The Project was designed to: • Develop web-based teaching and learning resources to support the school-based curriculum development framework for sustainable development education proposed by the Curriculum Development Institute of the Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau (now called the Education Bureau) • Heighten the awareness and increase the knowledge of teachers, students, parents and community helpers on issues related to sustainable development education • And empower primary school students in community problem solving and environmental improvement Important innovative features of this project included: collaboration through school-university partnerships; sophisticated awareness arousal for different stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, community helpers); and the design, creation and provision of new resources and training. We shall trace the development of this innovative project, highlighting its successes and discussing possible areas of improvement.
Curriculum Context This Project should be seen in the context of changes in the guidance on environmental education provided to schools by official sources. In 1992, the Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council (CDC) issued the Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools in which it was suggested that environmental education should be implemented through a cross-curricular, whole-school approach (CDC, 1992). Revised Guidelines were published in 1999 (CDC, 1999) and since then the Hong Kong government has started to play a more active role in promoting environmental education, and, more particularly, education for sustainable development. In the meanwhile, since 1995 the Environmental Campaign Committee has organised the Student Environmental Protection Ambassador Scheme, aimed at involving young people and children in green activities, including community work. In 2000, the Environmental Campaign Committee, the Environmental Protection Department and the Education Department combined to introduce the Hong Kong Green School Award. This was intended to promote comprehensive green management in primary and secondary schools. Schools have been encouraged to devise and implement
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school environmental policies, to promote whole-school environmental education and to develop a green culture. In the Environmental Report 2003 (EMB, 2003) the Education and Manpower Bureau recorded a number of initiatives that it had undertaken in order to promote environmental education in schools including: • Issuing the Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools (CDC, 1992, 1999) • Setting up Environmental Resource Corners in Education Resources Centres • Producing multi-media packages and educational television programmes on environmental education • Organising school events on environmental education together with various government departments and green groups • Incorporating appropriate environmental education elements in school syllabuses at all levels and updating curriculum guides and exemplars to assist schools in planning their environmental education programmes • Publishing a reference handbook: Teacher Handbook on Sustainable Development Education for Primary Schools (CDI, 2002) The Teacher Handbook proposed a school-based curriculum framework with the following seven domains for Primary 1 to Primary 6 classes: • • • • • • •
Interdependence Citizenship and stewardship Needs and rights of future generations Diversity Quality of life, equity and justice Sustainable change Precaution in action
The Project also took into account the current state of research into education for sustainable development and policy changes taking place in various parts of the world, especially the English-speaking world. Thus, the shift from environmental education (as being education about, through and for the environment) to education for sustainable development (with attention given to environment, economy and equity, sometimes referred to as nature, economy and society) lay at the heart of the Project.
Project Organisation The Project aimed to be policy relevant, based on firm theoretical foundations, student-centred and focused on the articulated curricular and staff development needs of the Project schools. Information about the Project was distributed widely to primary schools in Hong Kong. Those expressing an interest in the Project were invited to send representatives to orientation sessions organised by the Project Team based at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The two orientation sessions held in 2004 resulted in 25 primary schools joining the Project as Project Schools, with a further 24 joining as Associate Schools. Each Project School was required to pay
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a participation fee, while project participation was free for the Associate Schools. Teachers from the Associate Schools could enrol in teacher workshops held at the university but students and parents did not have the privilege of engaging in the training workshops, visits and online learning activities. School support was only provided for the Project Schools. The Project was designed to last for 20 months, giving the Project Schools sufficient time and flexibility to develop and implement their own school-based curricula within a time period appropriate for their planning calendar. Moreover, given that education for sustainable development appeared initially to be a rather confusing concept for teachers in most schools, it was desirable for teachers to comprehend the conceptual framework of sustainable development before attempting to incorporate it into their own school-based curriculum. A briefing session was organised for principals and curriculum leaders in the Project Schools and Associate Schools in late August 2004. This was intended to give schools the opportunity to integrate education for sustainable development into their curriculum plans in the upcoming school year. Apart from laying out the overall Project plan over the 20-month time frame, the meeting served the purpose of Project staff learning more about the initial intentions of schools regarding the way they intended to incorporate the perspectives of sustainable development into their main curriculum initiatives. This exchange of ideas helped in building a consensus as the foundation for modifying topics. It also provided information about the training schedules organised for teachers, students, and parents. As in environmental education, education for sustainable development was not seen as the sole territory of that part of the primary school curriculum in Hong Kong referred to as General Studies. In official curriculum documents this is designated one of the Key Learning Areas (KLAs) (CDI, 2002). It was anticipated that teachers of General Studies would usually carry responsibility for the necessary curriculum co-ordination. Each Project School was asked to form a core team of ten teachers drawn from various KLAs. Since parents had an active part to play in school management and curriculum matters, Project Schools were encouraged to use their parent–teacher associations to publicise the Project’s parent training sessions on sustainable development.
Project Objectives and How These Were Met As noted above, the Project had three objectives. Given the budget constraints of the Project and the number of participating schools, it was considered that the building of a resource base on the web would be the most cost-effective way of sharing Project deliverables with teachers, students and parents. The Project website (http://esd.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/) was launched in October 2004. Since it took time for the Project Team and the schools to design teaching and learning materials, at the time of the project launch the online materials were limited to a general introduction to education for sustainable development. The Project Team was
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aware that many local and overseas institutions were actively engaged in various aspects of sustainable development. Links to the principal organisations were embedded in the Project web pages to help teachers access information about the concept. As the planning and running of the training sessions for teachers, students and parents was undertaken, the training materials and illustrative approaches to education for sustainable development were uploaded to the web. These included the presentations made by Project Team members and guest speakers from universities, schools and the Education and Manpower Bureau. Apart from materials conveying the general principles of incorporating sustainable development into the school-based curriculum, the Project Team was aware that some teachers were looking for specific materials, such as worksheets for students. The Project Team conducted field study visits to Tai Ho coastal nature area and the Ping Shan heritage trail for student leaders for the Project Schools from March 2005 to June 2005. A visit to the Endangered Species Centre managed by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department was also conducted from October 2005 to November 2005 for student leaders from the Project Schools. Worksheets for these visits were designed within a framework that sought to encourage students to consider the inter-relationships between nature, society and economy. Such ready-to-use, hands-on materials were uploaded to the Project website so that teachers would be able to make appropriate adaptations should they have the opportunity to conduct similar visits. To expose students to the elements of education for sustainable development over a long period, a series of 12 episodes of learning activities was designed and uploaded on the web from December 2005 to February 2006 (with a short break during the summer months of 2005). These episodes focused on daily living and current local and global issues. The materials were planned to broaden students’ perspectives, while at the same time drawing the attention of teachers to the underlying concerns with nature, society and economy in daily living. Though some schools made an early start in incorporating education for sustainable development into their school-based curriculum, the majority took time for teachers to reflect on what they had learned in the training sessions before initiating relevant changes. School-based and school-generated materials were collected from schools towards the closing months of the Project. These materials, which signified the extent to which teachers and students had internalised the conceptual framework of education for sustainable development, were uploaded as web resources for sharing experience towards the end of July 2006. To facilitate a clear understanding of what had been achieved and what could be achieved, the Project Team added introductory, explanatory commentaries to these curriculum plans. The plans, together with the commentaries from the Project Team, were uploaded to the web as a downloadable e-publication. As mentioned earlier, sustainable development is an abstract term, difficult to conceptualise on the first encounter. In general the target trainees were more comfortable with the familiar term environmental education. Some of the Project Schools had been actively engaged in environmental education in both formal and informal curricula. Some had won the Certificate of Merit of the Hong Kong Green
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School Award, jointly organised by the Environmental Campaign Committee, the Environmental Protection Department and the Education Department (see http:// www.ecc.org.hk/english/core/core_detail_list.php?catid = 29). Environmental learning activities in schools tended to focus on enhancing the quality of nature. For instance, Saving Our Trees and Saving the Forests were common slogans for projects where teachers and students engaged in such activities as using less paper or taking part in tree planting campaigns. However, the economic factors underlying the wastage of paper were rarely touched upon. Likewise, the implications of paper saving for the welfare of indigenous people were rarely included in teaching and learning programmes. To heighten the awareness and knowledge of the teachers, the Project Team did not start from scratch by introducing concepts that were entirely unfamiliar. Instead, the common themes in the existing curriculum were used as examples to illustrate how a theme could be treated more holistically, encompassing the perspectives, of environment, economy and society. For instance, in the much-publicised Hong Kong public transport exchange programme which encourages people to change to other routes of public transport from certain locations instead of operating many point-to-point routes, people tended to look merely at the money saving aspects. To give the teachers a deeper understanding of the multi-purpose aspects of this programme, data from the sustainability reports of the bus company were extracted and presented diagrammatically to indicate that, apart from money saving, the programme aimed at reducing air pollution in the central business district and providing better bus services for less well-off social groups in more remote areas of the city (see Fig. 8.1).
Fig. 8.1 Transport from a sustainable development perspective
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Likewise, familiar topics were revisited to assist teachers in understanding how a conventional topic could be taught within a sustainable development framework. For example, “Resources” was a typical topic studied in environmental studies. Usually, teachers defined resources very narrowly, restricting their definitions to tangible things such as fuel or crops. In the training sessions, the Project Team introduced a broader perception of resources in the form of less tangible natural phenomena, such as the water cycle, as well as social and economic resources. Teachers were encouraged to understand that the three categories of resources had to be brought together coherently to sustain the wellbeing of humans and the Earth (see Fig. 8.2). In recent years project-based learning has become a popular tool for teaching and learning in Hong Kong. In the training sessions and online learning activities the focus was on problems both in a school’s local community and in other parts of the city. Exercises in training sessions concluded with tasks where students had to justify a decision leading to the resolution of a problem. The Project Team tried to make use of tangible and current issues such as non-biodegradable lunch boxes and sustainable fishing. These exercises were aimed at exposing students to the pros and cons of the choices they made in the process of problem-solving. They had to think about issues in order to make a better choice in improving the environment, while not disregarding the economy and the livelihood and rights of the people affected. In reviewing school-based curriculum plans, a similar approach was used. For instance, one school organised a project on how noise pollution was affecting schools in a neighbouring housing estate. In another school the students ran an experimental tuck shop. In both cases, students defined a problem, went into the community to gather data and proposed solutions. Moreover, students running the tuck shop were interested in the profitability of small businesses while at the same
Fig. 8.2 Capital viewed from a sustainable development perspective (http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/index.html. Accessed on April 21, 2008)
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time being concerned about the impact on the environment and the health of their peers of their choice of food items to be sold. Between March and April 2005 the Project Team organised whole-day workshops and field excursions for ten student leaders from each Project school to enrich their concept of, and knowledge about, sustainable development. Students were presented with a dilemma involving the conflicting interests relating to environmental quality, economic development and social links in either the Tai Ho coastal nature area or the Ping Shan heritage trail. Assisted by community helpers, student leaders were required to find a resolution that took into account the three aspects lying at the heart of sustainable development. It is important to note that, in addition to the students and Project Team members, teachers and community helpers participated in the field excursions. The excursions provided an interesting staff development opportunity for the teachers. The community helpers were eight students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, currently active in environmental activities who had been inducted by the Project Team into thinking about sustainable development and had been carefully prepared for assisting the excursions.
Project Deliverables Both the Project Team and the participating Project Schools produced deliverables. To prepare teachers, students and parents for the inclusion of sustainable development perspectives into teaching and learning, the Project Team ran training sessions for large groups in the early stage of the Project. Over the 20-month Project period individual schools developed and put into practice school-based curriculuminnovations that included elements of sustainable development.
Teacher Training Altogether there were six teacher training sessions: • • • • • •
Introducing sustainable development Implementing education for sustainable development Incorporating sustainable development into learning about “Food” Incorporating sustainable development into learning about “Shelter” Incorporating sustainable development into learning about “Clothing” Incorporating sustainable development into learning about “Transport”
The first session was aimed at providing the core group teachers with the conceptual framework of sustainable development and the way it is similar to and different from the kind of environmental education that most schools had been practising. The second session focused on the way sustainable development could be introduced in KLAs other than General Studies, which many teachers treated as the
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obvious location to put it into practice. The remaining four workshops were dedicated to illustrating curriculum topics closely related to daily living (clothing, food, shelter and transport) where sustainable development could be incorporated. During these sessions guest speakers from local and overseas universities, the Education and Manpower Bureau, and award winning green schools shared their expertise on how they conceptualised and promoted sustainable development. In two of these sessions, schools that had already launched successful programmes of education for sustainable development were invited to share their experience in incorporating sustainable development into their school-based curriculum. The series of six teacher-training sessions was formally evaluated (see Table 8.1). Teachers were asked by the Project Team to respond to a short questionnaire of five items focusing on the impact of the training on their broad understanding of sustainable development. This survey was conducted twice during the first and the last training sessions organised in October 2004 and February 2005 respectively. The results were positive, reflecting a rise in the level of agreement on their better understanding of the three perspectives of sustainable development. Generally, teachers understood better “that sustainable development aims at understanding the relationship and balancing the interest among the environment, the economy and the society”.
Table 8.1 Findings from a questionnaire survey conducted in the teacher workshops (After the series of teacher workshops, the views of teachers on the statements below were as follows (on a scale of 1–5 with 1 indicating “strongly disagree” and 5 indicating “strongly agree”)):
Q1. I understand that sustainable development is a lifestyle “that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Q2. I understand that to attain sustainable development, we have to protect the environment and co-ordinate to conserve our common resources. Q3. I understand that to attain sustainable development, we have to respect the link between the individual and the community, and give regard to the education, skills and health of citizens. Q4. I understand that to attain sustainable development, we have to maintain a good quality financial system and infrastructure, and to develop a solid economy. Q5. I understand that sustainable development aims at understanding the relationship between and balancing the interest among the environment, the economy and the society.
First workshop (respondents = 253)
Sixth workshop (respondents = 148)
3.83
4.29
3.85
4.35
3.54
4.15
3.65
3.84
3.55
4.17
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Parent Training Parents have important roles to play in student learning activities, such as “story telling mom”, and they may also participate in school administration, for example, tendering for the tuck shop and providing lunch. Four repeated workshops were arranged to discuss with them how sustainable development could be integrated into their existing tasks. The themes of the workshops were: • • • •
Introducing sustainable development Role of the Parent–Teacher Association Story telling mom Tips for implementing sustainable development at home
Parents were offered advice on how to make their home living more sustainable.
Community Helpers Training Eight university student helpers, actively involved in green activities were recruited. In early October 2004 a briefing session was conducted for them where they learned about the basics of sustainable development and about their roles in the workshops and field excursions undertaken in March and April 2005 and the visit to the Endangered Species Centre. These helpers also participated in the marking of the open-ended online responses of the primary students in resolving the issues in the 12 episodes of online learning activities.
Student Leaders’ Workshop and Visits To enrich further these student leaders’ concepts of sustainable development, visits were organised for them to the Endangered Species Centre of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department on a Saturday morning in the first term of the 2005–2006 school year. The programme there included a talk given by the officer of the Department, a guided tour of the displays, a quiz and a discussion conducted by Project Team members. All of these activities were aimed at bringing the three dimensions to the fore in resolving dilemmas encountered in attempting to conserve endangered species. Worksheets had been prepared by the Project Team to structure the learning of the participants and an example of such a worksheet is shown in Table 8.2.
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Table 8.2 Excerpt from a visit worksheet A. Environment and economy 1. Corals are economically beneficial to the tropical pet fish industry, but the corals need to be conserved. How can a balance be achieved between coral conservation and the industry? 2. If your father needs to sell crocodile products for a living, but the crocodile is endangered, should your father sell crocodile products? B. Environment and society 1. Rhinoceros horns are said to cure “non-curable” diseases. Should we conserve the rhinos or kill them? Is a human life more important than the existence of a species? 2. People love to keep wild orchids as pot plants. Is there any method to conserve the wild orchid and at the same time let people plant it? C. Society and economy 1. How is the economy of the countries producing ivory affected by elephant conservation? How can the problems facing the livelihood of ivory production industry be solved? 2. Sashimi is important in the culture of Japan. Whale hunting is an important income of local fish markets. Should Japan conserve the whales? 3. Villagers in Brazil depend on catching wild parrots for a living. These parrots will be sold to Europe and America. How can parrots be conserved, while at the same time solving the problems of poverty of Brazilian villagers?
Project Web This was a major Project deliverable. At the outset, the web was perceived both as a teaching and learning resource base and as an administrative platform for conducting surveys and disseminating news about forthcoming activities. However, on reflection, the Project Team envisaged the site as a useful platform to launch regular online learning activities for students. Because of the scale and manpower constraints of the Project, each school could only send ten student leaders to take part in the group training sessions. The web offered a cost-effective way for organising activities for those students not selected for the training sessions. The Project Team saw education for sustainable development as a useful vehicle, or a tool, to facilitate current educational reforms in Hong Kong. As part of the reforms, students were expected to become more critically minded and their thinking skills were to be developed. The design of the online learning activity was aligned with these ideas. Instead of just having a traditional quiz with pre-set answers, students were given open-ended items to express more comprehensively what they thought about controversial sustainable issues. Figure 8.3 provides an example of the kind of learning resource used in the Project.
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Fig. 8.3 Sample online learning activity
They were presented with a dilemma to think about and were encouraged to work out resolutions that took into account the wellbeing of the natural environment, social harmony and economic development. Though it was unlikely that students at this age could come up with a perfect resolution, the themes and the quizzes helped students develop more holistic views about “hot” current issues. Moreover, the Project Team perceived the web learning as not merely a unidirectional quiz for the students. The interactive and multimedia capabilities of the web were utilised to bring together data. At the end of each month the selected views of students on the issue resolution were compiled and the concluding remarks
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from the Project Team and students’ interviews were broadcast as a web video so that students learned what their peers were thinking about regarding the same issue. The online learning activities did not consist of unrelated, independent items (Table 8.3). The first four episodes were aligned with the four themes of the teacher training sessions. Such an arrangement was intended to show teachers how a theme such as food could mesh together the elements of environment, society and economy. The other themes were related to current issues familiar to the students such as sustainable fishing and green Christmas. Structurally, the themes were arranged to introduce the students initially to issues related to daily living, such as food and shelter. Students were then led to think about more global issues or events such as the World Village, Disneyland and the World Expo 2006. Some schools included the views of their students in their self-evaluation (see Table 8.4). This is an example of the feedback of a Primary 5 student regarding the 12 episodes of the online learning activity: When I did the online exercises, I found that the themes were wide ranging. Each theme is meaningful in its own right. This enables students to think from different perspectives, and help students understand what sustainable development is…Sustainability means long lasting. We must work hand in hand to achieve sustainable development.
On-Site Support for Teachers and Students As schools were expected to work out how sustainable development could be incorporated into their own teaching units, there were contacts between members of the Project Team and teachers in the schools over the telephone and by email from the start of the Project. From January 2005 visits were made to schools to discuss with teachers ways of implementing teaching and learning activities in the context of sustainable development. Talks and visits were arranged in schools for students to Table 8.3 Web learning activities Theme Food: Non-degradable lunch box Shelter: Hung Hom Bay Peninsula Clothing: New clothing in Lunar New Year Transport: Accessibility for disabled passengers and interchange programme Primary production: Sustainable fishing in Hong Kong Technologyand environment: EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan Climatic change: Saving energy Endangered species Hong Kong Disneyland Green Christmas Service learning World village
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Table 8.4 Self-reflection of students from a project school about education for sustainable development 1. What did I learn about “sustainable development”? a. When I was doing the online learning activities, I discovered that the questions have great variety which can let students think from different perspectives. Every activity is meaningful and can let students understand what is sustainable development. I personally understand more about the concept of sustainable development, e.g., I can distinguish what is sustainable and what is not sustainable. Like crude oil, which is non-renewable, is nonsustainable. Sustainable is what can be continued. Other than protect the environment, we have to work together for sustainable development. b. I learned a lot about environmental protection, the needs of protecting the natural environment and the species that are nearly extinct. c. [I] learned that if humans do not use wisely and treasure the natural resources, they will soon be used up. So if we do not protect them, we may face the crisis of resource shortage. d. I hope I can utilise the knowledge I learn, using what I learned, including those learned from the online activities, in my life, e.g., do not trash, protect the environment, do not use plastic lunch boxes. We need to know this knowledge. e. Through this project, I understand what sustainable development is. Education for Sustainable Development in Primary School aims to prepare for our future generation. The natural resources on earth will be used up one day. The Project is to teach us how to keep our earth sustainable. We need our earth. If we don’t protect the environment, the earth will perish. f. I learned the importance of sustainable development, and I know the status of the earth now, so we need to cherish the natural resources. If we don’t cherish the resources, the earth will soon perish and that will greatly affect us. We have rich natural resources, we should protect them as soon as possible. g. [The Project] makes me know the situation of the earth and the problem of energy shortage, these make me love and cherish [them]. 2. How should I apply what I learned in my daily life? a. I can reduce paper use, to protect the environment and let the trees grow. I can use more public transport instead of private vehicles to reduce the production of air pollutants. b. I will use both sides of paper, put trash in the rubbish bin, use towels and use less tissue paper, and donate the reusable stuff to families and friends. c. For example, put the recyclable materials in recycle bins, use less disposable chopsticks, lunch box, etc. Do not waste water. Try my best not to waste anything and reuse them. d. I will apply the knowledge I learn to my daily life; learn how to reuse; separate recyclable wastes; do not pollute the environment; and keep our earth clean, do not pollute her and love the earth. e. If leaving a room and there’s no one there, I will switch off the light. We can put waste paper in the recycle bin. We can use less Christmas cards at Christmas time, we can replace them by sending parcels. f. We need to protect the environment, do not waste food. We need to apply it in our daily lives and share it with our schoolmates, teach them to protect the environment. g. I need to remind my mother to bring her own bag when going out. If it is not necessary, do not turn on the air-conditioner to prevent energy waste.
facilitate their learning about sustainable development. The talks were aimed at widening the perspectives of students in their daily lives so that they could broaden and deepen their investigations within project-based learning.
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Work Undertaken by Project Schools To help the Project evaluate the activities organised by Project Schools, the schools were invited to submit curriculum materials that they had designed during the Project period and to give their own views on what they had accomplished. Their data showed that the implementation of education for sustainable development had a wide coverage across KLAs. Though General Studies was still assumed to be the key area for implementation, other KLAs also came into play. For instance, at one school the topic of “Shape” taught in Primary 2 mathematics concluded with a question about the shapes of “waste” items that were most suitable for turning into useful goods for re-use. A student came up with a suggestion for re-using a cylindrical milk powder can as a compact disc container. At another school, organic farming, normally treated as a science topic, was integrated with social services. The students, apart from learning about nature, donated farm products to underprivileged aged people. This interaction led these young students to an understanding of the life of other social groups in the community. Examples of student work were collected by the Project Team from schools and these were reviewed to see if students had tried to incorporate broader perspectives into their learning. For instance, the usual treatment of clothing in the primary school as presented in textbooks was about clothing materials, clothing styles around the world and the right clothing to wear to make one feel comfortable in different seasons. On examining the curriculum plans of teachers and the work of students, it was observed that teachers tried to give a new treatment to this topic. This included the impact of clothing choice on the survival of endangered species and the social and economic implications of used clothing collections for the community. Students also showed in their mind maps that they were thinking more broadly about the issue in breaking away from their own personal comfort and a concern with the trendiness of their clothing (see Fig. 8.4).
Online Evaluation With the exception of the series of teacher training sessions, the Project did not set out to evaluate deliverables one by one, as this would drain too much time from the Project Team and the schools. To have an overall evaluation of the Project, online surveys were conducted for teachers and students. The first one was administered in October 2004 before the commencement of the series of teacher training sessions. The second was conducted in April 2006 after the Project came to an end. The survey was targeted at all the teachers while the student survey was limited to those classes in which schools incorporated the sustainability perspectives into their curricula. The teacher survey was adapted from the UNESCO teaching training package (UNESCO, 2005), aimed at looking at the state of the sustainability element with
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Fig. 8.4 A sample student mind map on clothing
reference to four aspects: the formal curriculum, social sustainability, ecological sustainability and economic sustainability(see Table 8.5). A questionnaire for the students consisting of 15 statements was used to obtain the attitudes and views of students on the state of the planet (Cyber School Bus, undated) (see Table 8.6). Unlike the questionnaire for teachers, an increasing level of disagreement for some of these statements would reflect a more desirable point of view. The survey aimed at evaluating whether there was a change in perception of students on personal responsibility, relationship with the natural environment, ways to face dilemmas in view of human needs and the wellbeing of the environment, etc. Apart from detecting the state of mind of the students, the survey also served as a platform for teachers to organise discussions for students to draw their attention to the varying positions of their peers and to justify the stance they held for each of the statements. On the whole, students seemed to subscribe more to caring attitudes towards nature, as indicated in statements such as, “People have a responsibility to protect all life forms on Earth” and, “The fate of the human race is tied to the fate of other living things; if people are to survive, we must protect all species and their habitats”. On the other hand, students were becoming less anthropocentric as reflected in their greater
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Table 8.5 Findings from an online survey on the perception of teachers from project schools towards the State of Education for Sustainability at their schools (Scale of: excellent (4), good (3), fair (2), and poor (1))
The formal curriculum 1. There is a written policy that clearly states the aims and objectives of education for a sustainable future. 2. There is effective co-ordination of education for a sustainable future as a cross-curricular theme. 3. We take every opportunity to introduce issues of sustainability for all grades. 4. We have a good supply of teaching materials on issues of sustainability for all grades. 5. We regularly evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching about sustainability. Average score Social sustainability 1. The prevailing ethos of the school and the curriculum is sensitive to issues of gender equity. 2. The prevailing ethos of the school and the curriculum adequately prepares the students for life in a multicultural society. 3. The prevailing ethos of the school and the curriculum adequately prepares students for life as citizens of a global community. 4. The special needs of all students, especially those with physical or learning disabilities, are catered for. 5. All staff are skilled in conflict resolution strategies as a support for positive student behaviour. Average score Ecological sustainability 1. The school uses recycled materials whenever possible and has an active and comprehensive recycling policy. 2. The school actively promotes and practices energy efficiency. 3. The school purchases and uses resources with a view to minimising harm to the planet. 4. School buildings and surroundings provide an aesthetically pleasing environment in which to live and learn. 5. The school actively promotes attitudes of care and responsibilities for nature. Average score
Oct 2004 (n = 632) mean
Apr 2006 (n = 283) mean
2.64
2.81
2.73
2.73
2.76
2.80
2.59
2.63
2.50
2.51
2.64
2.70
2.49
2.47
2.77
2.76
2.56
2.60
2.96
3.07
2.78
2.79
2.71
2.74
2.57
2.77
2.54
2.77
2.42
2.51
2.92
3.01
2.79
2.89
2.65
2.79
Economic sustainability A spirit of co-operation and sharing - not competition - is 2.87 modelled in the allocation of resources in the school. Students learn small business skills through opportunities to 2.03 organise school and community projects.
2.77 2.11 (continued)
Table 8.5 (continued)
Students have opportunities to participate in decisions about how resources are allocated in the school. A culture of maintenance ensures that all school buildings and equipment are kept in good repair and maintained in good condition. The school’s fund-raising activities reflect ethical principles. Average score
Oct 2004 (n = 632) mean
Apr 2006 (n = 283) mean
1.89
2.11
2.63
2.68
2.57 2.40
2.59 2.45
Table 8.6 Findings from an online survey of children’s perceptions of sustainable development issues (Students were instructed to rank each statement on a scale of 1–10 from the strongest disagreement of “1” to strongest agreement of “10”) Sustainable development issues A. Natural resources should not be left untapped if using them could improve living conditions for a group of people. B. It is important for people to preserve wilderness areas even if a vast majority of people will never visit them. C. The world’s natural resources exist for people to use. Preserving these resources as wilderness is a luxury we often cannot afford. D. Environmental degradation is the biggest problem facing humanity today. E. People will eventually develop new technologies to cope with environmental problems. F. People have a responsibility to protect all life forms on Earth. G. Protecting a country’s natural resources and natural heritage is primarily the government’s responsibility. H. The government is doing a good job of protecting your country’s environment. I. Recycling is the most important thing people can do to help improve the environment. J. People should be able to use their own land (i.e. farming, housing, logging, wildlife habitat) in whatever way they see fit. K. All people have a legal right to clean air and water. L. When a dilemma arises between protecting wildlife and protecting jobs for people, we should consider the needs of people first. M. The fate of the human race is tied to the fate of other living things; if people are to survive, we must protect all species and their habitats. N. Human overpopulation is the single greatest factor contributing to Earth’s environmental problems. O. The laws the government has passed to control pollution are sufficient to ensure safe air and water for future generations.
Oct 2004 (n = 3,501) mean
April 2006 (n = 1,610) mean
6.66
6.72
8.30
8.49
5.79
5.43
7.55
7.77
6.04
5.67
8.28
8.59
6.25
5.89
5.46
5.43
7.39
7.24
5.67
5.04
7.66 6.39
7.65 5.90
7.10
7.23
6.67
6.81
6.02
5.54
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reservation on statements such as, “People should be able to use their own land [i.e. farming, housing, logging, wildlife habitat] in whatever way they see fit” and, “The world’s natural resources exist for people to use. Preserving these resources as wilderness is a luxury we often cannot afford”. They also thought that technology alone might not be the ultimate solution as reflected in their greater disagreement with the statement, “People will eventually develop new technologies to cope with environmental problems”. The results were encouraging since they showed students considered that it took more than environmental science to solve environmental problems. Teachers could reflect on these views and guide students to look at the state of the planet from those social and economic perspectives that have important roles to play in finding solutions to problems.
Concluding Remarks: Reflections on the ESD Project The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) project could be considered as a pioneering endeavour in promoting the concept of sustainable development in Hong Kong primary schools. In retrospect, this project has generated some positive results and valuable deliverables. Nonetheless, the project could be further improved in the following aspects. For ESD, three perspectives, namely knowledge, needs of society/capability and critical enquiry are necessary. As regards the knowledge perspective, while the project addressed education for sustainable development, the seven domains (e.g., interdependence, citizenship and stewardship, needs and rights of future generations, diversity, quality of life, equity and justice, sustainable change, precaution in action) were not adequately and comprehensively dealt with in the Project or in the school-based curricula of Project schools. Part of the reason is related to the constraint of the existing primary school curriculum, which may not contain sufficient contents relevant to the concepts and issues of sustainable development. Another limitation is that, while autonomy is given to schools to promote ESD, some Project schools implemented short-lived, extra-curricular environmental education activities. In future, similar projects may consider the production of modules or supplementary teaching materials related to ESD so that teachers and schools could adapt and incorporate them into their teaching practices. It appeared that ESD Project schools tended to pay more attention to the perspective of the needs of society, which were concerned with recycling schemes, tree planting, green consumerism as well as posters and litter campaigns (Symons, 1996). Less emphasis, however, was given by the Project schools to critical enquiry, which was related to critically examining alternative solutions to environmental issues. As shown by Table 8.5, the items of “Students learn small business skills through opportunities to organize school and community projects” and “Students have opportunities to participate in decisions about how resources are allocated in the school” scored relatively low (2.11 out of a maximum score of 4 for the April 2006 survey). Such low scores suggested that more attention should be given to student
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empowerment in school’s environmental decision-making. There are many good examples of students’ participation in action research or action learning, partnershipwith adults in community-based planning and even involvement of public awareness and political action, which provide insights for future practices (Hart, 1997). Enhancing teacher’s knowledge and skills in ESD remains an important issue as sustainable development is an abstract and complicated concept and ESD comprises different strategies and approaches. Similar projects in future should be allocated more financial resources and manpower for providing systematic training in ESD for teachers. If conditions and resources allow, future ESD endeavours could try out the school-focused continuous professional development (CPD) approach, which comprises the following elements: substantive, theoretical, contextual, case study, personal and experiential (Shallcross, 2006: 78). Maintaining the Project schools as a partnership network after the completion of the ESD project is desirable but necessitates not only continuous funding support but also commitment from schools to share their experiences and offer mutual support. Nonetheless, the Sustainable Development Fund, like many funding agencies, tends to support one-off innovations. It is thus desirable for the government bureaus to provide steady and regular support to these schools so that the efforts could be sustained and consolidated.
References Council for Sustainable Development (2008). What is Sustainable Development.http://www.susdev.gov.hk/html/en/sd/index.htm. Accessed on April 21, 2008. Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Education Department (1992). Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department. Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Education Department (1999). Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department. Curriculum Development Institute (CDI), Education Department (2002). Teacher Handbook on Sustainable Development Education for Primary Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department [in Chinese]. Cyber School Bus (undated). Suggested Activities for Students. http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/briefing/climate/ccactivities.htm. Accessed on April 21, 2008. Education and Manpower Bureau (2003). Environmental Report 2003. Hong Kong: Education and Manpower Bureau. Hart, R. A. (1997). Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. London, UK: Earthscan Publications. Shallcross, T. (2006). Change, action and school-focused professional development. In T. Shallcross, J. Robinson, P. Pace, and A. Wals (eds.), Creating Sustainable Environments in Our School (pp. 61–81). Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham Books. Symons,G. (1996). The primary years. In J. Huckle, and S.Sterling, (eds.), Education for Sustainability (pp. 55–71) . London, UK: Earthscan Publications. UNESCO (2005). Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future – A Multimedia Teacher Education Programme. http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/index.htm. Accessed on April 1, 2008.
Chapter 9
Case Studies from the Education for Sustainable Development Project in Hong Kong John Chi-Kin Lee, Michael Williams and Wing-Po Lam
In the previous chapter we described the organisation and implementation of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project in Hong Kong. There was a variety of school-based curricula in the Project with schools attempting to implement environmental education or education for sustainable development in their own school settings. There were variations in the timing of initiating changes, the time span of implementation, and in the involvement of various Key Learning Areas (KLAs). We observed that there were both less successful and more successful strategies which are outlined below.
Less Successful Strategies Education for sustainable development was not necessarily perceived as the topranking item in the school curriculum agenda. Further, it was not the only theme to link up different grade levels and KLAs. The focus of schools varied from year to year. In any one year it might be reading to learn or civic education. In other years it might be information technology in education or project-based learning which were key tasks of the curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Some schools might perceive education for sustainable development as yet another choice in themes that teachers might use for cross-curricular learning or thematic teaching. In other words, it had a status equivalent to such themes as moral education, J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] M. Williams Swansea University, Wales, UK W-P. Lam Centre for University and School Partnership, Faculty of Education The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_9, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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national education and sex education. These topics were then treated as the common cross-curricular theme on which all subject disciplines were to hang. In such cases, education for sustainable development usually turned out to be a short term, standalone learning activity. The implementation would come to a stop when teachers had to formulate another curriculum theme in another approach in another school year.
More Successful Strategies To build a firm foundation of sustainable development, key teachers in some schools tried to encourage their colleagues to realise that the conceptual framework was not to be treated as yet another cross-curricular theme. Rather than taking sustainable development as content-wise subject matter and starting from scratch, curriculum leaders in these schools helped their colleagues to see that sustainable development could better be regarded as a thinking tool, that might enable their students to build up a more comprehensive world view. The broader and deeper perspectives that students might develop in their existing tasks, such as projectbased learning, could possibly help students break away from predominantly data collection exercises and migrate to a territory approach (a type of fuseki in the game of Go, Weiqi in Chinese) demanding more and different thinking. Schools that promoted sustainable development were observed to move into a second year where they tried to make use of the same conceptual framework to help their students to improve their projects. Taking sustainable development as a set of perspectives instead of a body of content kept schools from treating it as just a “one shot” event. Some schools were looking for improvement in the work of students in project-based learning. Usually, students were very successful in collecting data. However, the data collected were generally given a straightforward treatment in which possible relationships were not given an appropriate focus. Teachers considered that the three sustainability perspectives could guide students to a more holistic vision of the complexity of real world problems. Further, sustainable development was seen as a scenario for problem-solving skills, since students had to look into the concerns of the environment, the economy and society so as to come up with more feasible solutions. Thus, some schools were positive in making use of the concept framework as a thinking tool in project-based learning to guide students to possible topics for further investigation, and these topics tended to be problem-oriented. In this way schools no longer restricted themselves to conventional environment-oriented issues, such as saving trees or saving energy. Some schools started with patriotic education aimed at developing the sense of belonging to the country and this was often perceived as the territory of civic education. Nevertheless, with the conceptual framework of sustainable development in mind, patriotic concerns led students to care for the natural and the historical heritage of the nation, and the way to develop the tourism potential of these national treasures in a sustainable way. Some students’ work reflected how children were able to widen their views in learning about a common
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topic such as clothing to include endangered speciesinstead of just caring about the comfort and the appropriate clothes to wear for social occasions and seasons. Students also had the chance to connect clothing production and used clothing collection to the environment, the economy and under-privileged people. Some schools tried to take this further. Rather than being restricted to the formal curriculum, teachers led their students to carry out sustainable development auditing on the school campus. In this way sustainable development was brought to concerns at school level, since the findings and suggestions from the students’ projects could be submitted to the school senior management for consideration. What the students came up with was no longer limited to the cleanliness of the campus. They started to look into how the money saved from an energy saving campaign could be reallocated to their learning activities. Moreover, they no longer stopped at knowing just the physical data of, for example, noise pollution, such as decibel counts. They would look for the victims suffering the most because of pollution on the campus. Such activities escalated the involvement of students up from the curriculum level and made sustainable development part of their school life, since these activities could go on year after year for the upper level students. Some schools were observed promoting sustainable development as the guiding principle to enhance student learning. This might cover a wide-ranging curriculum area such as service learning or a curriculum unit not, at first sight, having an environmental concern. Of course, there were schools trying to build on conventional nature conservation, with the other two sustainability concerns as add-ons, aiming at integrating the three together. However, having an entry point from a topic other than the conventional green issues could lead to the development of a more holistic treatment. For instance, cultivation and planting in schools were often heavily inclined towards nature studies where students learned about the physical needs of plants and made sure that cultivation did not bring harm to the natural environment. At one school that had received a green school award, liaison was arranged with a social worker to make use of service learning to implement education for sustainable development. This approach was a promising option. Students served the community by educating the elderly about healthy nutrition and also gave away the organic vegetables they had grown and harvested on the school’s site. In return the elderly taught the students stretching exercises for better health. In recognising education for sustainable development as service learning, the students linked up environmental wellbeing to individual health and social harmony. Whether schools took a fully fledged approach to implement education for sustainable development explicitly might not be crucial as long as teachers brought the new world view into learning activities in both the formal and the informal curriculum. The successful implementation of education for sustainable development does not look too different from other curriculum initiatives. Curriculum leaders have a key role in arranging staff development and reinforcing staff collaboration across KLAs to establish the foundations for change. It is also necessary for schools to incorporate the conceptual framework of sustainable development into their curriculum plans and classroom materials. It is important to note that sustainable development should not be perceived as another topic to add to the already tightly
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packed curriculum. Instead, it is viewed as a paradigm shift in guiding students to broader perspectives on what they have been learning. To help shift the mindset of students, it is desirable to promote sustainable development both in and out of the classroom. The community, where students may encounter more complex real world problems, can be a very good platform for implementation. It is there that students face real problem-solving scenarios. They have to adjust their resolution on second thoughts. When they have to consider going for a better natural environment, at the same time they are not to overlook the impact on the economy and the society.
The Three Case Studies To put some flesh on the broader skeletal approach, we have chosen three schools to describe the work undertaken in the Project schools. We systematically collected data both from documents and from experiences gained during on-site visits to the primary schools. Using these data, we can illustrate and analyse how ESD can be successfully implemented in schools drawn from contrasting social contexts. We shall also discuss the challenges faced by those seeking to promote environmental education for sustainable development. As we explained in the above section, in the ESD Project, schools had the discretion to develop their own ESD programmes and activities under the guidance of the Project Team. During our school visits, what emerged most strongly was that all of the teachers in these three schools spoke positively about their participation in the Project. It was clearly evident that schools were entering the Project at different stages in the development of education for sustainable development in their curricula. These brief vignettes serve to illustrate this variety.
Chan Primary School Chan Primary School is a whole day school located in a public housing estate in a new town in the northern part of the New Territories. There were about 950 students and 51 teachers. Other than two playgrounds (basketball courts), the school had a small garden on the ground floor. Project-based learning was used throughout Primary 1–6 in the subject General Studies. The school developed its own schoolbased curriculum for the following subjects: Chinese language, English language, mathematics, General Studies, and computer studies. The school also has gifted education for gifted students in Chinese language, English language, mathematics, General Studies, and art. During the ESD Project, the school had not been ambitious in the ways it promoted environmental education. It had confined its work in ESD to a single year group – Primary 5 (pupils aged 9–10) in the academic year 2004–2005. The theme they had chosen was tourism and this was taught as a module lasting approximately
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2 months. Alongside the module was the organisation of an Environmental Day with many activities, including games, songs, “one person, one flower” planting activity, and taking care of the plants in the school garden. The emphasis in the study of the cross-curricular theme was on project learning. Pupils had been placed in groups of six to seven members and they had been encouraged to engage in enquiry learning. They had formulated questions, designed questionnaires and used these to collect data. The data had been analysed by the teachers and pupils and the pupils had learned various presentational skills, including the use of drama and PowerPoint. Booklets that some of the groups had produced demonstrated that pupils had mastered the enquiry and presentation skills. Ten teachers had been invited to attend the six staff development seminars provided by the Project Team at the university. However, not all of these teachers had been able to attend all of the workshops. This obviously had an effect on the continuity of teachers’ learning. In 2005–2006, the school used General Studies (GS) as a platform for developing ESD project activities. A General Studies week with a focus on “appreciating nature” was arranged for the whole school. This week saw the presentation of a range of activities including an exhibition, stall games, a video show and a poster design competition. In addition to the GS week, project learning on “Exploring Earth’s Resources” was provided to Primary 5 pupils and “Tracking Endangered Species” to Primary 6 pupils. The former helped pupils acquire understanding of renewable energy while the latter cultivated their interest in, and understanding of, endangered species in Hong Kong. These two themes were in line with the topics of renewable energy that was included in the Primary 5 syllabus and pollution that was in the Primary 6 syllabus. Overall, the ESD project had a positive impact as was evident in pupils’ increased concern for the environment and in their active planting to green the school. In 2006–2007, which was beyond the ESD project period, the school incorporated two lessons in each of the Primary 5 and Primary 6 GS project learningclasses on the theme of “Thinking from multiple perspectives” with a focus on sustainable development. In Primary 5, the pupils were encouraged to analyse the news about the “Reclamation of Victoria Harbour” from the perspectives of the government and the parents as well as from the economic, environmental and social perspectives. They were also stimulated to discuss the “Making Wishing Tree in Lam Tsuen” (as most of the branches of the original Wishing Tree were damaged by the large amount of joss paper tied with oranges). In Primary 6, pupils were facilitated to take on roles such as an environmentalist and a park officer to analyse the issue of the Hong Kong Wetland Park and offer solutions to environmental problems. Pupils then took part in project learning and submitted projects related to the topics of “Renewable energy” and “Pollution” in Primary 5 and Primary 6 respectively. While pupils’ comments revealed that understanding the idea of sustainable development involving economic, environmental and social perspectives was not easy, they had gained more knowledge and acquired project enquiry skills and presentation skills as well as having learned the importance of team spirit and co-operation.
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Cheung Primary School Cheung Primary School is located in a public housing estate in the central New Territories. It was a bi-sessional (am and pm sessions) school but, starting from 2004, Primary 1 classes changed to a whole day school. By the time of the ESD Project, Primary 4 and Primary 5 classes were still bi-sessional. The school had about 760 students and 39 teachers. There was a small organic farmland and a small garden on the first floor. Some of the plants in the garden were labelled. Walls of the school toilets and corridor were decorated with paintings of the natural environment and/or paintings that had environmental protection messages. As in Chan School, this school also had project learning from Primary 1 to Primary 6 and topics for each level were related to the students’ environment or natural resources. The school-based curriculum also used environmental related themes for the purpose of integration. During the ESD Project, Cheung School had attempted to enhance teaching about the environment with Primary 4 and Primary 5 classes. The teachers had wanted to stimulate pupils’ thinking about the environment. The Project had successfully provided them with a framework for deeper thinking. Before the Project they had been concerned with using the environment to extend pupils’ vocabulary and grammar. But now they had moved on to focus sharply on more complicated aspects of ESD. They had chosen to concentrate on teaching about food. By way of preparation, ten teachers had attended a series of workshops arranged by the Project Team. From this the core members of staff had tried new lessons with Primary 4, where the focus was on Food, and Primary 5 where the focus was on Heritage. They wanted to explore the environmental, economic and societal aspects of these themes. A small number of pupils, referred to as student leaders, from Primary 5 had participated in a field trip arranged by the Project Team. The Project Team had involved university student helpers in this activity. The organisational arrangements and the work undertaken on the field trip were considered to be very successful. The teachers in this school appeared to be very clear about what they planned to achieve in ESD in the next few years. They had established a 5-year Education for sustainable development programme starting in 2005–2006. In 2004–2005 the school vision and mission statement had identified three priorities: arouse an interest in learning; learning about oneself; and Chinese culture. For 2005–2006 the priorities were: pupils’ thinking; self-learning; and Chinese and English languages. The school’s curriculum team had already begun to plan how they could incorporate ESD into this. The teachers of Chinese, English and General Studies were planning to instil sustainable development into the curriculum for Primary 4 to Primary 6 classes. They were also interested in exploring activities related to sustainable development in the context of extra-curricular activities. In Cheung School, many environmental education activities in the academic year 2005–2006 were grouped under the theme “Towards a Small Green World”, involving pupils in the whole school. They participated in the “Holding hands
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together to conserve ecology” award scheme targeted at Primary 5 and 6 pupils. The following highlights reveal the nature of these activities: • Student ambassadors of sustainable development led pupils to discuss weekly questions suggested by the ESD web-site, such as: “Is the decline in air environmental quality in Hong Kong serious? Why?” “What are the effects of decline in air environmental quality on health?” and “What is the impact of the decline in air environmental quality on the income from Hong Kong tourist industries?”
• “An environmental issues corner” was established to stimulate pupils in the whole school to take part in expressing their opinions on environmental issues such as “The construction of Disneyland: Happy or Sad?” and “Do you think that it is worth the Hong Kong government spending HK$500 million to build the Wetland Park?” “Try to analyse the pros and cons in building this park from the environmental, social and economic perspectives?” Selected responses are shown in Table 9.1. • The school made good use of outside resources and expertise in promoting environmental education. For example, talks, display boards and outdoor activities related to green consumerism and organic life were arranged through the auspices of the Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre. Collecting moon cakes
Table 9.1 Selected responses from students to the question “Do you think that it is worth the Hong Kong government spending HK$500 million to build the Wetland Park?” Student 1 Environment Although the Wetland Park has a lot of birds and plants, it lacks the natural beauty. It is not an idea park. Economy Spending $500 million to build (the Park) and rely only on entry fee, it might not balance. It has no economic value. Society According to the situation of Hong Kong now, we have to firstly deal with citizens’ living, education and medical needs before we consider advancement. Student 2 Environment I think setting up a Wetland Park in Tin Shui Wai is very good, because Tin Shui Wai is originally a wetland. Economy I think setting up a wetland park is helpful to Hong Kong. We have one more place for tourists to visit. This can attract more tourists and increase the rental rate of hotels. Society I think it is right to have a wetland park because it can let the citizen know more about its advantages. Student 3 Environment It is good to Hong Kong to have a wetland park for the birds to live in. But in recent years the avian influenza might affect human lives. Economy Is it worth spending so much money of the tax payers? But it brings more overseas tourists to visit Hong Kong which is advantageous to Hong Kong. Society Hong Kong can have such a park for the public. It is a good place to go for holiday. But as its area is large, less area can be used for development.
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metal boxes in the mid-autumn festival for recycling was promoted under the recycling activity organised by the Friends of the Earth in collaboration with Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union. • The school participated in the “Holding hands together to conserve ecology” award scheme, which included visits to or see the China dolphins and the Marine Park and a talk on the oceans. • The school also emphasised greening activities for the whole school. These included an environmentally friendly lantern design competition, a greening the classroom competition, a Chinese slogan design competition and an English poster design competition, a one person-one flower planting competition and plant growth report, an environmentally friendly handicrafts design competition and organising a green healthy school day. Overall the responses were positive and some of the pupils’ responses are shown in Table 9.2. In 2006–2007, which was beyond the ESD project period and the second year of the school’s own ESD programme, the school chose “I love Nature” as the theme. The programme involved a greening school team of teachers and pupils, a curriculum integration team of teachers and included curriculum and teaching activities involving different subjects and four key tasks (library and reading, information technology, project learning and civic education).
Wong Primary School Wong Primary School is a whole day school located near a private housing estate close to Victoria Harbour. There were about 1,070 students and 52 teachers in the school in the academic year 2004–2005. There was a planting area in the school for
Table 9.2 Selected pupils’ responses to a green healthy school day ● Very happy cause I learned to protect the environment. ● I learned a lot. ● I like very much today’s activities as I can learn a lot. ● It’s memorable and I’m happy. ● Very happy as I can learn knowledge about environmental protection. There are a lot of gifts and I can have a day off. ● It’s exciting. ● The games are attractive. ● I like most the game booth “Basic principles of waste recycling”, I can learn how to separate waste for recycling. ● I like the game booth “How much do you know about high-risk food?” It’s simple and funny, it’s also meaningful. I can learn more about high-risk food. The design is attractive and with many gifts for the participants. ● I like most the booth “Recycling wheel”. It’s easy to play and boost my confidence in English Language.
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students to plant vegetables and flowers. Environmental education was a major item grouped in one of the four key tasks in primary education, Moral and Civic Education. In Wong School, “Food” was also chosen as the theme for the ESD project and Primary 3 General Studies was used as the vehicle for curriculum integration. The curriculum co-ordinator conducted a small-scale action researchproject based on a 4-P model, which comprised four components: problem identification, planning, programme action and progress evaluation. The action research involved two classes (3A and 3B) and the co-ordinator used participant observation, interviews of six pupils with varying abilities from each class (two in a pair), document collection, lesson observation of two teachers as well as a questionnaire survey and a test as data collection methods during the academic year 2004–2005. The following provides a brief description of the project experiences and findings from each stage of the 4-P model (Dung, 2005).
Problem Identification In a curriculum review meeting, teachers often complained that there was limited time to cover the whole syllabus and sometimes the content of one subject might overlap with another. The co-ordinator then suggested that “Eating in Hong Kong” would be the theme used for curriculum integration and the content of the General Studies could be re-organised and enriched using the categories offered by the UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (see Table 9.3). It was emphasized that curriculum and instruction should be meaningful and relevant to daily lives. The co-ordinator also made use of the data from a questionnaire on pupils’ attitudes towards the environment and a concept map of the school as baseline data for planning the action research project. During the ESD Project, six teacher workshops, one student leader workshop and outdoor activity and one parent workshop were arranged. One of the General Studies teachers remarked, “Initially I thought that education for sustainable development was environmental education. Actually its scope (ESD) was broader than environmental education. It not only concerns environmental protection but also aspects of the society and the economy…These concepts I never thought of before”.
Planning The ESD Project Team worked with the co-ordinator and teachers in collaborative lesson preparation. After careful deliberation, a revised curriculum plan was designed (see Fig. 9.1). The plan involved these subjects: English language, Chinese language, mathematics, general studies, visual arts, music, computer studies, Putonghua and Bible.
The concept of food chain/web. The interaction between the organisms in the food chain. Basic human needs (food).
Interdependence Understand the role of the producers and consumers of the food chain/web, and their values of existence.
Knowledge and understanding
Skills
Learning objectives Values and attitudes
Observe and decide the roles and Respect the existence of other the relationships of the organorganisms and appreciate the isms. Consider the effects of contributions they made. the actions of an individual on the environment. Rights and duties of Learn that food is basic need and Learned to respect others and take Responsible, self-control, persistcitizens its functions. Understand the care of others’ needs. ence. Concern and take care equality of personal and others’ of others’ needs. Avoid doing basic needs. things that are harmful to others but beneficial to me. Future needs and My own living style. Understand the food supply of Combine my basic needs and Respect others’ and the future rights Products and servHong Kong. Learn the goods compare with others the variagenerations’ basic needs. ices that I need for needed for daily lives, natural tions in food. Distinguish what daily life. resources and consumable is a necessity from what is a goods. luxury. Diversity Knowing different reliLearn the characteristics of food Compare the differences between Agree the influence of diversified gions, customs and culture, e.g., traditions, festivals Western and Eastern cultures, culture on an organisation traditions (food) The and religions. and briefly describe their charac(school) and the society. Build differences between teristics. an open mind, and respectful different cultures and and caring attitudes. their coexistence. Quality of life, equity- Needs and desires. Understand the basic difference of Distinguish between needs and Love simple lives, not being and justice Equity needs and desires. Understand desires. Use the concept of controlled by desires. Value the concept of equity. equity in daily life (equally equity. distributed resources).
Learning content
Learning area
Table 9.3 Content of General Studies (Translated from Dung, 2005: 48–49)
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Limited resources on earth. The role humans play in consuming resources.
Understand that different persons have different ways of dealing with a situation. Consider the importance of the affects when doing things.
Sustainable improvement
Responsible actions
Understand that the consumption of resources for fulfilling needs is rational. Understand how the choices of consumption of the present generation affect the needs of the future generation. Know the importance of green consumption and green living. Knowing that different methods can be used if different people deal with the same thing, and understand what factors affect each person’s method and decision. Learn about some cases that were dealt with without careful consideration of the effects.
Observe and analyse how diffeWhen handling matters, accept rent people handle matters objectively different opinions and reflect on how to handle and handling methods. Can difficulties. In the process of be responsible for the affects handling a matter, learn various caused by my own decisions. skills: analyse, problem-solving, cooperation.
Consider the affects of personal Concern with the life-span of consumption on future generaresources and actively partitions and the bearing capacity cipate in resources saving. of natural resources. Find and Love simple lives. Actively correct the parts in personal participate in green consumliving style that do not match ption. with green living.
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Fig. 9.1 Curriculum plan for Primary 3 (Translated from Dung, 2005: 52)
Programme Action The school-based programme consisted of two stages. In the first stage, the topic in General Studies focused on the “Uneven distribution of world resources” and pupils watched a movie on children’s poor life in the mountainous areas, followed by discussion. In their homework many pupils wrote about themselves with such statements as, “They live in a resource-rich society” and, “They have a habit of saving” but, “They have bought some useless things”. Pupils’ responses towards the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale (which is used as an indicator of awareness of consequences, while inclination to guilt feelings, if harming the environment, is used as an indicator of a personal norm [Wiidegren, 1998]) were collected and analysed. Table 9.4 revealed the scores and selected interview findings of 12 pupils from 3A and 3B (i.e. 3A had an overall better academic performance than 3B). It was interesting to note that while pupils with varying abilities might have high NEP scores, pupils with relatively better academic results seemed to have better environmental knowledge but they were less willing to engage in environmentally
Elsa (3B)
Fred (3B)
Gavin (3B)
2.9167
2.8333
2.4167
Made-up names of students
David (3A)
3.0833
a
Cathy (3A)
Billy (3B)
3
I learned from teachers’ actions and from books. I think I used 100% effort to protect the environment. I learned about environmental protection from TV and teachers. Teachers taught me that Hong Kong uses landfill to deal with rubbish, and taught me to protect the environment, treasure resources. I think I used 70% effort to protect the environment. Everywhere on earth and from TV [I learned environmental protection]. School didn’t teach about environmental protection. Need to teach something more specific. I think I used 0% effort to protect the environment because environmental protection has no relation to me. Teachers, parents, on public transport and from kindergarten books I learned how to protect the environment. Ms. Lin taught me to make the environment beautiful. I think I used 100% to protect the environment. From teachers and books I learned about environmental protection. Teacher Lin taught me about planting and not to damage the environment. I think I used 70% effort to protect the environment. Primary school and kindergarten teachers taught me about the environment. Ms. Lin decorates the classroom and she brings her own bag to do shopping. I think I used 0% effort to protect the environment as my mother does that for me.
Andy (3A)
3.3667
Selected interview content
Under the teaching of parents and teachers, I learned and understood the knowledge and skills about the environment, and I understand the importance of it. I think I used 70% effort to protect the environment.
Studenta (class)
Scores
He seldom speaks but, when he speaks, he tells the truth.
His academic performance is not good.
His academic performance is in the top ten of Primary 3. He has a lot of criticism. He thinks a lot. Teacher’s comment: doesn’t like ordinary operation. Good at presenting herself. Fair in learning intention.
Her academic performance is the best in Primary 3.
These two students have the highest score among the 12. Academic performance of 3A is better than 3B and 3B’s learning intention is fair.
Class teacher’s comment
Table 9.4 Selected scores and interview findings of pupils from 3A and 3B (Translated from Dung, 2005: 55–56)
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friendly behaviour than pupils with relatively low academic ability who had difficulties in expressing ideas. One student with better academic performance rated herself as scoring 3 (maximum as 10) in promoting environmental protection while another gave himself a zero mark because he regarded the work of environmental protection as having no relevance to him. In the second stage, pupils participated in a life-wide learning activity, where, in groups they purchased green food in a supermarket in their school neighbourhood and pupil representatives (six from a class) visited a centre for the elderly. They were also asked to complete worksheets related to “Eating in Hong Kong” in the subjects English language, Chinese language, mathematics and General Studies. Pupils, for example, were encouraged to draw and talk about the things that they bought. They were also stimulated to think about food suitable for the elderly people and to analyse the types of food eaten and the venues for their meals over the period of a week. In addition, they needed to note the types, amounts and prices of food they had bought, read a passage on organic food and make histograms of types and frequency of food bought by 20 pupils. Finally, pupils were asked to reflect on their own attitudes towards food and their feelings towards the life-wide learning activity. Parents were asked to sign and give encouraging remarks to their children in their workbook.
Progress Evaluation After the activity, pupils were interviewed. Most of them felt that they lived in a comfortable world. Two pupils suggested that they could not change their eating habits because their parents determined these, and they had no rights. Four pupils indicated that they had changed their habits by eating less, having a more balanced diet and wasting less food. The rest stated that they had no problems with their eating habits and needed to make no adjustments. A test was issued to gauge the knowledge of pupils and most pupils revealed some slight improvements. As regards environmentally friendly behaviour, pupils from 3B (academically less able) seemed to be more pro-active. Some of them, for example, volunteered for nearly half a year to monitor whether pupils wasted their food during the lunch time while some of them proposed to the school that they would like to visit elderly people and care for minorities. A teacher remarked that many pupils could describe what education for sustainable development meant and she stated that, “Pupils not only know to care about resources but also to understand that they are wasting their own resources, which affects the next generation”. Two teachers attributed the success of this programme to the interesting teaching content and activities, which stimulated pupils’ active learning. However, they suggested that improvements needed to be made to achieve better co-ordination and coherence among subjects, diversified evaluation methods and increasing relevance of the activities to pupils’ daily lives. However, it was noticed that, while pupils found the topic interesting, parents felt that the topic was too broad and made revision difficult. A teacher remarked that it was not too difficult to facilitate pupils’ growth in
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knowledge but it was rather difficult to nurture pupils’ values and attitudes because they were influenced greatly by their families. The teacher commented, “Parents would like to know about their children’s learning…If the curriculum design could involve the participation of parents, the pupils could apply what they learned in their daily lives”. The co-ordinator reflected that she had experienced professional growth and she observed that Primary 3 pupils were sensitive to environmental concepts and were willing to change given proper guidance. Nonetheless, the implementation of environmental education activities was constrained by the emphasis on pupil assessmentand inadequate resources in the school. What emerges from these three accounts is that schools entered the Project with quite different experiences of teaching about the environment. Not surprisingly, they developed their own distinctive innovative approaches to ESD. While, through the Project’s staff development work, they shared many common understandings, each school determined for itself how it would apply the Project’s guidelines. The Project was characterised by its non-prescriptive guidance to schools. It challenged existing practices, presented a clear framework for ESD in schools and provided clear guidance and support for possible directions for school-based development. It was most encouraging to see that these three schools worked at different scales and paces to incorporate some elements of education for sustainable development beyond the Project period. Nonetheless, the project schools encountered challenges, which we now turn to.
Reflections on the School-Based Experiences: Key Issues Conducive to Change and Challenges Faced by Schools The three cases revealed variations in the scale and scope of school-based curricula in implementing environmental education with a focus on sustainable development. In terms of scale, both Chan School and Wong School focused on one grade while Cheung School concentrated on two to three grades over a 2-year duration. As regards the approach, Chan School made use of General Studies as a platform and used project learning as a vehicle to help implement ESD. In Cheung School, a thematic approach was adopted involving the subjects of Chinese, English and General Studies. In addition, a whole-school approach was adopted to promote environmental education. In Wong School, General Studies was used as the vehicle for curriculum integration. These three cases suggested that General Studies as a school subject could become one of the key platforms for ESD. Moreover, under the influence of curriculum reform in Hong Kong, many primary schools had introduced project learning and tried out using a thematic approach for curriculum integration, which could provide opportunities and channels for school-based curricula for ESD. Reflecting on the two years of ESD project participation, the co-ordinator remarked that the “people” (agency) element, in particular the support of the principal
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and the commitment of the GS panel head to environmental education, was of utmost importance. In addition, it was important to establish a link between the school goals and the goals of education for sustainable development. Teachers also needed to be reminded to instil ideas of sustainable development into their teaching. The co-ordinator suggested that while teachers demanded that workshops should have strong relevance to their school curriculum and teaching, the ESD workshops tended to be abstract and impractical. She favoured hands-on workshops for small numbers of teachers. She would also like to have seen the Project Team provide whole-school staff development workshops in her school. Such workshops would have provided models developed in other schools and examples of successful practice. She would also have welcomed the opportunity to visit other schools to observe the planning, programmes and activities. The co-ordinator emphasised that the choice of module had been determined by the class General Studies textbook. Teachers considered that they were unable to move away from the textbook since this would have attracted the critical attention of parents. In addition to this strong constraint she emphasised the difficulty she experienced in being prescriptive with colleagues. She commented on the time it took for teachers to understand the ESD conceptual framework. As regards Cheung School, the commitment of the vice-principal (now the principal) and some of the core team members was the key factor to success of implementation of ESD activities. When she assumed the principalship after the Project was completed, she set up an ESD plan, a sustainable development team and a greening team under the coordination of the Curriculum Development Coordinator. However, the professional development of teachers in ESD remained a challenge. The teachers asserted that ESD was a difficult concept to understand and because of this they needed to have the opportunity to share their experience with their colleagues and with the Project Team. The partnership with the university was important for providing professional support and guidance for teachers. In the case of Wong School, the curriculum design had established links with students’ own experiences, which made learning more authentic. One of the learning activities focused on students’ eating habits. It was reflected after implementation that more attention could be given to parental education as students’ eating habits were generally influenced, if not dictated, by parents. This was evident in two student responses: “This project has changed my attitudes towards drinking and eating but all my food was decided my parents. I cannot make any decisions” and, “I do not have to pay efforts to protect the environment because my parents will do that. It is not my turn yet”. In addition, there were some constraints that were encountered by the school, which could be applicable to other school settings: • Under the education reform, teachers were busy with different kinds of initiatives and had little time for involvement in ESD activities. The overcrowded school curriculum meant that the implementation of curriculum integration had to be conducted in a short time span. • Teachers were still dominated by traditional modes of assessment such as paper and pencil tests, which captured students’ progress in academic achievements.
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The assessment of students’ attitudes and behaviour using alternative modes of assessment needs to be strengthened. Some parents were concerned that part of the teaching content was beyond the textbook, which made their children’s revision difficult to follow. • Resources and time constraints, especially for outdoor activities, need further attention and improvement. • Some teachers were not receptive to the idea of ESD and some of them may not have adequate knowledge and techniques to implement ESD. It would be desirable for the whole school staff to participate in ESD training. The above experiences from three primary schools in the ESD Project and past research in Hong Kong (Lee, 1999) suggest that in future implementation of ESD activities the following major issues need to be addressed. First, it may be desirable to make use of existing subjects (e.g., General Studies) or the curriculum initiative (e.g., project learning) as an entry point or platform for ESD activities. In the case of Hong Kong where the school curriculum is packed, the introduction of ESD programmes and activities is likely to be gradual, operating in a small-scale manner so as not to cause too much disturbance. Secondly, the professional development of teachers for ESD is of paramount importance. Such professional development activities, however, need to be less theoretical and more practical so that teachers are enabled to understand and apply the concepts of ESD into their teaching and learning practices. Thirdly, the identification and formulation of a “core group” including the principal is important for smooth implementation of ESD activities in school. Sufficient training should be given to principals and “core group” members as they become key agents for change. Last but not least, it is important to solicit support from parents as they are influential figures on children’s daily habits and their endorsement of school’s ESD activities would make the implementation of ESD programmes and activities effective.
References Dung, Y. P. (2005). School-based Curriculum on Sustainable Development Education: Design and Practice. Unpublished M.Ed. Project, The Chinese University of Hong Kong [in Chinese]. Lee, J. C. K. (1999). Case studies on the adoption of environmental education: A Hong Kong perspective. Environmental Education and Information, 18(1), 13–28. Wiidegren, O. (1998). The new environmental paradigm and personal norms. Environment and Behavior, 30(1), 75–100.
Chapter 10
Green Primary Schools in Hong Kong John Chi-Kin Lee
As we have discussed in previous chapters, in recent decades, there has been an ongoing debate in many parts of the world regarding the most appropriate way to incorporate environmental education into school curricula. This debate has intensified with the extension of environmental education into the broader field of education for sustainable development. An important part of that debate is the green school concept. “Green school” is a term that has found its way into the educational literature of many cultures and, not surprisingly, there is no universal agreement on a definition. For example, the Centre for Environmental Education of the Antioch New England Institute puts forward a green school snapshot perceived as a quick self-assessmenttool for schools, consisting of five major green school elements (www.SchoolsGoGreen.org): • Curriculum integration – student learning centred around environmental themes, concepts and projects in an interdisciplinary way (referred to as environment as an integrating context) • School grounds enhancement – the school grounds seen as a microcosm of the larger community and functioning as an outdoor learning laboratory • Community-based education – student projects focusing on real life community needs, community resources enhancing student learning • School sustainability – school modelling sustainable practices in areas such as water and energy conservation, all kinds of waste reduction, and creating a healthy indoor and outdoor environment and • Administrative support – decision making structures and organisational culture within the school and district consistently and systematically promoting green school activities In a quite different context, in China, green schools, as can be seen in Chapter 6, are conceived as having the following characteristics: being organised and operated
J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected]
J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_10, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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on the basis of the principle of sustainable development; an open school; a site for pro-active, animated, and exploratory learning; and a place where teaching and other staff members work together in a sustainable manner. With regard to the operation of these schools, this has five aspects: green education; green campus construction; the development of management skills; teaching techniques; and learning modes for green education (Zhang, 2004: 64–66). While, with the active encouragement of non-governmental organisations, much attention has been paid to increasing the number of green schools in Hong Kong, much less attention has been paid to studying empirically the work undertaken in these schools. In this chapter 1 report the findings from a small-scale study into a small number of green schools in Hong Kong.
Context In 1992, the Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council issued a seminal document, The Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools (hereafter referred to as “the Guidelines”) (CDC, 1992). It was suggested that environmental education should be implemented through a cross-curricular, whole-school approach, encompassing formal and informal curricula as well as environmentally friendly practices. Given the novelty of green schools, it was not surprising that a gap emerged between the rhetoric of official documents and actual practice in schools (Lee, 1997; Stimpson, 2000). Many schools have not been enthusiastic about promoting environmental education and they have not been responsive to the recommendation about adopting the whole-school approach advocated in the Guidelines. Where schools have sought to introduce environmental education there has been more of an emphasis on education about and in the environment in school curricula rather than the more holistic perspective bringing together education about, in and for the environment that appears in the literature (e.g., Gough, 1992; Fien, 1993; Tilbury, 1995; Gough, 1997). In 1999, the Guidelines were revised (CDC, 1999) and since then the Hong Kong government has played a more active role in the promotion of environmental education. Meanwhile, since 1995, the Environmental Campaign Committee in Hong Kong has organised the Student Environmental Protection Ambassador Scheme(SEPAS), which aims to get young people and children involved in green activities, such as community work and engagement in a waste project. In 2000, the Hong Kong Green School Award was organised by the Environmental Campaign Committee, the Environmental Protection Department and the Education Department to promote comprehensive green management in primary and secondary schools (see Chapter 8). Schools have been encouraged to devise and implement school environmental policies, to promote whole-school environmental education and to cultivate a green culture (Environmental Protection Department, 2002).
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The Case Study Schools and Research Methods In the Green School Award, participating schools are required to present a selfassessment plan according to the criteria set out by the organisers (Tsang, 2003). These criteria encompass environmental infrastructure, school management, education through the formal curriculum and education through extra-curricular activities. The initial judging panel shortlists a certain number of schools from each sector (primary and secondary) while the final judging panel selects the winning schools (champion, first and second runners-up). These winning schools are awarded prize money to set up an environmental education resource centre and to refurbish green facilities on school campuses. In addition to the six winning schools each year, some schools were given Merit Awards in recognition of their green management efforts. For our study, four winning schools were chosen from the primary school sector. The decision to focus on four case study schools was made on the grounds that each case would yield thick descriptions and hence the volume of data to handle had to be manageable. In addition, four cases would enable comparisons to be drawn relatively easily (Lee, 1999). Case studies were employed in this study and, according to Stake (2000; cited in Dillion and Reid, 2004: 26), the study of these four winning schools resembles a collective case study, which means, “…an instrumental study extended to several cases…[and] links this exploration of similarities and differences amongst cases to naturalistic generalization…” Corcoran et al. (2004: 11) further remark that casestudy research is a study of practice involving, “…all the players, or practitioners, involved directly, or indirectly, in the innovation”. Case studies are also particularly suited to capturing participants’ viewpoints or insiders’ emic perspectives as well as allowing researchers to maintain their own perspectives as outsiders – the etic perspectives. I visited all of the four case study schools. In each school relevant documents were collected for further analysis, individual interviews were conducted with the principal and the environmental education coordinator followed by a group interview of teachers from the environmental education group or committee and Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors (SEPAs). A total of 16 interviews were conducted. The questions in the semi-structured interviews for the teachers and principals included: • What is your definition of a green school? • What factors are instrumental in launching your school into taking the initiative to evolve into a green school? • What strengths could be mentioned and improvements could be made in the following areas: curriculum integration; school ground enhancement; community-based education; school sustainability; and administrative support? • What constraints are encountered in becoming a green school? How are such problems solved?
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For students, the interview questions mainly concerned the following: • In your own words, what is your definition of a green school? • What is your role as a student environmental ambassador? • What could be done to further improve environmental education in your school? The interviews were conducted in Cantonese and audio-taped. Triangulation was carried out through comparison of facts related to past events from different interviewees in each school and documentary review and analysis whenever possible. For data analysis, the overall analytic process was an inductive, ongoing process undertaken with the following key steps: coding data, sorting data, reviewing additional literature on environmental education and curriculum innovation, and developing emergent patterns and categories.
Findings Organisation and Major Features of the Case Study Schools Kap Primary School (PM session) is a bi-sessional school located on the southwestern side of the New Territories. The school is surrounded by a secondary school, a recreational park and a private housing estate. The school is equipped with an “Environmental Education Resource Centre” and a designated planting area –“Compassion Farmland”. There were about 800 students and 39 teachers. In Kap School, an environmental education group was established with five members. While a coordinator oversaw the function of the whole group, two members were in charge of external relations and student ambassadors. Two members worked on the area of monitoring, such as checking the classrooms and staff room to identify any needs for environmental improvement. Yuet Primary School (AM session) is a bi-sessional school located inside a public housing estate in a new town in the central part of the New Territories. This school is also equipped with an environmental education centre and a planting area. There were about 730 students and 38 teachers. In Yuet School, an environmental education group was set up consisting of members from the subject panel of General Studies, the extra-curricular activities committee (related to the Community Youth Club (CYC)), the general affairs committee (taking care of purchasing and cleansing matters) as well as two teachers in charge of training both the student environmental ambassadors and student environmental pioneers (P.1–P.4 students, responsible for classroom cleanness and collecting waste for recycling). The group was directly responsible to the principal. Ping Primary School (AM session) was a bi-sessional school (it is now a wholeday school). It is located in a public housing estate in Kowloon. Ping School uses its rooftop as a planting area for organic farming activities. There were about 530
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students and 34 teachers. In Ping School, members of the environmental education group enjoyed high autonomy and they had a clear division of labour among themselves. Two members were in charge of an environmental portfolio, recycling during recess, environmental activities such as environmental lyrics and environmental art and crafts. One senior teacher in the group was responsible for monitoring the implementation of environmental policies, five “sensory curriculum” for grade four to six students on Saturdays and external relations. Another teacher was in charge of students’ project work and the sharing of experiences with other schools. One teacher managed the environmental resource centre and another teacher took care of greening the school environment and the planting of vegetables and flowers. Ding Primary School is a whole-day school located in the central New Territories. It has the largest campus among the four case study schools. Ding School is surrounded by another primary school, a secondary school, a recreational park and a private housing estate. The School is equipped with an environmental education resources centre, a small garden on the ground floor, a rooftop garden, an area planted with vegetables and fruit, and a little fish pond. There were about 1,000 students and 46 teachers. In Ding School, there was a committee in charge of health and environmental education in the school. The committee comprised the environmental education coordinator, the health education coordinator and three teachers. One of them supported the curriculum and its related activities while another took care of publicity issues. Apart from some of the case study schools having their own mission or goals in environmental education as shown in Table 10.1, each school had its own distinctive features relating to the environmental education, curriculum and school ground enhancement. The environmental education curriculum in Kap School had some unique characteristics. In the lower grades (in 2002–2003), cross-curricular project learning focused on the themes “I love them [the animals]”, “How lovely the plants” and “Using resources wisely” and they were organised to help students understand the importance of nature. In the upper grades, the school collaborated with a local tertiary institution to design a school-based curriculum package known as “Green consumer”, which emphasised the concepts of reduction, recycling and reuse/ replacement. The school also organised a “Recycling Day” on every Tuesday and established an environmental information bulletin board for which student ambassadors were in charge of collecting and displaying information on a regular basis. Another feature of this school was greening the school environment and the practice of organic farming (“Love Farm”) with the aims of helping students reflect on people-environment relationships and enhancing the value of life. The school also promoted environmental education through extra-curricular activities such as building wind powered and solar powered cars to help students understand the importance of sustainable development. In Yuet School, the school environmental education curriculum was characterised by an integrated curriculum organised through thematic teaching and using General Studies as the main subject. Environmental education through the formal curriculum adopted a “permeation” approach infusing environmental elements into
New Town
Enhancing the environ- Environmental protecNo specific mission but the goal is No mission; The school mission is mental awarenessof tion is a responsibilto nurture a sustainable school“Based on the Christian spirit, the all staff and ity shared by all. campus through the school’s school strives to achieve success students and We will procure our environmental management, and holistic quality as well as being becoming intelstaff to act in an improvement of school facilities, committed to make all students ligent and green environment-friendly construction of quality culture, have lifelong, creative thinking and new human beings manner in their greening of classrooms and excellent problem-solving skills” Promoting the respective capacities. school, and wise use of resources atmosphere of love We will promote the as well as through linking stuall staff and students message of environdents, parents and staff to build and protecting evemental protection, up a whole-person and life-wide rything in nature bring the pupils’ learning network Encouraging all awareness to care staff and students to for the environment put environmental in the community awarenessinto pracand participate in tice in daily lives the environmental campaign in the community through a variety of activities in teaching
City
Ding School
Mission on environmental education
New Town
Ping School
New Town
Yuet School
Location
Kap School
Table 10.1 Mission on environmental education in four case study schools
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appropriate content. In grades three, four and six, “green school environment”, “environment-friendly [school] family” and “community health” were themes chosen for the integrated curriculum. The “green school environment” theme cultivated students’ understanding of the preciousness of life through planting and harvesting crops and students’ attitudes towards caring about plants. The “environment-friendly [school] family” theme encouraged students to examine the status of using electricity, water and paper and to propose ways of reducing waste and consumption. The “community health” theme helped students understand the environmental health situation and the causes of environmental problems in the community through questionnaire survey and field study as well as proposing solutions for these problems. In addition to participating in environmental protection activities organised by external agencies, activities such as “no-pollution picnic”, “cleanliness competition”, “recycling”, “planting”, “cleaning the campus” were organised within the school. Moreover, an “ecological conservation month” was arranged to encourage senior grade students to share their views through newspaper cuttings on display boards and disseminating environmental conservation messages for the whole school. Another feature of this school was the provision of outdoor space for students’ planting activities and a Chinese herb garden through the support of the alumni association, which planned to have the plants coded for student learning. The Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors, similar in many schools, consisted of senior form students. The Student Environmental Protection Pioneers or Young Leaders in Yuet School, on the other hand, were junior form students and they took charge of monitoring the cleanliness and recycling in different classrooms. In Ping School, the goal of education for sustainability (EFS) was established to nurture environmentally literate citizens who had a positive concept towards the environment and who possessed the knowledge and skills to act locally and globally for the sustainable development of our planet. The school considered education for sustainable development (ESD) as quality education, aimed at enhancing the quality and capability of humankind. This goal was achieved through the school environmental management system, ESD curriculum development, extra-curricular activities and whole school EFS projects. The school environmental management system was characterised by a democratic, transparent, whole-school approach to management and the school made efforts in green purchases and the use of new technology. With regard to curriculum development, an ESD curriculum was constructed with the following modules having different levels for low, middle and senior students: social environment factors; natural environment factors; animals and plants living environment factors; sensing nature; environmental problems. For extra-curricular activities, the school highlighted learning in the environment, partnership between the school and the community, participation and practice (e.g., on-the-spot investigations and family renewable energy workshops organised by environmental organisations), and exchange programmes (e.g., a visit to an ecological education centre in the Chinese Mainland). The whole-school EFS projects included “Non-polluting school picnic”, “Go Green Day” “Recycling for
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a Better Tomorrow Campaign”, “Classroom Paper Recycling Ambassadors Scheme”) and greening the campus (e.g., cultivating an organic garden). Ding School has a long historyin curriculum integration. Recently, the theme “Water” had been used for curriculum integration for grades one to three. In grade one, the theme was called “Little Water Drops”. Their guiding questions were: What are the functions of little water drops? What are the changes of little water drops? How can we save little water drops? The theme for grade two was “Living with Water”. Their guiding questions were: Where does the water come from? What are the relationships between water and our lives? How can we make use of water to make a better living? For grade three, the theme was “The Source of Many Changes”. The guiding questions were: What are the changes of water? What effects does water bring to our lives? How can we make use of changes of water to improve our living? In grade six, the theme “Peaceful World” was chosen with a combination of environmental education and peace education. The integration involved eleven subjects. For example, in General Studies, students were involved in the testing of water quality and an investigation of pollution problems. In art and crafts, there was an environmentally friendly fashion design and fashion show using waste materials. In mathematics, students explored the conflict brought by unequal distribution in resources, population and food supply in the world through producing graphs and they discussed possible solutions. In English, students used roleplaying to express damage brought by wars. They also designed anti-war slogans and read an English poem titled “Little Water Drops”. In addition to curriculum integration, there were elective classes on green activities for grades four to six students. In grade five, there were two lessons on green lives such as farming and bird watching and in grade six, there was “green fun” with activities such as making green arts and crafts. With regard to school grounds enhancement, there were many trees and flowers on the school campus and students were encouraged to engage in gardening activities. Parent volunteers were also involved in watering, weeding and planting vegetables and fruits. There was a composting place to provide organic fertilisers.
Principal and Teachers’ Perceptions of a Green School The principal in Kap School perceived that a green school was not only concerned with the environment but also related to spiritual health. She felt that environmental education could be integrated with religious education, life education and health education. A senior teacher in charge of environmental education remarked that a green school is not only concerned with superficial environmental protection work such as recycling and reduction of waste but also the cultivation of a sense of caring about ourselves, our school, our community,
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Hong Kong and the Earth among all staff members and children in the school. She also considered issues on environmental protection such as green consumerism and organic food to be closely related to health. In recent years, the school had shifted to becoming a “healthy school”. The principal in Yuet School remarked that a green school was one placing more emphasis on environmental education and being able to apply theory into practice through management and use of resources. Two teachers from Yuet School perceived that a green school needed whole school participation and strong environmental awareness. Another teacher commented that the idea of “green” entails the whole planet. Another teacher elaborated on the green school in the following manner: In the curriculum, they [the students] need to… know what causes pollution and how to reduce pollution…It is hoped that apart from practising themselves, they could influence others.
The vice-principal in Ping School perceived that the most important element of a green school was its culture, which was characterised by mutual support. Six teachers within the environmental education group in this school, however, held different views of a green school. A senior teacher remarked that a green school was run on the basis of the concept of sustainable development and it started from the aspect of management. Another teacher emphasised both the green environment with flowers, trees and grass and the conception of children as “green kids”. Another teacher mentioned that in addition to the learning of environmental knowledge, a green school encompassed interrelationships between people and the environment and harmonious relationships between people. A teacher thought that a green school should embark on some research into environmental education. A teacher remarked that a green school provided an environment conducive to developing students’ environmental responsibility through teachers’ role modeling, the school’s facilities and administrative measures. Another teacher highlighted children’s learning in a green school, particularly learning about human beings’ position in nature as well as how to care about nature and the community. The coordinator in Ding School perceived that “green” referred to an educational belief related to the cultivation of a harmonious relationship between people and the environment and graduates from a green school had the appropriate attitudes, knowledge and action for environmental conservation. The principal further elaborated that in addition to a green environment with plants and trees, a green school should reflect a harmonious campus where people were happy and healthy. A green school should inculcate core values such as simplicity and saving. As the principal remarked, “small is beautiful”. As Ding School had a Christian background, the principal explained that Nature including all human being, animals and plants are God’s creations and so we people needed to have feelings for plants and animals and they needed to care for and support each other. A teacher mentioned that in a green school, everyone’s heart had feelings of respecting and loving life.
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Students’ Perceptions of a Green School, Students’ Roles and Their Contribution to Improving the Environment in School and the Community In Kap School, some Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors (SEPAs) perceived that their roles were to raise students’ environmental awareness, remind students not to throw rubbish and destroy the environment and remind them to put their plastic bottles and aluminium cans into the recycling bin. With regard to their perceptions of a green school, a SEPA felt that a green school should plant more flowers and trees and set up recycling bins. Another two SEPAs remarked that a green school had fresh air and a very good and comfortable environment for study (surrounded by green plants). To promote environmental education in schools, some SEPAs advised that students should participate in some simulated famine activities, visit some poor places and understand the condition of lacking resources. Others commented that students could do more planting of trees and crops (in the school farm) and use less airconditioning. In Yuet School, some SEPAs mentioned that their main duties were to direct students not to throw rubbish and use fewer plastic bags. In addition, they needed to be patrolling the school gardens, clearing weeds and be on rotational duty in the Environmental Resource Centre in the school. With regard to their perceptions of a green school, some SEPAs remarked that a green school needed concerted efforts from all teachers and students to engage actively in environmental protection and stop the environment from being polluted. One SEPA suggested that a green school was a greening school campus with many trees and another perceived that a green school was one using environmentally friendly design and materials. They suggested that there could be different ways to promote environmental education in school: holding an environmental quiz or arranging environmentally friendly design competitions; providing small recycling bins in the classroom; providing more planting activities for students; celebrating World Environment Day or a School Environmental Protection Day; publicising the work of SEPAs or student environmental protection pioneers or young leaders; and the principal serving as a role model by taking a bus to school (rather than travelling by car). In Ping School, some SEPAs remarked that they went to study lichens with other students and participated in some overseas visits (such as visiting a green school in Mainland China) or local community activities (e.g., collecting rubbish off the beach). Others had taken a basket to collect waste paper in classrooms for recycling and helped students to collect and recycle aluminium cans and plastic bottles. As regards their perceptions of a green school, many of them felt that a green school is one promoting environmental education, environmental protection activities and environmental messages. Some of them remarked that a green school should use alternative energy (e.g., solar energy) and use resources wisely. Some SEPAs advised that the school could further promote environmental education by organising
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activities such as environmental art and crafts, a display of solar energy panels to generate electricity, and exchange activities with other green schools. In Ding School, some SEPAs perceived a green school as planting more trees and flowers to make the school green, to make the air fresh and a better environment. One of them remarked that in a green school, students should know about environmental protection, which meant “not throwing rubbish and knowing how to use resources wisely”. Some SEPAs promoted students’ environmental consciousness by asking them to look at the materials and specimens at the Environmental Resource Centre or Horticulture Classroom in the school and participate in recycling activities. One of the interviewees warned their peers not to do it again if she watched them throw rubbish because this would affect the environment. Some SEPAs observed that some students in school played with water in the toilets, threw rubbish everywhere on the school campus and did not put relevant rubbish in the recycling bin. They advised that teachers should display specimens of endangered species, show videos and organise games to arouse students’ environmental awareness. In addition to their roles and duties in schools, the SEPAs had exhibited some environmentally friendly behaviours at home (Table 10.2). These behaviours tended to be related to using fewer plastic bags, using waste materials to make new things, persuading parents to recycle materials and donating used clothes and books to school.
Factors Instrumental in Launching a School to Take the Initiative of Evolving into a Green School In Kap School, the strengths lay in having a strong culture and parental participation. The former was characterised by a strong team spirit under the leadership of the principal. They mutually supported and reminded each other partly because they shared a similar Christian religious background. They shared a common norm in that the junior staff would help collect their plastic bottles for recycling. Most staff would try to photocopy or write on both sides of a sheet of paper and on every Tuesday students would collect paper to put into the recycling bin. For the latter, the school had issued a questionnaire to collect parents’ views on environmental protection in school. In addition, the school invited parents to participate in school activities such as the no-pollution picnic and requested them to bring certain things and follow particular guidelines. Moreover, parent volunteers made use of waste newspaper to make playing kits for school children. The leadership of the environmental education coordinator and empowerment of the principal were crucial. As the coordinator remarked, …she [the principal] gives me some power. For example, when I hold a meeting, I suggest that the curriculum adopts “environmental protection” as the theme… The principal is beside me. She doesn’t need to say a word. It is because she permits me to do it. Her role is to provide background support.
Environmentally friendly behaviour SEPAs have at home
Trying to use a shower rather than taking a bath Trying not to open the air conditioner. Donating used books at the end of the academic year
Kap School
Ping School
Encouraging their parents Encouraging parents to to use environmentally participate in envifriendly bags instead of ronmental protection plastic bags. Donating activities (e.g., colsome used clothes to lecting rubbish off the school beach) Using waste materials to make a solar-powered boat and musical instruments. Asking parents to recycle newspapers and participating in recycling (of aluminium cans and plastic bottles). Using fewer plastic bags
Yuet School
Using waste materials to make toys in General Studies. Reusing plastic bags and planting more green pots. Using waste leaves to make bookmarks Having less take-away food (with less plastic foam boxes). Using old shoe boxes for storage
Ding School
Table 10.2 Environmentally friendly behaviour Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors (SEPAs) have at home
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In Yuet School, the leadership of the environmental education group was a key factor. The coordinator had good communication with his team members and provided clear and effective guidelines on school-based environmentally friendly practices for other teachers to follow. Besides, they prepared an environmental education charter for the signature of teachers, staff members and students. Principal support was also important. Teachers from the environmental education group commented that the principal played the role of a consultant who decided the major directions. As described by the principal, she not only provided advice on environmental education and environmental protection policies but also provided manpower support such as reducing teachers’ lessons, asking office staff to help buy planting materials, and employing a half-time junior member of staff to do gardening and develop the Chinese herb garden. As regards the principal’s influence, a teacher remarked that, “the principal is not only [concerned with] implementation, she holds a firm belief…This makes our implementation much easier. Basically there is no resistance”. In Ping School, the vice-principal was the key leader and driving force behind the whole school’s development in environmental education. He was a resourcewinner, securing some external funding for a school-based curriculum project. He also established good networks with different organisations outside the school, such as working with a Mainland Chinese scholar in developing a school-based curriculum in sustainable development. He set directions for green school development and planned and coordinated various activities in school. While members within the environmental education group had a clear division of labour, they had a strong collegiality under his visionary leadership. Each of them acted as the group coordinator in rotation so that their leadership skills could be nurtured. Some group members and the vice-principal perceived the principal as adopting a laissez-faire or non-interventionist approach to providing financial and manpower support to, and allowing autonomy for, the development of environmental education. As the principal remarked, “I allow the vice-principal to pick people [for the environmental education group]. He chooses those colleagues who are relatively young, with better information technology skills and better language proficiency. This is an example of a favourable policy [for environmental education]”. In Ding School, the receptivity of the school administrators and a core group to promote the idea of a green school with a motive of improving students’ educational quality was a critical factor for success (coordinator, interview). Principal support was another important factor. For example, the principal established a separate post of environmental education coordinator with no other functional commitments so that the coordinator could concentrate his efforts on this aspect. The principal also secured resources for school grounds enhancement, such as building a butterfly garden and an environmental trail. Parental support was also a factor conducive to the promotion of environmental education. Parents, for example, supported the school policy by asking students to bring handkerchiefs and use washable and reusable utensils during lunch.
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Constraints Encountered in Becoming a Green School To become a green school, as the environmental education coordinator in Kap School succinctly remarked, the most important point is to have everyone receptive to that idea. A whole school approach is essential as “counting on one or two persons is not feasible. It needs mutual influence, concerted efforts and coordination with each other”. In the context of Hong Kong, there are some external constraints in developing a green school. First, in summer when temperatures are high (above 28°C), parents sometimes complained about Yuet School for not turning on the air-conditioners in the morning because they had paid the electricity charges. Secondly, it was not easy to purchase environmentally friendly electric appliances and it was expensive to install an electricity-saving transformer. Lastly, in a school within a public housing estate, the area for growing plants was limited (principal interview). In addition to physical and economic constraints, another challenge came from the families of students. Using smoking as an example, even though the students were taught not to smoke and they requested their parents to stop smoking, some parents still kept on smoking as a habit. In the case of Ping School, one of the constraints was space because the school was located in an old public estate. Another limitation was time experienced by teachers who intended to introduce more systematic lessons on environmental education into the congested formal curriculum. A teacher remarked that students’ academic achievements, especially their low English proficiency, could become a constraint when students were asked to take part in hosting foreign visitors. In Ding School, one of the constraints in further developing a green school was teachers’ knowledge about environmental education. The principal remarked that she had received many letters of application for teaching posts at school. Many applicants would mention their aspirations and hopes in education and almost none of them referred to themselves as environmental educators. As she said, “There are people who talk about moral education and civic education. There are really no people talking about green matters. So there are no talents. No talents are really harmful”. Other constraints included the heavy workload of teachers and a packed curriculum. Because of the reform of the school-based curriculum, one of the curriculum integration themes for grade six was changed from “harmonious green world” to “harmonious world” with an emphasis on world peace. At grade four, the theme was “journey of health” with a focus on health education. These changes to some extent affected the promotion of environmental education in school and perhaps weakened the image of the “green” school.
Discussion This study revealed that four award-winning green schools in Hong Kong had been successful in such aspects as curriculum integration; school ground enhancement; community-based education; school sustainability; and administrative support.
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More could be done, based on the comments of interviewees, in individual case study schools.
Further Improvements in the Case Study Schools In Kap School, the environmental coordinator commented that the curriculum could pay more attention to the theme of renewable energy for senior primary students. As regards school facilities, she would like to install solar panels for generating electricity and stimulating children’s scientific curiosity. The Environmental Resource Centre could be more fully utilised for students to read environment related books and teaching packages and even open for public visits. In addition, more “life-wide learning” activities such as visiting the ecological parks could be arranged to extend students’ exposure to, and learning through, the environment. Moreover, the principal of Kap School suggested that more work needed to be done to cultivate students’ behaviour. In the case of Yuet School, more could be done in the area of community-based education other than some cleaning activities within the housing estate. A teacher suggested that students could be guided to search for pollution spots, take photographs and write complaint letters to the District Board asking for environmental improvement. Similar to Yuet School, a teacher in Ping School remarked that enhancing student participation could strengthen the area of community-based education. In addition, despite having a committed environmental education group, the viceprincipal and one of the team members estimated that about 40% of the teaching staff (and non-teaching colleagues) were active in the promotion of environmental protection. In Ding School, the coordinator commented that many of the existing activities related to environmental action, experiencing the environment and gardening are confined to the Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors. The cultivation of environmental attitudes and action still needed to be promoted at the whole-school level. As regards the area for improvement, again more could be done in community-based education other than collecting rubbish in the community, promoting no use of plastic bags and outdoor visits such as watching the Chinese white dolphins and going to the mangrove areas.
Roles of Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors The interview findings and the documents suggested that one of the main duties of many SEPAs in the case study schools seemed to be serving like a School Cleanliness Patrol, who patrolled various “stations” in the school campus and directed students not to throw rubbish. This was echoed by a comment of a SEPA
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in Kap School when asked about other students’ perceptions of their role: “They [Other students] say we often pick up rubbish”. Another two major tasks were to be on duty in the Environmental Resource Centre, which allowed students to read and borrow books as well as to see the specimens, and to support the schools’ recycling activities. Some other duties, which varied with individual schools, included weeding, killing insects (e.g., Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus associated with Dengue Fever in Ding School) and disseminating environmental protectionmessages (e.g., updating information on air pollution indices on the bulletin board in Yuet School), participating in community activities (e.g., collecting rubbish off the beach at Ping School). The present roles of these SEPAs in this study raises the question of whether SEPAs and other students in the school could become “colearners, co-investigators and co-actors in a collaborating learning process” (Stapp et al., 1996: 21), on the one hand, and could be involved in what has been referred to as “dealing with community problems that are significant to the students can link with the disciplines, and can also give students practice in exercising their democratic responsibilities within their community and to society as a whole”, on the other (Stapp et al., 1996: 23).
Impact of Environmental Education in Green Schools The impact of environmental education in green school scould be broadly understood at two main levels, namely the student and the teacher level. At the student level, it appeared that the frequency of activities and the number of participants were emphasised instead of the quality of individual environmental education activities. At the teacher level, it seemed that while the principals were very supportive and the environmental education groups were very active in promoting environmental education, there were still different interpretations of the idea of a “green school” among themselves. Moreover, not all teachers understood either the direction of environmental education in school and or working on a collegial basis to implement environmental education. As a teacher in the environmental education group in Kap School remarked, I think there was [more communication] within the [environmental education] group…but it would be less frequent among all teachers…If there is a chance to talk to colleagues, I rather talk to them individually.
Another teacher in Yuet School remarked: Communication and collaboration are really very important…We understand that not every teacher will put much emphasis on this aspect [environmental education]. Sometimes there may be resistance and sometimes there is a difference of one or two classes. We have to remind them. It is quite time and energy consuming. We just solicit their help and we don’t want to force them.
More work on communication and collaboration among colleagues needs to be done so as to realise a whole-school approach to environmental education in which
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the development of an environmental education approach and its underlying principles and values are shared by teachers, students, parents and the wider community (Gough, 1992).
Impact of Educational Reform on the Development of Green Schools The development of the case study schools was to a certain extent affected by new initiatives or educational reform in Hong Kong. For the former, two case study schools, Kap and Ding, joined a new scheme on Healthy Schools and environmental education in these schools started to be gradually infused with health education. On the one hand, environmental education could be given a broader perspective than before by taking health education issues on board but, on the other hand, the identity of environmental education in these schools became weak, which would impede its future development. The context of educational and curriculum reform to some extent affected the development of green schools in Hong Kong. The vice-principal in Ping School remarked that: “the whole educational reform distorted all the school development. Today we talked about Basic Competency Assessment (BCA)…I personally felt that BCA in future would be integrated with school’s self evaluation, external school review…”. Not only was the school concerned with students’ academic performance but also the school tended to emphasise performativity such as the number of students’ external awards related to environmental education. This aroused the vice-principal’s reflection that more efforts could be concentrated on understanding students’ experiences rather than measurable and quantifiable learning outcomes.
Conclusion The status of green school implied by the present study points to a need for rethinking the direction of green schools and environmental education in Hong Kong. First, it may be desirable to consider whether a socially critical orientation to environmental education (e.g., Fien, 1993) could be adopted, in which studentteacher relationships are based on equality and student learning is based on freedom of expression of ideas and feelings. As Stapp et al. (1996: 22) succinctly lamented: Also, students are no longer pitted against each other for a better grade, but come to recognise their common thread as social beings and co-learners. Creating such an environment is not easy in an educational system that emphasises a competitive and individual-centered atmosphere. A cooperative learning environment is fostered by schools that focus more on group work and joint decision making.
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Secondly, environmental education could be seen as a vehicle for realising the learner-centered approach as espoused in the educational reform. If the concept of sustainable development or some of the goals of environmental education could be enlisted as the core goals of education, environmental education and the development of green schoolscould have a better prospect. Such a socially critical direction of change, however, should be conceived not only as a sole agenda in environmental education but also as a social and educational agenda in general, in which different parties including the government, teacher education institutions, parent-teacher associations, universities and business need to work together for realising this vision. At the school level, more work needs to be done in constructing a shared vision of a green school amongst the staff, students, parents and the wider community. The road ahead is challenging but there are hopes and possibilities.
References Corcocan, P. B., Walker, K. E. and Wals, A. E. J. (2004). Case studies, make-your-case studies, and case stories: A critique of case-study methodology in sustainability in higher education. Environmental Education Research, 10(1), 7–21. Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Education Department (1992). Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department. Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Education Department (1999). Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools. Hong Kong: Education Department. Dillion, J., and Reid, A. (2004). Issues in case-study methodology in investigating environmental and sustainability issues in higher education: Towards a problem-based approach? Environmental Education Research, 10(1), 23–37. Environmental Protection Department (2002). Environment Hong Kong 2002. Hong Kong: Printing Department. Fien, J. (1993). Education for the Environment. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press. Gough, A. (1997). Education and the Environment: Policy, Trends and the Problems of Marginalization. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research. Gough, N. (1992). Blueprints for Greening Schools. Melbourne, Australia: Gould League. Lee, J. C. K. (1997). Environmental education in schools in Hong Kong. Environmental Education Research, 3(3), 359–371. Lee, J. C. K. (1999). Case studies on the adoption of environmental education: A Hong Kong perspective. Environmental Education and Information, 18(1), 13–28. Stapp, W. B., Wals, A. E. J., and Stankorb, S. L. (1996). Environmental Education for Empowerment: Action Research and Community Problem Solving. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing. Stimpson, P. (2000). Environmental attitudes and education in southern China. In D. Yencken, J. Fien and H. Sykes (eds.), Environment, Education and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses. (pp. 51–74). London: Routledge Tilbury, D. (1995). Environmental education for sustainability: Defining the new focus of environmental education in the 1990s. Environmental Education Research, 1, 195–212. Tsang, E.P.K. (2003). Heading towards environmental citizenship: The case of the Green School initiative. In P. Hills and C.S. Man, (eds.), New Directions in Environmental Education for Hong Kong (pp. 33–42). Hong Kong: The Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University of Hong Kong. Zhang, Y-Z. (2004). Thoughts on issues concerning “green schools”. Chinese Education and Society, 37(3), 64–70.
Chapter 11
The Greenschool Project in Taiwan Shun-Mei Wang
As in China and Hong Kong, Taiwan has developed a strategy for promoting sustainable development at the national level. This strategy was a response, on the one hand, to international dialogues, especially the 1992 Rio Summit and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, and, on the other hand, to national concerns with particular environmental and social circumstances. The national government established the National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD) in August 1997 and in 2002 the Environmental Basic Law was passed. This granted legal status to the NCSD as a body designated to respond to government policy making and decisions relating to sustainable development. The NCSD is required to transfer policies and decisions to the relevant agencies for action. By May 2000 the NCSD had drafted Agenda 21 of Taiwan: National Development Strategy Guidelines, followed in June 2002 by the publication of the Global Trends and Sustainable Development Action Plan (NCSD, 2004). December 2003 was set as the deadline for putting into place many of the concrete proposals included in this Action Plan. The Taiwan National Sustainable Development Strategy highlighted a number of national concerns: a unique, fragile island ecosystem; high population density with heavy traffic and concentrated industrial and energy producing plants; the need to provide for the disposal of municipal and industrial waste; the overuse of limited natural resources, especially fresh water; a high frequency of natural disasters, particularly typhoons, floods and earthquakes; and the active participation of Taiwan in the complex global economy with dynamic commercial, industrial and consumption patterns (Guidelines for Sustainable Development Strategy, 2000, http://lsdpg.rdec.gov.tw/English/action.htm. Accessed on November 1, 2007). The National Strategy provides a set of guidelines for action comprising nine integrated strategies with the driving forces being education, technology and information and a call for public participation, government reconstruction and
S.-M. Wang (*) Graduate Institute of Environmental Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan E-mail:
[email protected] J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_11, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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international co-operation. The Agenda 21 guidelines included five sub-sections: Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Society, Sustainable Economy, Development Motivation, and Promotion Mechanisms. For educationists, the Development Motivation sub-section is of immediate relevance. Here we read (http://www.gio. gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/eco/eco3_a2.htm. Accessed on November 1, 2007) that efforts must be made to: Assist all citizens to recognise the relationship between the environment and mankind through education, encourage responsible behaviour toward the environment. These serve as the basis of sustainable development. Integrate technology into environmental education resources, and strengthen sustainable education guidance for environmental education. Combine all social and environmental education resources, and increase environmental consensus and recognition. Promote educational reform, and help all citizens to understand the concept of sustainable development. Education should be blended into culture promotion, starting from traditions, mother language, and multicultural development.
New Era of Local Autonomy and Education Reform Implementing these educational guidelines required well organised and effective structures. In Taiwan, the formal education system comprises 6 years of primary education, 3 years of junior high education, 3 years of senior high education and 4 years of general university study. Of all these different levels of schools, primary schools are the most numerous, at about 2,600. One primary school often corresponds to one or several communities. Having a comparatively higher degree of obedience, primary schools are usually the main advocacy channels of government policies. Primary and junior high education have been compulsory for children in Taiwan since 1968. The education administration system in Taiwan is a two-level system, with both central and local administrative systems, since the Local Autonomy Act was passed in 1999. In the Local Autonomy Act, Taiwan’s 25 counties are treated as autonomous units that allow decentralisation of Taiwan’s political system. The Ministry of Education in the central government only takes charge of educational direction and supervision for local education. Local governments make their own education policy and often set their local education agencies with their budget. The local governments are responsible for managing primary schools and junior high schools in their jurisdiction. However, local education agencies are still young and short of experience and personnel, so they are still learning how to set up their vision, policies, priorities, and guidelines. The local education budget is limited. Therefore, the Ministry of Education still has an influence on local education agencies and formal education through administrative orders and funding support. The vision and spirit of Greenschool have played a critical role in terms of local environmental education at the initial de-centralised educational administration system.
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One purpose of primary education is to develop students into upstanding citizens. The national curriculum in the primary and the junior high education level, called Grade 1–9 Integrated Coordinated Curriculum, includes seven learning areas and six major social issues since education reform in 2000. Environmental education is one of the six major social issues and is supposed to be infused into the seven learning areas. The Grade 1–9 Integrated Coordinated Curriculum was also a de-centralised policy and encouraged school-based curriculum development. This new policy transferred educational power to schools and communities and fostered the uniqueness and autonomy of each school. The Greenschool vision and promotion strategy in schools gave some ideas for schools in this new educational trend. The Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan (GPPT) is a driving force for current local sustainable development with a learning based strategy.
Environmental Education in Taiwan For more than 15 years the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in Taiwan have promoted environmental education (EE). Currently, EE has a legitimate role in the new national curriculum. In the past, environmental education was only a hobby of some teachers. Due to strong governmental concerns about environmental degradation, the EE division of the MOE chose one theme for schools to educate students each year. Each year the EPA selected ten schools that exhibited outstanding performance in environmental education. In the long run, environmental cleanliness, recycling, and resource conservation were the priority areas for EE and were even synonymous with environmental education (Xu, 2001; Wang, 2004). At the same time, environmental education often became the duty of one school teacher who took charge of school sanitation and recycling. In 2000, the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan (GPPT) broke this stereotype of EE and emphasised a “greenschool vision” for the local education agencies and different levels of schools. The Greenschool Partnership Project represented a turning point for environmental education in Taiwan and fits the current democratic atmosphere. Taiwan became a democratic society with the lifting of martial law in 1987. Community policies in Taiwan provided many opportunities for public participation at the local level, empowering people through various initiatives. The Local Autonomy Act and Grade 1–9 Integrated Coordinated Curriculum are new democratic policies, requiring local governments to develop their educational policies, and schools to establish school visions and design school-based curriculum. In this new democratic and autonomic social trend, the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan (GPPT) was initiated and implemented by the Graduate Institute of Environmental Education, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and funded and promoted by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. The Ministry of Education provided the green school visions to local education agencies and schools.
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Characteristics of GPPT School Autonomy The greenschool concept was conceived in 1999, emphasising the following four aspects: school life, space and architecture, teaching and learning, and administration (Wang, 2001). The core concepts of a greenschool are ecological thought, humanistic concern and active learning and these core concepts are applied in each of the four dimensions of the greenschool vision: School life: Teachers and students learn to appreciate and adopt lifestyles that are more in tune with nature, as well as learning to adopt responsible behaviour in protecting the environment. This includes energy conservation, pollution prevention and the efficient use of resources to benefit society, so as to create a mutually supportive atmosphere for environmental conservation. Curriculum: Teachers design school based environmental education instructional materials relating to students’ lives and living environment while touching on environmental issues across disciplines. Teaching focuses on values clarification. Space and architecture: An ideal Greenschool’s architecture is in agreement with low-pollution, ecological and educational demands. Facilities are appropriately designed for the local climate and they provide opportunities for participation, planning and maintenance by both students and teachers. Administration: Ideal Greenschool leaders have made environmental commitments, and the school has its own plans based on environmental evaluation and policy. Participation by teachers, students and parents is encouraged.
At the same time, GPPT encourages connections among the four dimensions and the adoption of a holistic perspective. In GPPT, participatory schools might choose one issue about which they are especially concerned, make an action plan and take actions according to that plan. It is a self-directed and self-evaluative process (Wang, 2001). It is different from other projects that focus on certain issues chosen by the government. It is not a coercive process, but rather it relies on voluntary participation based on understanding and willingness.
Connections Between Greenschool Partners Alongside school autonomy, a second characteristic of GPPT is the establishment of partnerships. In the past, most schools have had one or two school teachers concerned about environmental issues or the love of nature. However, these environmental teachers were often isolated, felt alone and, over time, it was not
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unusual for them to lose their environmental enthusiasm. GPPT emphasises partnership, equity, and sharing. Through the creation of a website (www.greenschool.org.tw) and the provision of staff development workshops GPPT participants have been encouraged to share their environmental education experiences and to encourage each other in their professional work. Any school that accepts Greenschool concepts and wishes to share its EE activities on this website is a Greenschool Partner. Greenschool Partners are not required to pay a subscription, but they do need to register on the GPPT website. New members are given their own web page with the Hope Tree symbol. Schools are encouraged to conduct a self-evaluation using a greenschool evaluation sheet. The few requirements for becoming a Greenschool Partner make it an attractive programme with few barriers to entry.
Reinforcement Given to Greenschool Partners The Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan has a unique evaluation and reward system. The Greenschool office checks all reports from partners and gives constructive and helpful comments together with one to five leaves to put on their Hope Tree. The number of leaves on the Hope Tree depends on the quality of the report. The grading system for making this assessment is published. A group of teachers, who are also environmental education professionals, is invited to undertake this evaluation work. The sharing, comments, and reward of leaves for partners’ Hope Trees on the GPPT website plays an important role in the project. Members of the project staff do not visit schools to check the shared ideas. Active participants receive many icons of leaves, flowers, fruit, and a tree house, the rules of which are shown in Fig. 11.1. According to Hwang’s survey (2007), the Hope Tree system has led to teachers sharing their experiences and participants gaining encouragement from this. The project office maintained the belief that “any school has its own potential – if we give it encouragement and a few guiding ideas, it will develop on its own”. In 2001, GPPT initiated the presentation of a plaque with the Greenschool logo to Greenschool Partners that had continued to make further advancements. The reward system followed the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) eco-school award system. Every two years, the GPPT office announced the criteria to be met for gaining the award. Every partner was eligible to apply for this logo, though, one year later, only the qualified schools could receive the plaque. The qualifying criteria entailed completing a self-evaluation sheet, owning a tree-house on the website, having their school principals attend a workshop on environmental education, and preparing a school-wide ceremony to receive the plaque and affix it in a public area in the school. The school can keep the plaque for two years. Most schools that have been awarded the logo have been able to sustain a good performance with school members and community support.
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Fig. 11.1 Symbolic icon of the Hope Tree and the rules of Hope Tree system (http://www.greenschool. org.tw/eng/practice.htm. Accessed on November 11, 2007)
The Development of GPPT and Related Projects The Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan has become well-known in Taiwan and more and more schools have joined and shared on the website (see Table 11.1). Since 2002, the number of GPPT partners has significantly increased. At the end of 2005, the elementary school partners comprised more than 60% of all elementary schools in Taiwan. It has been promoted at workshops, radio programmes and newspapers by the Greenschool office. However, the main factors influencing the development of GPPT are two related projects, local environmental education projects and the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP) during 2002–2005 (see Fig. 11.2). The two projects will be introduced below.
Funding Incentive: Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme(TSCP) The Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP) grew out of the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan and focused on reforming school campuses to fulfil
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Table 11.1 New elementary schools joining the GPPT 2001–2005 Number of new Cumulative number Percentage of new Cumulative percentage of Year partners per year of partners partners per year (%) new partners per year (%) 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Total
96 327 348 466 401 1,638
96 423 771 1,237 1,638 1,638
6.0 20.0 21.2 28.4 24.4 100
6.0 26.0 47.2 75.6 100 100
Ministry of education
EE module project
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Local education agency
Sustainable campus project (TSCP)
Green school
Bottom
Central office and website (GPPT)
Fig. 11.2 Four related projects promoting the Greenschool idea
the concept of sustainable development, including the renovation of physical structures and facilities. The framework of the sustainable campus programme consists of three components: campus ecology, sustainable technology and environmental management. The essence of this project is participation, eco-design, innovation, new curriculum, and campus-community connections (Chang, 2007). If schools were approved, they could receive the equivalent of US$20,000–30,000 for campus renovation. In 2002 and 2003, to be eligible for the funding programme, a school needed to be a Greenschool Partner with six or more leaves on its Hope Tree and needed to submit a comprehensive funding proposal. Many new schools joined GPPT during the TSCP application period. TSCP enhanced the quality of Greenschool Partners, because a Central Advisory Committee at the MOE, including experts from architecture design, community development, energy and water conservation, and environmental education, was established, and an in-depth and detailed proposal review mechanism was adopted to ensure that the selected proposals could truly capture the essence of the meaning of sustainable campus, develop functional strategies, and put them into practice accordingly (Chang, 2007).
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Administrative Force − Local Environmental Education Projects Local environmental education projects are another influential input into the Greenschool project. In the past, local environmental education was guided by the nine environmental education centres of the local teachers colleges. Based on the spirit of local autonomy, the Ministry of Education allocated the equivalent of US$10,000–15,000 to local education agencies to develop their master plans and take a leading role since 2001. Funded educational agencies began to organise local environmental education advisory committees and working groups consisting of local school principals or teachers enthusiastic about environmental education. In this project, the local education agency had to host several workshops for local principals and teachers as well as visit schools to understand how they implemented environmental education. The Greenschool idea was promoted in these workshops. The Greenschool evaluation sheet on the website provided a reference for local education agencies. The initiators of the Greenschool office are often the speakers and the consultants of local environmental education working groups. The Ministry of Education also asked local education agencies to encourage schools to join the GPPT, and adopted the percentage of Greenschool Partners in the county as an evaluation item. The attitude of local education agencies and the Ministry of Education was so supportive that most schools had heard of the GPPT project. Through the GPPT website, the central and local educational agencies were able to know about and compare the status of environmental education among all Greenschool Partners. If the number of Greenschool Partners in their jurisdiction was low, they felt dissatisfied and discredited. A combination of both top-down force and bottom-up voluntary participation was used in the GPPT project. However, the trend is currently leaning more toward a top-down approach from the original bottom-up approach. At the time of writing, the autonomy of schools in choosing to join GPPT has almost disappeared (Hwang, 2007). Nonetheless, EE has gradually moved from the margins to the forefront in schools and has become part of the school-based curriculum. The GPPT, TSCP and local environmental education projects have together led Taiwan EE over recent years. Currently, more than half of primary and secondary schools have joined GPPT and primary schools have consistently had better performance in these three projects (Hwang, 2007). In the following part we discuss the status of GPPT and review several case studies on the processes and outcomes of GPPT in schools. However, the author does not isolate GPPT from the other projects.
Status of the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan GPPT has operated in Taiwan since 1999 and has since expanded to many schools nationwide. Currently, the GPPT website is a very active website in terms of environmental education. It has collected more than 10,000 shared reports, articles and
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course plans. It has about 7,000 members and 1,000 of them are active members. Every day, on average, 2,000 people log on to the website and view more than ten webpages (Hwang, 2007). Several studies have been conducted on the participating schools and the project. The Greenschool office (Wang, 2001, 2005; Hwang, 2007), the county educational staff (Tsai, 2005), a school principal (Lin, 2006) and school teacher (You, 2003) have conducted quantitative and qualitative research to identify the project status at different levels and in different dimensions.
The Level of Greening Among the Partners Wang (2005) designed a questionnaire to interview the project contacts of each GPPT partner regarding operational principles, barriers and social support in terms of environmental education and management in school. She used stratified random sampling. Partner schools were divided into three groups: “fruit schools” that had fruit and a tree house symbol for their Hope Tree on the website, “leaf schools”, and “seed schools” that registered but did not share on the website. The research study found that the partners presented different levels of enthusiasm in the three groups in terms of obtaining resources, school coherence, democratic participation, environmental teaching and campus management. Fruit schools were more autonomic than the other two groups because they often obtained outside resources to improve their campuses; they developed their specificity, and used democratic approaches in deciding how to change. In contrast, seed schools did not focus on environmental education, relied heavily on local educational agency orders, and provided fewer opportunities for teachers and students to engage in decision-making on their environment. Fruit schools also followed government policy and presented school members’ support for the Greenschool project. Fruit schools showed greater emphasis on environmental teaching and the adoption of a theme-based curriculum compared to flower schools and leaf schools. Fruit schools considered ecological principles in managing their campus, rather making their campuses look uniform. It was concluded that schools with more leaves on the website upheld a stronger Greenschool spirit than schools with fewer leaves.
Status of Greenschool Partners in Taoyuan County Tsai served on the Taoyuan County Bureau of Education and adopted GPPT as a local environmental education policy. She conducted a questionnaire survey for the elementary schools of Taoyuan and interviewed several principals of Greenschools and non-Greenschools to understand local elementary schools’ participation and their involvement in GPPT (Tsai, 2005). She found 55% of Taoyuan County elementary schools participated in the GPPT and 38% of these participants joined GPPT because of an official letter from the county government encouraging them to do so.
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The Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP) had little influence on the school’s participation in GPPT. One third of the partners were seed schools, and they only registered but did not submit a report on the website. The biggest barrier was teachers’ existing heavy teaching loads that prohibited them from sharing experience on the website. Tsai found partners paid more attention to campus management, followed by teaching, and students’ daily life. Schools did little in terms of school administration, such as establishing a new committee, an environmental plan, and so on. According to the results, the development of the GPPT project in Taoyuan County was just at the beginning stage and it was evident that the top-down approach could require schools to register, but not to share experiences.
GPPT Development in the Schools Here, two cases are presented, Da-Hu Elementary School in Hsinchu County (You, 2003) and Shenkeng Elementary School in Taipei County (Lin, 2006). The first case was initiated by a school teacher with the principal’s support and focused on the process of GPPT. The second case was led by the school principal and studied the impact of TSCP. The researchers are the initiators of GPPT in their schools.
Case Study Initiated by a Teacher Teacher You was the first teacher at her school to discover the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan. She was interested in environmental education and led her class in various activities, for example, recycling, reading environmental literature, making garbage cans, recovering native fish and growing plants. After she obtained the principal’s permission in October 2001, she registered on the GPPT website and her school became a partner. Later, she felt regret because the other school teachers in her school did not know about the project and did not agree to participate. Miss You actively shared on the website the environmental activities undertaken by her students and she earned many leaves on the school’s Hope Tree. Meanwhile, she looked for opportunities to make this project more well-known. In March 2002, she received notice from the Greenschool office that, if her school wanted to apply for the Greenschool logo, she needed to remind teachers and students of the role of GPPT. Teacher You took this opportunity to let other teachers and students know they had joined this project and discussed with them whether they wanted this logo and where they wanted to display it. Since then, her colleagues discussed GPPT in regular meetings and decided to make green living a priority, to design a daily life checklist, to make promotion plans and to plan a logo-hanging ceremony. After the hanging ceremony in June 2002, the school teachers began to discuss and design the Da-Hu greenschool-based curricula, including three main themes related to the local river. The teachers of every grade adopted and modified
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the self-designed curricula and infused greenschool teachings in seven disciplines. A bicycle tour combined with a green graduation ceremony was another innovative whole school activity. After a series of activities and teachings, the whole Da-Hu elementary school staff reached a consensus on environmental education and made efforts to green their school. In July 2002, this school received information about the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP) and in March 2003 earned funding for remodelling their campus. The Da-Hu Elementary School case showed an ideal whole school approach. In this case, GPPT began with one school teacher and the principal. However, all members of the school knew about and acknowledged the linking of the school with the GPPT. The project was promoted and conducted through participation and cooperation among teachers and students. They had a common vision of their green school and created many innovative and fun activities and environmental teachings at every grade. Miss You (2003) found school students had undergone some changes in their questioning and behaviour. Students began to ask about the differences between the new technology promoted by TSCP and existing methods, for example, some questioned whether insects would not have enough food on the ground in parts of the schoolyard covered by wooden decks. Students reduced their garbage generation at breakfast. They also helped to promote environmental concepts during school public meetings and through a new magazine for nature. In many ways, the school culture became “green”.
Case Study from a Principal Shenkeng Elementary School in Taipei had been a GPPT partner since 2002 and had received funding from the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme during 2002–2005. Principal Lin was the key person in these two projects. He was a wellknown principal and had been promoting environmental education for a long time. When he took up his position at Shenkeng Elementary School, he encouraged the school staff to join GPPT and apply for TSCP funding. Due to his leadership, Shenkeng Elementary School became a model school for TSCP. Principal Lin (2006) conducted a case study about his school’s innovative efforts through the GPPT and TSCP processes. His research found that the TSCP projects helped build a good quality learning environment through teacher and student participation in the process, adding a new wave of energy to their 100-year-old school. During the innovation process, some conflicts occurred and an atmosphere that encouraged dialogue and democracy was built. His school was transformed in terms of administration, facility, teaching and daily life due to the GPPT process. Lin described the improvement in administrative management. TSCP is helpful in developing each school’s speciality, reaching consensus between faculties, establishing a democratic school culture, gaining recognition from parents and communities, combining lessons with different kinds of educational programmes, bringing in social resources, connecting with the world and enhancing the quality of education.
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The case study focused on the school efforts in TSCP, which was a well organised project with large funding sources. TSCP put much pressure on the school in terms of budget auditing, short construction period and changes to the physical environment, unlike the natural evolution of the GPPT process. The principal was new to the school and this school was old and medium-large (about 2,000 students), presenting a substantial challenge for the whole school and this principal. The outcome of TSCP and the problem-solving process at Shenkeng Elementary School has impressed many visitors and has demonstrated the importance of leadership. In terms of improvements to the physical environment, TSCP was helpful in creating an ecological, environmental, energy-saving, and healthy campus. Physical changes included solar technology, solar shading/lighting, eco-ponds, a water permeable playground, a green corridor, rainwater catchment and usage, as well as audibility and lighting of indoor space (http://www.tskes.tpc.edu.tw/EC2004/DM/ ChineseDM/DM.htm. Accessed on June 5, 2008). On innovative campuses, school teachers began to create their new curricula and students had many hands-on activities at school. Ms. Liu led students to the new eco-stream to observe algae and fish as well as monitor water quality of the stream water. They also brought algae back to the classroom to observe the tiny structure of algae with microscopes. In this activity, students found diverse and special living organisms and acknowledged the importance of wetlands. School administrators host annual school tree elections for tree planting festivals. Voluntary classes attended this competition with teacher assistance. They introduced their plant species and their needs with posters and drama to persuade the whole school to vote for the species they suggested for that year. In this activity, students learned more knowledge about the plants as well as increasing their concern for plants. According to the previous description, the greening process of GPPT schools is quite different. The author conducted a multiple case study on the greening process which emphasised school preparation and the principal’s leadership (Wang, 2007).
School Preparation and Leadership Many schools have participated in the Greenschool Partnership Project (GPPT), but each one has been unique and has had a different level of preparation in working towards becoming a Greenschool. How do school principals lead and support colleagues, students and parents to make change? In the whole school approach, what roles do teachers and communities play in promoting innovation? How do they get students involved during the process? Wang (2007) has conducted an in-depth interview study putting these questions to school principals, administrators, teachers and parents of three Greenschool Partners who had a good performance in GPPT. This study found the principals adopted situational leadership to initiate, persuade or facilitate staff, school teachers and parents to participate in sustainable projects. The interaction of the principals with school teachers and parents
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depended on the level of teachers’ environmental literacy and community involvement in school affairs. In one junior high school (Yi School), teachers lacked environmental literacy, so the principal took the lead and persuaded teachers to follow his policy. Even when school teachers questioned his policy, the principal asked them to follow and be patient. In the last several years, Yi School has replaced the surface of the school ground with new soil and planted grass to stop dusty conditions, as well as creating an ecological pond and decorating classrooms with reused materials for aesthetic and educational purposes. This principal applied for TSCP funding, but he absorbed and integrated community resources. Yi School had had a good relationship with the local community for 20 years. It had been able to collect various local resources, such as those from the local army base, a 4-H group, and university students to assist with campus reform. The landscape of Yi School had been improved and teachers enjoyed the campus and used the campus for teaching as well as changing their conception of environmental teaching. This principal well understood the assets of his school and applied them very wisely. At Err School, an old primary school in an urban area, several school teachers were nature lovers and had been conducting exciting environmental lessons in their classes for several years. The principal was interested in environmental education, however, he was a new principal at this school. He invited these nature-loving teachers to help and applied for government funding (TSCP) to renovate the campus. They set campus greening as their school-based curricula. The teachers designed their own curricula to correspond to campus improvement actions. The school teachers led the sixth grade students in the art and literacy class removing the asphalt surface to increase the area of water permeable surface. They also found many stones under the asphalt surface. They dug out the stone for future use and put down new soil for planting. Next year, the sixth-graders made a small garden along the ditch with the dug stones and nutrient-rich sediment from the bottom of the ditch. The fourth-graders learned to use tools and to plant vegetables with compost. The campus innovation took two years with school members’ participation. The school caught this opportunity to let students and teachers have direct experience in habitat construction and ecological management. After this project, more teachers were interested in environmental education and their environmental literacy increased. Some parents joined the project and the campus became attractive and pleasant, resulting in an improved image for the school. The school began volunteer training for parents. These nature-loving teachers and the principal played the main role in encouraging other school teachers and parents to learn about the environment. The principal was familiar with the Greenschool concept and efficiently applied existing teacher resources and community resources. The third school (San School) was a small, aboriginal primary school located in a remote area. The principal, who was familiar with the local aboriginal culture and poor status of the aboriginal village, had served this school for eight years. Due to this principal’s past efforts in extending education after class and enhancing their local culture, the school vitalised their campus and the school teachers learned
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about the local culture and had a certain degree of environmental literacy. TSCP provided this school with large funding that was used for solar energy technology, an ecological stream and an ethno-botanical garden. The ecological stream effectively treated the sewage from the community and the ethno-botanical garden produced local organic fruit. The students learned how ecological principles can be used to clean up their daily wastewater. At the same time, local residents got parttime jobs with this construction project. Furthermore, a local resident taught school teachers and students how to make wooden furniture and decorate with driftwood that came from the upper part of the watershed during typhoons. Students learned handicraft skills and reused natural resources. The principal accepted TSCP funding, which had had good outcomes in terms of the school campus, teaching and good relationships with the community. TSCP in Shin-shing Elementary provided a good model for other aboriginal schools and supported community economics. These three case studies demonstrate successes. However, the promotion of GPPT was not always so smooth. There were some difficulties at the school level and within the project itself.
Challenges and the Prospects for GPPT GPPT has embraced most schools in Taiwan and has become a huge project. It has sometimes been out of control. There have been a small number of studies on the difficulties and challenges faced by the project, and the researchers have made some suggestions for improving the project. The GPPT office has also struggled to maintain the quality of the project and to maintain web democracy. This is described in detail below.
Difficulties of GPPT Jenq (2004) presented several difficulties of GPPT in schools. He taught in a primary school in central Taiwan. He became familiar with GPPT and its spirit through a friend and he was impressed with another Greenschool partner’s performance. He initiated and promoted GPPT in his school, but he gradually felt frustrated and encountered some difficulties. When he looked through the record of other partners on the website, he found some schools registered as partners, but never shared and earned leaves on their Hope Tree. Based on his personal experience and observation of the GPPT website, he decided to conduct a research study for his Masters thesis on the processes and barriers in the involvement of 12 Greenschools. After interviewing 12 Greenschool Partners, he assessed these schools’ status and development of environmental education. Before the schools joined GPPT, they had implemented environmental education activities, mainly concerned with recycling.
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Two schools had specialised in energy education and ecological education. The result was the same as the expectation. The interviewed schools knew about GPPT through their local education agencies, related information through TSCP, workshops, other websites and Masters programmes. Some schools passively joined GPPT because this was a requirement for applying for TSCP funding. Other schools joined GPPT because they appreciated the spirit of the project, obtained information from other partners and wanted to share their work. These schools had different numbers of Hope Tree leaves on the website; the number of Hope Tree leaves reflecting their past and current efforts. The obvious effects of GPPT in schools were a reduction of garbage and an increase in recycling. Their campus gradually became green, beautiful and educational. GPPT seemed to increase school teachers’ and students’ environmental literacy and natural sensitivity. Although these schools joined GPPT, they faced some difficulties, which were categorised by Jenq (2004). The first difficulty was limitation of the physical environment or restriction of budget, hindering them from implementing their projects. The second barrier was a low level of enthusiasm and few partnerships in the school. The school contact person for GPPT was overworked and became passive when he or she needed to get support from others. GPPT in the school thus became an individual activity. The interviewees felt alone because few teachers provided support for sharing. If the contact person was very busy, he or she seldom went on the website and shared. The researcher found that if the school principal led a team and promoted GPPT, the programme would run very smoothly. If the contact person held a lower status, he or she did not influence school policy, and in some cases even other members did not know they were Greenschool Partners because the contact person seldom promoted the programme. If the school administration team changed, GPPT would be influenced. New principals or new school contact persons influenced the consensus and role expectations of GPPT. The third difficulty involved the local education agency. Some local education agencies did not respect or understand the voluntary spirit (school autonomy) of GPPT and coerced schools to join GPPT, so that more and more schools joined GPPT but did not share and remained dormant “seed schools”. Jenq’s (2004) research showed some realities of the GPPT. The first one was the motivation of the partners. According to Jenq’s findings, some schools joined GPPT because they either wanted to apply for TSCP funding or were coerced by local education agencies. In Hwang’s survey of Partners through a web questionnaire (Hwang, 2007), he found the schools that owned a tree house symbol (having good performance) first knew about the programme from friends or other schools or conferences, and then joined. At that time, it was genuine motivation that led them to join the project. The second difficulty mentioned by Jenq was lack of team work and internal support for GPPT within the schools. In Wang’s survey (Wang, 2005), the principal, teachers and students in the “tree house” schools were significantly more familiar with the project and provided their teaching experience on the website, more so than “leaf schools” and “seed schools” did. Therefore, social support in schools is a critical factor.
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Jenq (2004) also presented several suggestions in his thesis for dealing with the previous barriers. The solutions were the appropriate application of funds, making good plans and following them step by step, communicating with school members to get recognition toward the Greenschool project, as well as recruiting outside support and working co-operatively. He also suggested that the school contact person of the Greenschool project should play the role of advocate, co-ordinator, planner, and communicator to get many school members participating and working co-operatively, so that they could reduce the barriers and find solutions together. He also suggested that the Greenschool office should hold some workshops for partners and help organise strategic alliances. His findings and suggestions were published in the Greenschool newsletter.
Student Performance in GPPT Schools Although GPPT has been running for eight years, there has been no serious evaluation research about the outcomes of GPPT in terms of its impact on students. In 2004, She and Su (2006) conducted a preliminary survey of ten elementary schools in Miaoli County on students’ environmental sensitivity, knowledge and behaviour. Half of these schools were Greenschool Partners, and the other half were matched counterpart non-Greenschools. Fifth and sixth grade students were interviewed. The study found that students cared for the environment, were sensitive to environmental change, and had positive environmental behaviour. However, their environmental knowledge was found to be lacking and required further strengthening. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of students’ environmental sensitivity, knowledge and behaviour, although the Greenschools’ scores were slightly higher than non-Greenschools. The interviewees in both groups thought their schools were Greenschools. She and Su (2006) explained that the two groups may have put many efforts into environmental education. Therefore, the students of the schools thought that their schools were “green schools”. The Greenschool Partners just shared their efforts on the website, and the non-Greenschool group implemented environmental education without sharing. It took time to produce different outcomes of environmental education. The Greenschool Partners had only joined GPPT for a short time and did not differ greatly from non-Greenschools. She and Su (2006) did not describe the ten schools and their environmental education efforts in detail, so the exact reasons for their findings are not clear. It will be necessary to study the Greenschool Partners with qualitative and quantitative methods in the future.
Reflections on and Prospects for Promoting Greenschools in Taiwan Since 2000, Green-school projects have become a trend in environmental education around the world. GPPT owes its uniqueness to computer technology manufactured
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and embraced by the local culture. The initiators of GPPT adopted ideas from other projects, such as the SEED schools in Canada, the eco-schools in Britain, the Global River Environmental Education Network, and the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Programme, and integrated them in the context of the status of environmental education in Taiwan. In terms of accreditation, GPPT did not have an accreditation system, which is common among greenschool projects in other countries. Schools in agreement with the greenschool idea registered on the website to become a member (Greenschool Partner) of the project. The Partners were not required to send any documents to the Greenschool office. Therefore, it is possible that only the school contact person of the GPPT knew his (her) school joined the project while other staff members were unaware, excepting those schools that receive the Greenschool logo in public. Contact persons in those schools that did not promote the Greenschool project have reported feeling isolated and overloaded so that their sharing on the website was limited or disappeared quickly, resulting in the project losing the “whole-school approach” spirit. In 2006, the Greenschool office revised the GPPT website to overcome previous barriers and make it more democratic. The new webpages allowed more school teachers to participate and share their efforts directly without the school contact person’s help, as well as having control of their own webpage. Currently, each personal sharing is shown on each school webpage as well as the teachers’ personal webpage. The authority of partners to manipulate the information on the website has been extended so that each partner can comment on each sharing. This revised version has enhanced partners’ autonomy and interaction. Therefore, in 2006, more individual partners joined the project. In terms of information sharing, GPPT has faced a saturation barrier. The project relied on the computer website which can transfer messages quickly and publicly. Each partner could share his or her reports at any time. The GPPT office assessed the shared reports through an information system. The databank of the GPPT website records partners’ efforts and has become a well-known environmental education knowledge bank. Currently, there are more than 10,000 activities posted. The Greenschool office has improved the labelling of sharing, assigning key words and category items to facilitate searching. All people on the website, including Greenschool Partners, can learn about others’ environmental lessons or actions through Hope Tree evaluation results, which is the core mechanism of the project and has shown a big influence on the partners (Hwang, 2007). However, some partner schools have been overcome by the responsibility of sharing and the phenomenon of saturation in the shared reports was discovered. There were not many innovative environmental activities on the website. Therefore, the Green office introduced theme-specific educational materials and programmes, such as energy education, printer carbon cartridge recycling, and animal welfare education to extend the vision of Greenschool Partners. The structure of GPPT is loose and lacks a process that had to be adhered to strictly. It has allowed more and more school teachers to join, even though a “whole-school approach” spirit may be lacking. The central and local education
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agencies cared about the project and had heavily promoted it, sometimes excessively, producing a negative effect. Instead of stopping the interference of education agencies, in the future, the education agencies will be invited to evaluate schools and give the Greenschool logo award to schools that manage their Greenschool project using a whole-school approach. This will allow some partners to improve continuously. If this happens, the GPPT is likely to become similar to green school projects in other countries.
Conclusion Taiwan’s government showed concern for environmental and social conditions in its response to international dialogue, especially the 1992 Rio Summit and 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. The decentralisation trend due to the Local Autonomy Act and Grade 1–9 Integrated Coordinated Curriculum Policy is the foundation for the Agenda 21 of Taiwan since 2000. It allowed people to construct collectively a vision for local sustainable development and teachers created school-based curricula. The Greenschool idea and its spirit (ecological care, partnership, action research) is a learning based strategy for building sustainability in schools, education agencies and communities. The green school idea was promoted by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan through multiple projects, including the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan (GPPT), the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP) and local environmental education projects over eight years (2000–2007). The projects produced some level of impact on the school systems, particularly the school campus, the boundary of environmental education and recognised the Greenschool website and its interaction and databank. However, some researchers found that it was difficult to build a sustainable culture in schools and to complete it with the whole school approach. The life-style in school, the expectations of a teacher’s role and co-ordination between colleagues needed to be changed or enhanced. Greenschools are built through school transformation and long-term efforts. The Greenschool website and the Greenschool Partnership Project in Taiwan should be continuous to assist school culture transformation by empowering teachers and schools through much more cross cultural interchange.
References Chang, T. C. (2007, July). Enriching Subject Matters of Learning Through Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme. Paper presented at the Fourth World Environmental Education Congress – Learning in a Changing World, Durban, South Africa. Hwang, J. (2007). Exploring the Users’ Motivation and Satisfaction of the Green School Website and Its External Influent Factors. Unpublished Masters thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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Jenq, C. S. (2004). A Study of the Process and Obstacles of the Green Elementary School in Central Taiwan. Unpublished Masters thesis, National Taichung University, Taichung, Taiwan. Lin, J. T. (2006). Revitalisation of a One Hundred–Year–Old School – A Case Study of the Innovative Management in Sustainable Campus. Taipei Municipal University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan. National Council for Sustainable Development Network (NCSD) (2004). Action Plan – Taiwan Sustainable Development Action Plan. http://sta.epa.gov.tw/nsdn/en/project/index.htm. Accessed on May 21, 2008. She, Y. S. and Su, H. R. (2006). The Comparison Study Between the Green Schools and NonGreen Schools at Mao-Li County in the Environmental Sensitivity, Environmental Knowledge and Environmental Behaviors. Unpublished Masters thesis, National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan. Tsai, B. Y. (2005). Exploring the Promotion of the Green School Project by the Local Education Agency of the Tao-Yuen County. Unpublished Masters thesis, National Hsin-chu University of Education, Hsin-chu, Taiwan. Wang, S. M. (2001). The Green School Partnership Project in Taiwan and Its Assisting Plan. Ministry of Education, National Taiwan Normal University Taipei. Wang, S. M. (2004). The exploration of the environmental education with whole school approach in the middle schools of Taiwan. Journal of Taiwan Normal University Mathematics and Science Education, 49(2), 87–106. Wang, S. M. (2005). The comparison of the environmental education in green schools and non-green schools. Journal of Education Research, 128, 69–80. Wang, S. M. (2007, July). The Exploration of Environmental Education Through School Sustainability Projects. Paper presented at the Fourth World Environmental Education Congress – Learning in a Changing World, Durban, South Africa. Xu, S. Z. (2001). Environmental education and environmental action. Secondary Education, 52(2), 52–75. You, G. I. (2003). An Action Research on the Creation of Green School-Based Curriculum Development: In Da-Hu Primary School of Hsin-Chu. Unpublished Masters thesis, National Taichung University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chapter 12
Progress Towards Education for Sustainable Development in Macao John Chi-Kin Lee, Angel Yuet-Ying Au and William Hing-Tong Ma
Macao does not possess a single, unified educational system. It has been characterised by a laissez faire philosophy and supported by an unco-ordinated collection of systems imported from Portugal, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan and Hong Kong (Lee and Ma, 1996). The division between government schools and private schools is a distinctive aspect of education in Macao, with private schools forming the vast majority of schools. Curricula in private schools are mainly governed by the preferences and backgrounds of the sponsors of individual institutions. Although there is an actual divergence in school curricula following the models of Hong Kong, PRC and Taiwan, interestingly, most private schools in Macao use school textbooks from Hong Kong. Before 2003, class sizes in primary and secondary schools were large, with an average of 40–60 pupils. In some primary schools, it was not uncommon to have 60–70 pupils in one class (Lee and Ma, 1996). Recently, the average class size has been reduced from 45.7 in 1999/2000 to 32.8 pupils per class in 2007/2008 (Li and Koo, 2006: 73; DSEJ, 2008). It is compulsory for children to attend primary schools. They entered primary school at the age of 6 (the youngest one can be 5 years and 8 months old) and they transferred to secondary education at the age of 11 (DSEJ, 2007). The University of Macau is responsible for teacher education. There are 6 credits hours for “Science Education in primary school”, “Hygiene education” and “History and Geography” in the second year of the 4 year Bachelor Degree of Primary Education J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected] A.Yuet-Ying Au Centre for University and School Partnership, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong W. Hing-Tong Ma Centre for University and School Partnership, The Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
J. Chi-Kin Lee and M. Williams (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in Chinese Communities: Experience with Younger Children, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-9686-0_12, © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
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to prepare pre-service student teachers to teach General Studies or science in primary schools (http://www.umac.mo/fed/doc/po_bachelor_PRI_e.pdf. Accessed on March 12, 2008). Initially in this chapter we shall give an overview of environmental education in Macao, particularly from the 1990s when Macao began to give more attention to the promotion of environmental education. Then we shall report the findings from a small-scale questionnaire survey and some brief case studies that we have recently conducted so as to portray the status of environmental education in primary schools in Macao, suggesting ways forward for improvement.
Environmental Education in the 1990s In 1991, the Macao Government enacted Law Number 11/91/M Macao Education System, establishing the framework of the education system in Macao. It enacted Law Number 38/94/M in 1994. In 1995/1996 the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau started an educational reform process, confirming the education system framework and publishing guidelines and objectives for pre-primary, primary and secondary education. These Laws were first implemented in government schools, while providing greater freedom to private schools. In Article 8 (primary education), four of the specified ten objectives were: • To master the basic concepts of arithmetic, natural and social environments • To provide understanding of the reality of Macao and to promote the development of its own unique characteristics • Promote moral and civic education and • Cultivate students’ thinking and critical spirit so that they can rationally analyse problems of their own and the society that they live in A “permeated” approach was adopted with the incorporation of environmental education elements into conventional secondary school subjects such as geography and chemistry, and primary school subjects such as social studies and natural science/health hygiene. Based on the framework of three components of environmental education, education about, in and for the environment (Fien, 1993; Lucas, 1980; Robottom, 1987), a questionnaire survey was conducted with a sample of 158 primary school teachers and 51 secondary school teachers (Lee and Ma, 1996) in Macao. Our findings revealed that teachers tended to be more supportive of such cognitive objectives as, “students to demonstrate knowledge of the environment and environmental protection” and such affective objectives as, “students to care about and appreciate nature”. As regards the extent of environmental education, the results showed that the following two aspects had been taught in some detail: “suggesting that students cultivate environmentally friendly behaviour and lifestyle” and “helping students understand the relationship between lifestyle and pollution” (p. 115). Our study also found that there were problems of implementing environmental
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education, including teachers’ heavy workloads, difficulties in carrying out fieldwork because of inflexible timetable arrangements, insufficient teaching time to employ various teaching strategies and teaching aids because of the overloaded curriculum; and the over-large class sizes that caused teachers anxieties associated with safety aspects (p. 116). In 1999, the Curricular Reform and Development Committee of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau published a set of guidelines for pre-primary to senior secondary education (Curricular Reform and Development Committee, 1999). As the following examples show, it is not difficult to locate environment-related objectives or topics in these guidelines: • To develop knowledge of the society, natural environment and environmental protection (pre-primary, general objective) • To nurture a caring and respectful attitude towards the environment (pre-primary, general objective) • To possess a sense of environmental protection (junior secondary, general objective of physics and natural sciences) • To know the relationship and interactions between people and the environment and develop an attitude to protect the environment (junior secondary, general objective of geography) • To utilise biological and environmental protection knowledge to improve individual and family environment (senior secondary, general objective of biology) and • To appropriately treat the relationships between people and the environment (senior secondary, general objective of chemistry) Although environment-related objectives can be found throughout pre-primary to senior secondary education, suggested teaching topics in the guidelines might not be directly related to the environment. The general objectives of senior secondary level chemistry include, “To nurture students. . . to have suitable attitude and perspective to learn about the environment and to have a suitable perspective to deal with the relationship between people and the natural environment”. However the suggested topics are conventional physical, organic and inorganic chemistry. Teachers would experience difficulty in infiltrating environmental concepts into their teaching if they wished to achieve those environment-related general objectives. Since 1999, schooling in Macao entered a new phase as Macao became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. Some of the major initiatives included the “development of school-based curricula in order to change the perception of reliance on mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan for curriculum borrowing; extending the 10 years of fee-free education to 12 years; unifying the 6 + 3 + 3 school system; multiple intelligence forms of assessment; inclusive education. . .” (Adamson and Li, 2004: 38). According to the 1999 curriculum document, the primary school curriculum comprised the following subjects: moral education, Chinese, Putonghua, visual education/handicraft, mathematics, social studies, physical education, music, English (for government schools or for private schools), and natural science/health
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hygiene (http://www.dsej.gov.mo/crdc/course/primary_r.htm. Accessed on January 23, 2008). As regards school-based curriculum development, Lo (2004: 172) remarked that: Hong Kong teachers select or adapt the teaching materials from the centralised curriculum so as to meet the learning levels of their students. In Macao, because there is a lack of localised teaching materials, some teachers have taken initiatives to develop their own materials.
Despite the clear emphasis of environmental education related objectives in the education law and efforts by the government, Kwong (1999) remarked that environmental education encountered some challenges. These included the low level and inadequacy of environmental education; the lack of systematic, long-term planning; the lack of co-ordination between government, schools, communities and families; the lack of resources, professional staff and research funds; the lack of comprehensive publicity materials on the Macao environment; and the packed school timetable (Kwong, 1999).
The Millennium In 2006, 7 years after the handover to China, the Macao Government enacted Law Number 9/2006 Fundamental Law of Non-tertiary Education System. This replaced Law 11/91/M, launching the new education system standard for Macao. Environmental awareness continued to play an important role in education as two of the five general objectives, as stated in Article 4 Law no. 9/2006 (DSEJ, 2007), are: • To comprehensively enhance the scientific and humanistic accomplishments [literacy], to enable them to possess the spirit of innovation, critical awareness, concept of sustainable development and practical ability; to nurture the attitude and capability of life-long learning and • To nurture good aesthetic taste and capacity, as well as the accomplishments of harmonious coexistence with the nature (our emphasis added) Environmental education related objectives could also be found throughout preprimary, primary and secondary education in Law Number 9/2006. These objectives include: • To cultivate the basic concepts of environmental protection (pre-primary) • To cultivate students’ basic civic consciousness and nurture the love for others, Macao, the nation, as well as the affection for nature and • To cultivate students’ morality, to nurture the attitude of harmonious coexistence with others and the environment as well as the spirit of serving the society (primary) • To be enthusiastic in social participation and concern about ecological environment (junior secondary) and
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• To enhance the national consciousness, global horizon and awareness of environmental protection. . . (senior secondary) (DSEJ, 2007) In addition to the official curriculum agency, the Environment Council (EC) is another government department that helps to provide environmental protection-related activities to schools. It has published a series of books on environmental protection and a short film, Macau: Towards sustainable development, for heightening citizens’ environmental awareness. In 2005, the EC organised an environmental protection photo exhibition tour for secondary school students to enhance their knowledge of the state of the environment in Macao SAR and how Macao reacts to the challenges of environmental protection problems. 13,400 students attended this exhibition (Environment Council, 2005). EC and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau has co-organised summer courses for teachers for some five consecutive years, starting in 2000. The title of the summer course in 2005 was How to promote environmental education in school? (Environment Council, 2005). The main purpose of this course was to improve the teaching methods and knowledge of in-service teachers, and to encourage teachers to organise interest classes and extracurricular activities in schools. The course in 2005 was attended by 20 primary school and kindergarten teachers. In July 2007, the summer environmental education course was attended by around 70 teachers from the pre-school, primary school and secondary school sectors (http://www.ambiente.gov.mo/tchinese/08/2007/27. asp. Accessed on January 27, 2008). The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (CMAB) has set up three Environmental Information Centres, offering various activities for the public and schools to promote environmental protection. These activities include a guided park tour, a paper recycling demonstration, using solid waste to make artworks, a zoo visit, a planting area for visitors to experience planting, and talks (Environmental Information Centre, undated). The Civil Education Information Centre of the CMAB organised an Environment Friendly Handicraft Workshop, where participants were taught to make handicrafts, such as toys and accessories, from waste material (Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, 2005). With regard to Macao’s environmental problems, from 1998 to 2006, there was a sharp increase in the use of electricity, while waste production, greenhouse gases emission and water usage showed a comparatively minor incremental change (Environment Council, 2007). These changes were explained partly by a sharp increase in the number of visitors and by the increase in gross domestic production. A continuous rise in the number of automobiles and an increase in electricity consumption made air pollution one of the major environmental problems in Macao (Environment Council, 2007). The increasing popularity of the gambling industry has led to an increase in GDP. This has contributed to such environmental problems as light pollution. The increase in the number of people working at night has led to noise pollution. A substantial increase in the number of visitors has led to increasing electricity and water consumption and increasing waste production (Environment Council, 2007). It is against this background that we explore the curriculum content in relation to environmental education and ascertain the status of environmental education through a questionnaire survey and brief case studies.
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Curriculum Natural science/health hygiene is one of the principal school subjects for implementing environmental education in the formal curriculum of Macao, as can be seen in these selected objectives related to environmental education (DSEJ, 1999a: 5): 1. Knowledge Understand the general relationship between the Earth, environment and people. 2. Skills 2.4 Actively enquire about natural phenomena and its surrounding things, cultivate the abilities of discovering problems at any time, making enquiries into the problems and resolving the problems oneself. 3. Attitudes 3.4 Cultivate children’s abilities to appreciate beautiful things, nurture the spirit of caring about and protecting the environment so as to bring about the effects of cultivating the mind and enhancing life. To match these objectives, some of the contents in the syllabus are obviously related to environmental education as shown in Table 12.1. The syllabus in Table 12.1 shows a heavy emphasis on knowing plants and animals as well as natural phenomena such as clouds and rain (Grade 3) and weather (Grade 5). The topic of “caring about nature” in Grade 2 covers topics such as common flowers in Macao, caring about the animals and plants in the urban parks, naughty monkeys and how animals take care of their children. The topic of “caring about animals and plants” in Grade 4 addresses issues of growing plants for beautifying the school campus and rearing small animals. The topic of “knowing natural resources” in Grade 5 touches upon country parks as well as caring about and
Table 12.1 Selected Natural Science topics related to environmental education in Macao Grade 1 Knowing myself and our world Knowing about the animal world Knowing about the plant world
Grade 2 Caring about nature Knowing about the characteristics of some animals and insects Four seasons and weather Knowing about water and air Grade 3 Plant and the functions of its main parts Small animals in the field and garden Animals in the sea Birds and animals on the land Knowing about some natural phenomena
Grade 4 How do plants reproduce Knowing about animals again Caring about animals and plants Water and air Earth Grade 5 Growth and reproduction of plants Knowing about insects, amphibians and birds Knowing about natural resources Knowing about weather Grade 6 Knowing about plants again Knowing about animals again Specimen Environmental protection
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Table 12.2 Themes and topics in general studies that are related to environmental education Grade
Theme
Primary 1
Home sweet home Going to school Growing up Our neighbourhood Hong Kong: Our home Back to nature Healthy living Living in Hong Kong
Primary 2
Primary 3
Primary 4
Primary 5
Primary 6
Unit
Home environment School environment Growth of animals and plants Our community My country Love of nature; Outing is fun A healthy living environment Good sightseeing spots; Animals and plants in Hong Kong The weather of Hong Kong Sunny days and windy nights; hot or cold The wonderful world Mother Earth; children in other parts of the world Our environment, our The environment and I; natural resources: Water resources Hong Kong in the past Life in the city Natural resources: air; physical environment, technology and culture To know about my country Our homeland Beyond our Earth Environment and living Materials: change, change, change; adaptation of living things; pollution prevention and conservation of the environment A global perspective Introduction to common issues of concern
protecting natural resources, e.g., the rainforests. One of the suggested activities in the syllabus was to encourage students to propose ways of saving natural resources through the creation of a drama (DSEJ, 1999b: 38). In Grade 6, the topic of “environmental protection” highlights such issues as pollution (effects and methods of prevention) in Macao as well as the responsibility of protecting and beautifying the environment by the Macao government and citizens. It is noteworthy that some schools in Macao used Hong Kong general studies textbooks for teaching topics in natural science/health hygiene or social studies. As regards the syllabus for general studies in Hong Kong, some of the topics broadly related to environmental education are outlined in Table 12.2 (Curriculum Development Council, 2002).
Findings from the Questionnaire Survey An on-line questionnaire survey was conducted in October and November, 2007. Questionnaire items for teachers mainly came from three validated instruments used successfully in previous studies: one related to teacher receptivity to environmental education (Lee, 2000; Waugh and Godfrey, 1993), an instrument related to teachers’ perceptions of implementing environmental education (Ko and Lee, 2003; Littledyke, 1997) and another related to the New Environmental Paradigm (Ng, 1991). Some of the items were modified or created to suit the Macao context.
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The instrument related to teacher receptivity to environmental education (EE), using a 7-point Likert scale (1 meaning strongly disagree and 7 meaning strongly agree), covered the topics of perceived non-monetary costs and benefits of EE to teachers, perceived practicality of EE, perceived other support for implementing EE in school, and general behavioural intentions towards promoting EE. The instrument related to teachers’ perceptions of implementing environmental education comprised items on current and intended emphasis on teaching environmental knowledge, attitude and skills as well as current and preferred (intended) teaching approach (using a 7-point Likert scale), teaching methods (have used, have not used but would like to use or no response) and perceived barriers (logistical and personal) in implementing EE (using a 7-point Likert scale) (Ham and Sewing, 1987/1988). Statistical analysis showed that the instruments had satisfactory reliabilities. (The reliabilities (Cronbach alpha, α) of the sub-scales of perceived nonmonetary costs and benefits of EE to teachers, perceived practicality of EE, perceived other support for implementing EE in school, and general behavioural intentions towards promoting EE were 0.927, 0.642, 0.8856 and 0.910 respectively. The reliabilities of all sub-scales (knowledge, attitude and skills) for Current Approach were 0.888, 0.829 and 0.828 respectively and for Preferred Approach were 0.960, 0.894 and 0.912 respectively.) A total of 122 primary school principals and teachers from two government schools and four private schools completed the questionnaires. They were located in the down-town urban district and in the Taipa or northern district. They were selected to represent the combination of different types of schools in different districts, private versus public, religious versus pro-China association. As the sizes of the schools varied, the number of respondents from each school ranged from 15–59 teachers. While it is difficult to generalise from our findings, they do provide some snapshots to illustrate the status of environmental education in Macao. The survey results as shown in Part 4 of Table 12.3 indicate that teachers tended to express generally positive behavioural intentions towards promoting environmental education (EE) (mean score of 5.30 for the sub-scale). 81% of teachers stated that they would actively and publicly support their school’s EE in the academic year 2007–2008 (values of 5–7 on a 7-point Likert scale) (mean score of 5.28) while 88% of teachers indicated that they would explain to their colleagues that environmental education was a way of cultivating citizenship and encouraged the introduction of EE at this school in the academic year 2007–2008 (mean score of 5.43). Our findings revealed that, in weighing the balance between the work generated by the implementation of environmental education and benefits including personal satisfaction with EE, personal growth in environmental knowledge, enhancement of students’ environmental learning, increased commitment in environmental protection by the students, better environmental quality in schools and local communities, and personal contribution to Macao’s sustainable development, more than 90% (assigning values 5–7 to an item) of the teachers stated that the promotion of environmental education (EE) was worthwhile (mean score of “perceived nonmonetary cost benefit” sub-scale of 5.71) (Part 1 of Table 12.3).
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Table 12.3 Teachers’ perceived receptivity to environmental education Part 1 Perceived non-monetary cost benefit N = 119; Mean = 5.71; S.D. = 0.725; α = 0.927 1
2
3
4
5
6
Items
Mean
S.D.
In weighing up the balance between the work generated for me by implementing environmental education (EE) and my satisfaction after practice, I think the implementation of EE is worthwhile. In weighing up the balance between the work generated for me by implementing environmental education (EE) and my growth in environmental knowledge after practice, I think the implementation of EE is worthwhile. In weighing up the balance between the work generated for me by implementing environmental education (EE) and students’ benefit in environmental learning after practice, I think the implementation of EE is worthwhile. In weighing up the balance between the work generated for me by implementing environmental education (EE) and the increased environmental commitment by the students after practice, I think the implementation of EE is worthwhile. In weighing up the balance between the work generated for me by implementing environmental education (EE) and better environmental quality in schools and local communities after practice, I think the implementation of EE is worthwhile. In weighing up the balance between the work generated for me by implementing environmental education (EE) and my contribution to Macao’s sustainable development after practice, I think the implementation of EE is worthwhile.
5.61
0.959
5.66
0.816
5.76
0.833
5.79
0.801
5.73
0.810
5.71
0.847
Part 2 Perceived practicality N = 118; Mean = 5.28; S.D. = 0.633; α= 0.642 1 2 3 4
5
Items
Mean
S.D.
Methods used in environmental education (heuristic method and interactive mode) suit my teaching style. The diversified teaching methods (including field studies) that environmental education promotes reflect my educational ideal. The approach of sustainable development that environmental education emphasises is likely to be realised in my school. The practice of environmentally friendly behaviours by students highlighted in EE is appropriate to meeting the needs of the students in my school. My mastery of knowledge and skills related to EE is sufficient to promote environmental education in my school.
5.56
0.901
5.50
0.913
5.35
0.767
5.47
0.884
4.51
1.363
Mean
S.D.
Part 3 Perceived other support N = 118; Mean = 3.60; S.D. = 1.177; α = 0.885 Items 1
In my opinion, the Government of Macao provides sufficient resources 3.35 to help promote the implementation of environmental education in my school.
1.416
(continued)
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Table 12.3 (continued) 2
3
4 5
In my opinion, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau and the Environment Council provide sufficient suggestions and assistance to help teachers acquire the methods of implementing environmental education in my school. In my opinion, the environmental protection organisations in Macao provide adequate support for promoting environmental education in my school. In my opinion, parents support the promotion of environmental education in this school. In my opinion, the local community organisations provide adequate environmental protection activities for student participation.
3.39
1.432
3.26
1.435
4.43
1.429
3.58
1.404
Items
Mean
S.D.
In my behaviour and communication with other teachers, I will actively and publicly support the introduction of environmental education (EE) at this school in the academic year 2007–2008. In my behaviour and communication with other teachers, I will praise the introduction of EE at this school in the academic year 2007–2008. In my behaviour and communication with other teachers, I will propose the introduction of EE at this school in the academic year 2007–2008. In my behaviour and communication with other teachers, I will tell my colleagues that the level of students’ environmental knowledge is one of the criteria for Macao as a modern city and encourage the introduction of EE at this school in the academic year 2007–2008. In my behaviour and communication with other teachers, I will explain to my colleagues that environmental education is a way of cultivating citizenship and encourage the introduction of EE at this school in the academic year 2007–2008.
5.28
0.977
5.15
0.966
5.27
0.967
5.37
0.855
5.43
0.833
Part 4 General behavioural intentions N = 118; Mean = 5.30; S.D. = 0.785; α = 0.910 1
2
3
4
5
As regards the practicality of environmental education, more than 85% of teachers responded that: methods used in EE suited their teaching style; diversified teaching methods (including field studies) in EE reflected their own educational ideal; the approach of sustainable development in EE was likely to be realised in their schools; and the practice of environmentally friendly behaviours by students highlighted in EE was appropriate to meeting the needs of the students in their school (mean score of “perceived practicality of EE” sub-scale of 5.23). However, it was noticeable that the mean score of the item “My mastery of knowledge and skills related to EE is sufficient to promote environmental education in my school” was only 4.51 (Part 2 of Table 12.3). It was, however, disappointing to find that the support from the Macao government, Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, environmental protection organisations and local community organisations was considered to be inadequate for promoting
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environmental education in their schools (mean score of “perceived other support for implementing EE in school” sub-scale of 3.60). About 62% of teachers noted that parents in their schools supported the implementation of EE (mean score of 4.43) (Part 3 of Table 12.3). Our findings also showed that teachers’ preferred approach (intention) to implementing environmental education significantly scored higher than their current approach or practice (Table 12.4). As shown in Table 12.4, the aspect of environmental education on which both teachers currently practised and on which they intended to put more emphasis was knowledge, less on skills and least on attitudes. In addition, teachers’ intended or preferred teaching approach tended to be slightly more student-centred than self-reported practices. Nonetheless, there were no significant differences for the items “I direct most of the classroom learning activities” and “I put more emphasis on the teaching of knowledge than the process of learning” between preferred approach and current approach. With regard to teaching methods, higher frequencies (in percentage terms) were found in using the following methods: indoctrination (81.5%); lectures (81.5%); audiovisuals or simulations (74.2%); computer-assisted learning activities (74.2%); role-playing (71.8%); independent or group projects (69.4%); and experiments (62.9%). Comparatively, lower frequencies (in percentage terms) were shown in using value judgment activities (50.8%); problem-solving/critical thinking activities (58.9%); and guided discovery (52.4%). The lower frequency was for field trips or outdoor activities (29.0%). It was noticeable that traditional methods of teaching and values education such as lectures and indoctrination were usually used by teachers to teach environmental education. Another important observation was the relatively little use of field trips and outdoor activities. As regards the barriers encountered in implementing EE, teachers tended to agree that lacking class time (mean = 5.0), lacking instructional materials (4.96), lacking funding (4.80), class size being too large (4.65), no natural environment readily available (4.65), lacking preparation time (4.60), lacking knowledge about teaching environmental education (4.59) and lacking knowledge about environmental issues (4.49) were significant barriers.
Brief Case Studies Interviews with head teachers, teachers in charge of environmental education or general studies and groups of Primary 4–6 students were conducted in April and November 2007 in Macao to investigate the variations in teaching methods used and results achieved in environmental education. Students were selected by teachers from the six schools that had participated in the questionnaire survey (except one where Primary 4–6 students had undertaken a study trip at the time of the interview). The interviews were conducted in Cantonese (for English versions of the interview guides, please refer to Tables 12.5 and 12.6).
I direct most of the classroom learning activities. My class is teacher-centred. I put more emphasis on the teaching of knowledge than the process of learning.
Students have gained actual experience in resolving environmental issues. Students have the skills needed to resolve environmental issues. Teaching approach
Students have better understanding of their belief, attitudes, and values regarding environmental issues. Students are more sensitive toward the environment. Students better understand the values underlying environmental issues. Students become more involved in resolving environmental issues. Skills
Students have more knowledge of environmental concepts and problems. Students have more knowledge of ecological foundations and environmental issues. Students have more knowledge of the impacts of their behaviour on the environment. Attitude
Knowledge
0.944
0.884 1.117 0.941 0.984
5.22 Mean = 4.95 S.D. = 0.801 α = 0.829 5.01 4.88 5.01 4.92 Mean = 4.61 S.D. = 0.975 α = 0.828 4.66 4.56 Mean = 4.34 S.D. = 1.020 α = 0.434 4.90 3.79 3.57
0.901
5.06
1.127 1.411 1.433
1.045
1.067
0.863
5.52 Mean = 4.05 S.D. = 1.248 α = 0.447 4.75 3.36 3.48
5.73 Mean = 5.58 S.D. = 0.953 α = 0.912 5.64
5.73 5.75
Mean = 5.75 S.D. = 0.753 α = 0.894 5.80
5.93
5.82
Mean = 5.85 S.D. = 0.803 α = 0.960 5.81
Mean
S.D.
Mean Mean = 5.09 S.D. = 0.817 α = 0.888 4.99
Preferred approach
Current approach
1.532 1.579 1.656
1.046
0.938
0.820
0.994 0.793
0.840
0.856
0.823
0.826
S.D.
1.140 3.518 0.786
−9.552
−10.105
−8.390
−9.200 −9.013
−8.928
−9.521
−8.879
−10.519
t
Paired T-test
0.257 0.001* 0.433
<0.001*
<0.001*
<0.001*
<0.001* <0.001*
<0.001*
<0.001*
<0.001*
<0.001*
p-value
Table 12.4 Current and intended (preferred) emphasis and style (teaching approach) of implementing environmental education (* indicate significant difference, N = 115)
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Table 12.5 English version of the interview guide for headteachers and teachers in charge of environmental education or general studies 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
What are the development stages and characteristics of the school’s environmental education? How do you understand “green school”? How do you understand the concept of sustainable development? How would you comment on the five levels of a green school: curriculum characteristics, school infrastructure, community education, the sustainability of the school (for example waste treatment), and administrative support (green concept, professional development, planning)? How does the school promote (process of decision making) the division of labour? What are the favourable factors that lead to the development of environmental education? What are the roles of the principal and the teacher in charge? What is the environmental awareness of the children in general? What are the characteristics? What are the student ambassadors’ concerns about environmental protection? What area needs improvement? Why? What are the barriers/limitations to the development? Why? Direction for future development?
Table 12.6 English version of the interview guide for groups of Primary 4–6 students 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8
What is the ideal relationship between people and the environment? How is the relationship now? Have you ever heard of environmental protection and sustainable development? How do you understand the concept of environmental protection? What are the characteristics of the school-based environmental education activities? What subjects did the teachers mention about environmental protection? What did your parents and friends mention about environmental protection? What are the environmental problems of Macao? What are the environmental problems of China? What are the global environmental problems? How to improve these problems? Will the future environment of Macao/China/the world be better/worse? Why? Where did you obtain this environmental knowledge?
Ho Primary School This primary school was attended by 155 students and there were 16 full-time teachers in the school year 2007/2008. The school is located inside a big complex of public facilities down-town. It has a small school yard. There was a group of four teachers responsible for planning and arranging environmental education activities in this school. The group submitted an environmental plan to the principal for approval and organised year-round environment-related activities and teachers teaching all grades would seek to follow the plan, designing activities appropriate to their students’ abilities. As remarked by a teacher: We have a section about environmental protection in our education plan and we pay quite a lot of attention to environmental protection.
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In 2007–2008 they were greening the school by planting. There was an organic plot on the rooftop where vegetables were planted to teach students not to use chemical fertilisers and to treasure food items by knowing about a farmer’s work. Students participated in cutting grass and watering the plot. Apart from planting, a recycling machine had been placed on the school campus to encourage waste recycling. The machine recorded the number of cans and bottles that were put into the machine by each student. Activities were organised to synchronise with “Greening Week” in Macao. They spent two months working on this theme. Activities included going to a neighbouring community to learn about it, visiting Macao conservation organisations to learn how the community environment can be improved and visiting a wastewater treatment plant. The school actively participated in environmental protection functions that were organised by the government. Due to the tight curriculum schedule, EE aspects were infiltrated into various subjects, though mainly in general studies. Other than the formal curriculum, environmental protection is one of the four categories in the school’s auxiliary curriculum (a compulsory curriculum aiming at whole-person (comprehensive) training and personal goals actualisation), spending about two lessons every week on environmental education. The school had a student Environmental Protection Team divided into senior and junior classes, with three students from each class. They were responsible for keeping the school hall and classrooms clean (junior classes), and taking care of the organic plot (senior classes). Team members were also responsible for reminding fellow students to switch off the lights and to keep the school environment clean. In-service teacher training was provided by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau during summer vacations, where participants were taught about water, the water cycle, and sources of water. Teachers could then teach their students where their water came from and how it relates to the natural environment. There were different topics for activities or exhibitions organised by the Environment Council and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau every year. These provided information on various environmental issues. The teachers we interviewed were not sure if there were any natural science, general studies or environmental education pedagogy courses organised in Macao. Regarding ways to improve, one of the teachers raised her concern about waste recycling, There do not seem to be enough recycling facilities to collect recyclable waste. We also need more education on how to know if the kind of material can be recycled. If there’s no notice, I cannot remember what kind of waste I should put in. Our government needs to make more effort in promoting this.
There was also lack of detailed planning of environmental activities in school. They participated in outside activities when they were available and when they matched the school schedule, playing a rather passive role. Being a government school, two of the teachers said: Teachers have high environmental awareness, but there are a lot of things that we cannot do [due to limitations of the school’s infrastructure].
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We have to apply for permission from the government for everything we want to do. The application process takes time. By the time the application has been approved, we might lose the enthusiasm for doing it.
Six students were interviewed, two from each grade in Primary 4–6. They said that they acquired environmental knowledge from various subjects. There were topics on “environment and health” in Primary six textbooks of general studies (all Macao primary schools use Hong Kong General Studies textbooks); “ideal child” which mentioned environmental protection in Primary 6 civic education; “environment”, “pollution problems” in Primary 5 general studies; and “light pollution” in languages. They also made some environmentally friendly handicrafts in music lessons (making musical instruments from newspapers) and art lessons (designing clothes with newspapers, plastic bottles, and other waste material). The school recycling machine was used as a way to teach students simple mathematics. They were also collecting used plastic bottles, which could be sold and they used the proceeds for charity. There were slogan writing and drawing competitions based on environmental-related topics. Like students from other schools, most of the environmental problems they could think of were air pollution by vehicles and the disposal of trash in Macao, spitting, and air pollution by vehicles in China, and global warming that affects the whole world. The students suggested that the Macao Government should make greater efforts to promote the benefits of protecting the environment by providing more activities. Government officials should take the lead to act first.
Au Primary School This primary school was attended by 1,365 students and there were 55 full-time teachers in the school year 2007/2008. The school is located in an urban area, next to one of the famous urban parks in Macao, planted with trees and flowers. In the campus, there are playgrounds and some planting area. This school infiltrated aspects of EE into various subjects and required the teachers to emphasise them. There was no specialised subject or project for EE and no centralised co-ordination between subjects. At the time of our interviews, this was the first year that the school had a subject head for general studies. A teacher commented: Environmental education has to be long-lasting. Through continuous influence, let students really feel the need for environmental protection. We also require teachers of every subject to aim to highlight environmental education in relevant topics.
The major part of the EE content is infiltrated into general studies. Topics about the relationships between people and the environment, how to protect the environment, relationships between people, plants and animals, can be found from Primary 1 to Primary 6. In Primary 6 there is a chapter in their textbook that is about environmental protection. The school was using a textbook published by a Hong Kong publisher but with localised Macao content, mainly on civic education content. A teacher said,
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By utilising, developing and teaching the contents of the general studies textbook, we can basically match our teaching with the government’s intention to promote environmental protection.
Another teacher commented: I focus on extending the children’s horizon. They do not have many chances to be in the natural environment. We sometimes provide them with information from the internet or a video, giving them the chance to express how they feel when they are in the natural environment. The students will share with their classmates; asking them to compare their feelings in the city and in nature. Other than feelings, we also bring out respectfulness towards nature, plants and animals, and how to maintain a balance between them.
In the future development of the curriculum, environmental education will be mainly in general studies and it will form a large part of the content of general studies. Other subjects like Chinese language and English language contain topics about nature. Teachers focused on the relationships between people and the natural environment to bring out the environmental protection message. For art and music, teachers led the students to utilise waste materials to make art works and musical instruments. Students participated in environmentally friendly handicrafts design competitions that were organised by the school and outsiders. The school organised a planting competition, making environmentally friendly flowerpots and learning about the growing cycles of plants, so as to increase respect to plants. As the Environmental Information Centres had a limit of 20–25 people per visit, the school formed a Little Reporter student team who visited the Centre to learn how to recycle paper and they video-recorded the process so that they could share their experience with other students in moral education lessons. Other then going out on visits, the school borrowed display boards from government departments (e.g., the Office for the Development of the Energy Sector) to display information about the environment with little activities for the students and to organise talks for the whole school. The themes for these display boards include butterflies and ants, little insects that might be ignored by the children in their daily lives. A teacher said: There should be differences between the foci of environmental education for primary and secondary schools. Young children cannot do much, everything has to be arranged by adults. Therefore, we think we should nurture students’ love of the earth and pleasant feelings of being in harmony with nature. If they have this kind of love and feelings as a starting point, they are willing to do what you want them to. They would cherish water if you ask them to and they would cherish energy if you ask them to. But if they do not have this kind of love and feelings, administrative instructions cannot make them do anything.
Regarding the school infrastructure, as requested by the government, the school had installed some government provided recycle bins. However, The government stopped collecting the waste later on as there was insufficient labour for the collection. It has been stopped. For the purpose of education, our school still uses these recycle bins, but the collected wastes are no longer sent for recycling.
Since waste material cannot be recycled, the school switched its focus on to reducing energy consumption. They changed to using energy saving fluorescent tubes after doing tests to prove that the tubes can help reduce electricity use. When constructing a new school building, the school required the architect to use energy
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saving designs and to use environmentally friendly construction methods and paints, even though it meant that the construction work was more expensive. They chose to use air-conditioners with energy efficiency labels. There were also thermo controls for the air-conditioners. Teachers were advised to save paper by doublesided printing or using email to communicate among teachers. Parents letters were reduced from A4 to A5 size, or printed on smaller pieces of paper that were stuck into students’ handbooks. Teachers suggested that EE in Macao depended on information in textbooks and the knowledge of the teachers themselves. No systematic training was provided and teachers actively sought professional training. They agreed that promotion of EE by the government was insufficient, as one teacher commented: Various government departments promote environmental education separately. For examples, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau sent staff to help us to set up waste recycling facilities, the Office for the Development of the Energy Sector has a sub-unit to help schools for environmental education. There is no organised empowered department/organisation to promote environmental protection/education in Macao. When the school needed to have a new building, the architect took out an environmentally friendly design and said that is too expensive. But I said we have to use that. In the school we raised our environmental concern, but back to the society, there’s another story.
The students’ impression of the relationship of people and the environment was that people were abusing natural resources, e.g., oil. They said that people were damaging nature by logging and also with air pollution, e.g., they referred to the hole in the atmosphere above the South Pole. Primary 5 and Primary 6 students of this school agreed that they had acquired environmental knowledge from the subject general studies and in studying the topic “endangered species” in English language. Primary 5 and Primary 6 students could name more local, national and international environmental problems than the Primary 4 students, who merely told where their environmental knowledge came from. Primary 4 students said Macao’s environmental problems included people disposing of solid waste everywhere and the ageing of the population in China. Primary 5 students said Macao’s air quality was not good, with exhaust gases from vehicles, and manufacturing companies. Building companies that cut trees to build high buildings also concerned Primary 5 students. “Smelly air” in China, spitting, solid waste in the streets and seas, and people without personal hygiene are the environmental problems named by students. Primary 6 students named more global issues then the others. These issues included global warming, which caused the melting of ice, leading to many places being immersed in water. If global warming gets too serious and the earth gets too hot, people cannot survive. They mentioned the broken food chain, as we lost lions and tigers, there would be too many sheep.
Yeung Primary School This primary school was attended by 1,620 students and there were 81 full-time teachers in the school year 2007/2008. Located in a residential area, this school is
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surrounded by residential buildings with less than ten storeys. There is also a large sports ground in the school. As in the schools discussed above, this school also used infiltration or permeation through subjects as a means of conveying aspects of EE, especially in general studies and without central co-ordination. In 2007–2008 the school chose the theme Love life, cherish resources. All subject panels had meetings with subject teachers to prepare their subject year plans following this whole school theme. For general studies, there was an activity Make the Best Use of Material in Primary 2 – making handicrafts from waste materials and sharing these with classmates; and in Primary 3 Conservation Ambassadors – keeping small pot plants. For Chinese and English languages, Primary 4–6 went to visit Environmental Information Centres to study the paper recycling process. Following the visit, they completed worksheets that needed to be assessed by the teachers. For Chinese history and history, the students designed posters and slogans that were related to environmental protection. In the Putonghua syllabus there is a topic Uses of Water. For art, students were required to paint the school wall to illustrate the topics Greening and Treasure Water. For music, they engaged in an activity named Environmentally Friendly Executants. Environmental topics are mainly found in Primary 5 and Primary 6 general studies. On a school Open Day, parents designed a booth about environmental protection. The involvement of parents in EE was motivated and boosted by the Teacher-Parent Association. As a teacher stated: We take the opportunity to let parents know we are promoting environmental protection and we let them collaborate with the school. As we noticed that sometimes it is not the children who want to waste materials, their parents make them do.
Teachers guided the students to produce small-scale environment-related reports. Students did not engage in group projects until Primary 6. Primary 6 students investigated environmental problems by going out for site visits, taking photographs and writing up reports describing and explaining environmental problems and suggesting possible solutions. The school was equipped with a small planting area, and senior primary school students did the watering. Signs were posted everywhere to remind students and teachers to save energy. Although there is no “Green Policy” in this school, teachers were reducing paper use and separating wastes that could be recycled. EE is implemented through various subjects and also through participation in functions organised by the government, e.g., the reuse of red packets, Christmas cards and moon cake cases to make art works. The school had installed recycle bins but they were not much used. One of the teachers said that: Our school environment is not like others. Our playground needs to be open to the public after 5 p.m. but the public does not co-operate with us. They dispose of their cigarettes ends everywhere. Not all of our students keep the school campus clean. We need to educate them more.
The teachers stated there was insufficient training on environmental education pedagogy. Although some governmental departments provided training events, these were on a technical level (e.g., how to make recycled paper).
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Students of this school acquired environmental knowledge from general studies and languages lessons (Primary 4), science lessons (Primary 5), and general studies, English language and art lessons (Primary 6). Topics covered included water (a resource that can be depleted), paper recycling, tree planting, “cleaning Macao”, environmental pollution, sorting waste for recycling, and drawing posters to promote environmental protection. Students were concerned about Macao having too many motor vehicles that caused air pollution. Reclamation and the cutting of trees were considered to be environmental problems in Macao. The uses of plastic bags and other disposable products were considered as a global environmental problem. Other than global warming, they thought that hill fires, oil leaking into the sea and developed countries using many natural resources were also problematic.
Lam Primary School This primary school was attended by 756 students and there were 32 full-time teachers in the school year 2007/2008. The school was built on a hill slope, with some residential buildings and other schools nearby. Teachers in this school had not participated in the questionnaire study. Here environmental education was mainly incorporated into general studies. In junior levels, basic knowledge about the environment was taught, e.g., learning about plants, and plants and our lives. Students in the senior levels were taught about topics more directly related to environmental protection, e.g., resources, greening, and the prevention of hill fires. Permeation of EE into other subjects depended on the subject panels and there was no central co-ordination of EE. The organisation of activities was dependent on each subject panel. The principal said: We have a subject called ethics and the contents we designed were based on students’ needs. For example, if we think that the environmental awareness of the students is weak, we will put more emphasis on environmental education.
English language and art were also infiltrated with EE content. The principal stated that having EE content infiltrated into subjects was more longlasting. Various activities were organised by the general studies panel throughout the school year. These activities included visiting Environmental Information Centres that provided different activities (e.g., making recycled paper, planting and waste recycling), an official from the water supply company came to give a talk on water resources, and exhibitions had been organised by the Office for the Development of the Energy Sector. The principal stated that: Activities provided by the government are very diverse. It is like entering a restaurant to choose what we want to eat. . . exhibitions, games, activities, outings, where there are many opportunities to listen [to environmental protection messages].
As this school included a secondary school section, students had been given a questionnaire for evaluation during the last year of their senior secondary level. They all claimed that they were environmental protectionists. Environmental education was
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carried on throughout the senior secondary level. The general studies subject panel head said: Learning happily is important to primary school students, therefore the teachers aim at building up an environmental friendly attitude and basic knowledge. Although they cannot do much now, we should develop their attitudes.
With regard to the infrastructure of the school, recycle bins had been placed in every classroom. A display board had been designated to display environmental information. Notices were placed near water taps and light and air-conditioner switches to remind teachers and students to save water and energy. However, the school environment also caused some environmental problems that could not be solved, e.g., teachers needed to use instant lunch boxes as there was insufficient space for a canteen for teachers and/or students. In order to try to save the environment, reusable chopsticks and bowls were used in some of the student activities although this meant extra labour and effort was needed in arranging food and cleaning up. Regarding co-ordination of environmental education in school, the principal said: We have considered central co-ordination, but there are too many new issues. We might need to have an anti-gambling group leader, anti-corruption leaders, and so on. We will have leaders everywhere.
The principal said the school was comparatively free to engage in EE in Macao. The school wanted to invest more to improve EE but there were limitations, e.g., space. There were training events provided for teachers but the contents were not new to them. The school was already promoting energy and resources saving. There was not much room for them to improve. From the focus group interview (in a group of eight of whom four were from Primary 4 and four were from Primary 5), one of the Primary 5 students suggested that, “People polluted the environment. There is rubbish everywhere. Everywhere is smelly”. Students acquired environmental knowledge through general studies in Primary 5 (resources) and in English language lessons through the topic Save our earth. Primary 4 students learned environmental knowledge in Chinese language lessons (topics about the giant panda) and English language lessons (air pollution and noise pollution). Teachers referred to environmental messages when teaching these topics. Students thought that air pollution and water pollution were the most serious environmental problems in Macao. Emission from vehicles, cigarette smoke, dirty water from water channels were the key sources of these two kinds of pollution. Vehicle emission was also one of the important pollution sources in China, the others were logging and throwing trash randomly. The global environmental problems they named were global warming, which will lead to ice melting in the North and South Poles, and depletion of crude oil, which they said would be depleted in 40 years. Primary 6 students were interviewed in a group of four. They said that, “Poor air quality affects respiration. A noisy environment is very annoying. Polluted water may affect the quality of fish (being a kind of food). Trash being disposed everywhere
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allows mosquitoes and flies to grow and spread diseases”. They suggested that, “Customers should pay for plastic bags and environmentally friendly bags should be distributed free to every family. We should plant trees to absorb more CO2. We should walk more and use buses less”. The students acquired environmental knowledge mainly from lessons in general studies and natural sciences/health hygiene. They named many hygienic problems in Macao as environmental problems, e.g., spitting and throwing trash randomly. The students showed their concern about the decrease of recreational areas. One of the students said, “There’s a park that was built only 1 year ago, but now it has been turned into another new casino”. For China’s environmental problems, they referred to the Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Beijing, but Beijing had serious air pollution that caused rain to fall as “black snow”. Just as the Primary 4–5 students, Primary 6 students also knew about global warming, which might cause ice to melt, polar bears would disappear and some cities will be submerged in water, as the North Pole warms up.
Challenges and Suggestions for Future Environmental Education The questionnaire survey, together with the brief case studies and curriculum analysis, revealed that environmental education in Macao tended to emphasise education about the environment. This highlighted the importance of environmental knowledge in teachers’ current practices. Education in the environment tended to be neglected as teachers infrequently arranged field studies or outdoor activities. The reliance of teachers in Macao upon textbooks with the use of audio-visual materials, when coupled with the employment of traditional teaching strategies such as lecturing, was likely to support the implementation of education about the environment. Nonetheless, there was a trend of teachers starting to adopt more resource-based strategies such as computer-assisted learning and interactive strategies such as role-playing. Despite there being signs that values and attitudes were emphasised in school subjects and school-based activities, education for the environment tended to be promoted through indoctrination. Environmental values education involving action and participation in environmental improvement affairs in local communities still received inadequate attention. The dominance of traditional teaching strategies in primary schools was partly determined by the overcrowded curriculum (lack of class time) and partly dictated by the large size of classes. It was promising to see that the class size was being reduced and more teachers were using independent or group projects for implementing environmental education. These projects could be turned into community-based projects or action learning projects with the facilitation of teachers. To enhance education in the environment, the Macao government could consider establishing more Field Studies Centres for schoolchildren and the general public.
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As there was a concern about the lack of relevant and useful resources, collaboration amongst schools could be encouraged in the sharing of expertise and resource production for the teaching of environmental issues. Local school networks may also be established to allow communal sharing of field instruments and to enhance cross-fertilisation of teaching ideas among school teachers (Lee and Ma, 1996). The questionnaire survey findings showed that lacking knowledge about teaching environmental education and lacking knowledge about environmental issues were barriers encountered by teachers in implementing environmental education. The provision of teacher education for environmental education should thus be a high priority for action (Tilbury, 1992). Teachers’ moderate progressive attitudes towards environmental education are conducive to change. This is reflected in high scores in perceived non-monetary costs and benefits of EE to teachers and the teachers preferred a student-centred teaching approach. The future challenge for teacher educators is how to help translate teachers’ attitudes into actual practice. This will not be easy to achieve, however, especially in the face of an entrenched tradition of expository teaching, rote learning of knowledge and values indoctrination in Macao and China (Lee, 2001). It is important to equip teachers with knowledge about environmental education and environmental issues as well as with skills (such as using value judgment activities, problem-solving and critical thinking activities and guided discovery) in teaching environmental issues. Such teacher education programmes also attempt to help empower teachers to cultivate their will to overcome the existing institutional and pedagogical barriers. Scholars elsewhere have remarked that an action research approach and/or a critical approach to environmental education teacher education could empower the practitioners to resolve their own school-based problems during the implementation of EE. These approaches have cross-cultural potential for development (Fien, 2001; Tilbury, 2001), although a critical approach may be politically sensitive in the context of the Macao SAR. In the recent Report on the State of the Environment of Macao 2006, the government called for a comprehensive, systematic and long-term environmental education (Environment Council, 2007: 91). Such changes are likely to stimulate extra government and public efforts in EE and reinforce initiatives in EE in schools.
References Adamson, B. and Li, S. P. T. (2004). Primary and secondary schooling. In M. Bray and R. Koo (eds.), Education and Society in Hong Kong and Macao: Comparative Perspectives on Continuity and Change (2nd edn) (pp. 35–60). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong/Kluwer. Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (2005). Civil Education Information Net.http://civicedu.iacm. gov.mo/detail.asp?id=5&pos=7. Accessed on January 11, 2008. Curricular Reform and Development Committee, Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (1999). Primary Education Curriculum Document. http://www.dsej.gov.mo/crdc/crdc/course/ primary_r.htm. Accessed on January 4, 2008.
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Curriculum Development Council (2002). General Studies for Primary Schools Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 – Primary 6). Hong Kong: Education Department. DSEJ (2007). Law No. 9/2006 – Fundamental Law of Non-tertiary Education System. Macao: Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ). DSEJ (2008). Education in Figures: 2007–2008. Macao: Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ). Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Education Reform Group (DSEJ) (1999a). Natural Science/ Health Hygiene Curriculum Outline for Primary School (Grade 1). Macau: Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Education Reform Group (DSEJ) [in Chinese]. Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Education Reform Group (DSEJ) (1999b). Natural Science/ Health Hygiene Curriculum Outline for Primary School (Grade 5). Macau: Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Education Reform Group (DSEJ) [in Chinese]. Environment Council (2005). Activities in Environmental Aware-ness and Education. http://www. ambiente.gov.mo/english/08/2005/act2005/a200505.asp. Accessed on January 11, 2008. Environment Council (2007). Report on the State of the Environment of Macao 2006. Macau: Environment Council [in Chinese]. Environmental Information Centre (undated). Environmental Information Centre.http://www. iacm.gov.mo/sal/ecoteca/MAIN.HTM. Accessed on January 11, 2008. Fien, J. (1993). Education for the Environment: Critical Curriculum Theorising and Environmental Education. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press. Fien, J. (2001). The Learning for a Sustainable Environment Project: A case study of an action network for teacher education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 17, 77–86. Ham, S. H. and Sewing, D. R. (1987/1988). Barriers to environmental education. Journal of Environmental Education, 19(2), 17–24. Ko, A. C. C. and Lee, J. C. K. (2003). Teachers’ perceptions of teaching environmental issues within the science curriculum: A Hong Kong perspective. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 12(3), 187–204. Kwong, H. C. (1999). Macao Environmental Education (Educacao Ambiental de Macau). Macau: Sun Fai Publishing [in Chinese]. Lee, J. C. K. (2000). Teacher receptivity to curriculum change in the implementation stage: the case of environmental education in Hong Kong. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(1), 95–115. Lee, J. C. K. (2001). Environmental education in China: The Shanghai perspective. International Journal of Environmental Education and Information, 20(4), 257–274. Lee, J. C. K. and Ma, W. H. T. (1996). Environmental education through subject teaching in Macau: Lessons from a small state. International Journal of Environmental Education and Information, 15(2), 109–120. Li, S. P. T. and Koo, D. Y. R. (2006). Primary education in Macao historical development and future challenges. In D. Y. R. Koo, C. K. Kam and S. W. Wu , (eds.) Quality School Education and Teacher Development in Zhujiang Region. Hong Kong: The Association for Childhood Education International (Hong Kong/Macau). Littledyke, M. (1997). Science education for environmental education? Primary teacher perspectives and practices. British Educational Research Journal, 23, 641–659. Lo, Y. C. J. (2004). Curriculum reform. In M. Bray and R. Koo , (eds.) Education and Society in Hong Kong and Macao: Comparative Perspectives on Continuity and Change (2nd edn) (pp. 161–174). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong/Kluwer. Lucas, A. M. (1980). Science and environmental education: Pious hopes, self-praise and disciplinary chauvinism. Studies in Science Education, 7, 1–26. Ng, T. L. G. (1991). New Environmental Paradigm Survey 1991. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Environmental Center. Robottom, I. (1987). Environmental Education: Practice and Possibility. Victoria: Deakin University Press.
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Tilbury, D. (1992). Environmental education within pre-service teacher education: The priorities of priorities. International Journal of Environmental Education and Information, 11(4), 267–280. Tilbury, D. (2001). Sustaining innovation in education: Experiences in the Learning for a Sustainable Environment Project. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 17, 87–93. Waugh, R.F. and Godfrey, J. (1993). Teacher receptivity to system-wide change in the implementation stage. British Educational Research Journal, 19(5), 565–578.
Chapter 13
Lessons Learned and Future Directions John Chi-Kin Lee
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is widely acknowledged as a comprehensive vision of education. In the document Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living (IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991), providing universal primary education for all children and reducing illiteracy was highlighted as one of the priority actions for improving the quality of human life (chapter 3: 25). In addition, a number of guidelines were suggested as elements in a campaign for creating a sustainable society. These were: connecting national and global issues to local situations; involving volunteers, especially children, in local projects related to land restoration and tree planting; and using information centres, exhibits, museums, national parks, and so on, as places for environmental learning (chapter 6: 54). In chapter 36 of Agenda 21, from the Rio Summit in 1992, four main thrusts in the field of ESD were identified (Leal Filho, 2006: 9): improving basic education; reorienting existing education to address sustainable development; heightening public understanding and awareness; and providing training for all sectors of society including business, industry, and governments. These four thrusts remain as the main tasks of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014, DESD), which aims “to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning” (http://portal. unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID = 27234&URL_DO = DO_TOPIC&URL_ SECTION = 201.html. Accessed on February 17, 2008). As we have shown in the previous chapters, ESD has had an important impact on schooling in the Chinese communities. Official documents stemming from ministries and government departments concerned with the environment, the economy, health, society and education have highlighted the importance of sustainability. Policies in Mainland China, the Hong Kong and Macao SARs and Taiwan reflect the concerns expressed so articulately in Earth Summits about seeing society, economy and environment as three inter-twined concepts that lie at the heart of J. Chi-Kin Lee (*) Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong E-mail:
[email protected]
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sustainable communities, nations and continents. At the level of official affirmation of principles, there are many grounds for optimism. Inevitably, at the classroom level, this optimism has to be tempered by the realities of everyday practices. Traditions in schools die hard and there are many challenges facing those who wish to see wide acceptance of whole school, whole curriculum, and whole community approaches to ESD. Economically, the Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan stand out as High Performing Asian Economies (HPAEs) whereas China and the Macao SAR are seen as growing giants, because of their booming tourism and gambling respectively (Ashton et al., 2002; Kennedy, 2007). While Hong Kong and Macao have become Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of China, the political status of Taiwan has been a contentious issue and, “The political environment is complicated by the potential for military conflict should overt actions toward independence or Chinese reunification be taken” (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China. Accessed on February 10, 2008). Despite the varying economic and political conditions, the school curricula in the Chinese communities (Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, China and Taiwan) are, to some extent, subject to similar tensions derived from a number of different perspectives and forces as reviewed below (adapted from Curriculum Development Council, 2000: 12–14). Some of these conflicting perspectives also have exerted some influences on the development of education for sustainable development (ESD) in schools.
Globalisation and Localisation The development of the school curriculum has to take account of both global trends and local cultures and local environments. The document for the basic education curriculum used in the Chinese Mainland not only emphasises patriotism, collectivism and socialism but also promotes the importance of the cultivation in students”minds of a positive worldview, on the one hand, and Chinese traditions, on the other (Ministry of Education, (PRC), 2001). In the English version of the Grade 1–9 Curriculum Guidelines in Taiwan, the first sentence of the preface states that, “In keeping with the 21st century and the global trends of educational reform, the government must engage in educational reform in order to foster national competitiveness and the overall quality of our citizens’ lives” (Ministry of Education (Taiwan), undated: 2). In the Hong Kong document Learning to Learn (Curriculum Development Council, 2001), the first sentence of the message from the Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council reads, “To cope with the challenges of the 21st Century, education in Hong Kong must keep abreast of the global trends and students have to empower themselves to learn beyond the confines of the classroom”. In Macao, in the Fundamental Law of Non-tertiary Education System (No.9/2006), in the list of the basic principles and objectives of the education
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system it is stated that, “The government endeavours to cultivate the various talents with the ability to face the world and the future, to meet the challenges and opportunities brought by the crescent globalisation” (http://www.dsej.gov. mo/~webdsej/www/edulaw/law_9_2006/content/chap02-e.htm. Accessed on February 18, 2008). In their study of environmental education in the secondary school sector in a wide range of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Yencken et al. (2000: 4) argued that apart from thinking globally and acting locally, “we can readily see that there are as many reasons to think locally and act globally. If we do not think locally, we may ignore rich sources of traditional environmental knowledge and devalue local understanding and experience of environmental problems. If we do not act globally, we will never solve the big issues of the global commons.” Gough (2003) has argued that in the discourses on environmental issues and environmental education, Western science and perspectives have tended to dominate and it was not easy to think globally (embracing Asian and other cultural perspectives). He further cautioned against “thinking locally and acting imperially” under the influence of Western scientific discourses: “We cannot depend on Western science to the extent that Yencken, Fien, and Sykes suggest because environmental science deals not only with physical reality, but also with the culturally shaped representations of this reality. Pretending that these representations are acultural is an imperialist act - an act of attempted intellectual colonization” (pp. 62–63). There is, in fact, a complex linkage between global discourses and local actions in Chinese communities. Taking China as an example, “international recommendations for EE did not directly influence nonformal EE efforts in China; nevertheless, some of these efforts seem consistent with international recommendations” (Roch et al., 2007: 44). Within China, the term “local” needs to be treated carefully. In the global context, it could be argued that anything that is specifically Chinese, that is, located within Chinese national boundaries, is, to some extent, local. Yet, China is a multicultural state proudly proclaiming the high status accorded to its officially recognised cultural minorities. To the traditional autonomous regions can be added the new special administrative regions that have enriched the notion of cultural minorities. The concept of localisation clearly has to take account of these minorities but it also has to take into account the myriad localities, the small rural communities, the neighbourhood blocks in megacities, that constitute the nation. The people in these localities have their own distinctive physical and natural environments and they all have their own sense and agenda of sustainability. Wealth and health, well-being and survival, progress and peace mean different things to different people and yet there is a sense that beneath all of the obvious differences in lifestyles there could be the possibility of nurturing shared values, not least those concerned with the future of the planet. The issue of shared values is central to any discussion of ESD and the dialectic between the global and the local takes on a new dimension when it replaces locality with the individual student and the global with the collectivity. Concern with the individual leads to an interest in entitlement and human rights. Concern with the collectivity leads to an interest in participation and communitarianism. For
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some commentators on ESD such interests lead to calls for political and social transformation as the means and the end of ESD. For others, it leads to calls for making ESD a curriculum entitlement or democratic involvement of students in curriculum decision making, in active involvement in deciding what to learn and how to learn it. While these theoretical positions may be attractive in the scholarly pursuits of distant academic institutions, they appear a long way from the day to day concerns of teachers who often struggle with limited curriculum space, insufficient resources to engage the attention of large groups of children with limited grasp of their own language and basic numeracy. Balancing the abstract pronouncements generated in international summits and the theoretical formulations emanating from academic discourses against the daily vernacular teaching and learning concerns of primary school teachers is an ongoing feature of ESD in the Chinese communities and elsewhere.
Central Development and School-Based Development School-based curriculum development is seen by many ESD enthusiasts as the way to ensure that a balance is maintained between the teaching of global issues and local issues. An emphasis on the very local provides the direction for school-community participation in seeking to resolve immediate, concrete, local environmental issues associated with sustainability. Water is the most obvious topic in this regard. Clean drinking water is crucial for good health. Water conservation, water purity, water pollution, erosion, the use of water in cultivation, water as a consumer item, these themes, and many others, make water an attractive focus for school-community partnerships since it affords so many lessons in sustainability. Local circumstances determine the approaches adopted in individual schools. Opportunities allowed within official prescriptions for school curricula and what is tolerable by the state and regional educational authorities and by parents in terms of the non-formal curriculum determine the scope for school-based initiatives. Engaging in such activities in China is dependent on many other factors. In some backward areas in China, building new schools is a problem in isolated rural communities and in these circumstances children may receive only limited instruction by peripatetic teachers in basic language and numeracy. ESD does not figure high on educational agendas when the basics can only be taught with difficulty. In more propitious circumstances, as we have observed in Hong Kong, teachers are subject to many pressures. To the new burdens of dealing with falling rolls, with the inevitable threats of school closure and loss of jobs, can be added the more conventional problems associated with large classes, overcrowded classrooms, heavy teaching and marking loads, difficult journeys to work and long hours of commitment to extra-curricular activities. Curriculum development of any kind, while not impossible, is extremely difficult in these circumstances.
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School-based curriculum development is not only a high risk activity, it makes very heavy demands on the limited energies of teachers, management capabilities of senior staff, and time resources within the restricted hours of schooling. Teaching to the test and to the textbook, in societies where parents perceive improved student achievement as the route to personal economic survival and social progress, is a safer option. It is obvious that school-based curriculum development requires not only confidence in schools to undertake the difficult tasks implicit in it, it requires a range of management skills and teaching skills that are often lacking in primary schools. In many Asian countries, including the Chinese communities, there have been opportunities for school-based curriculum development (SBCD) and local decision-making. In Hong Kong, SBCD was seen as an outcome of a balance between guidance from the Curriculum Development Council (CDC) and the autonomy enjoyed by the school and teachers (CDC, 2001: 70). In Mainland China, the school curriculum was prescribed as one of the three levels or components alongside the national curriculum and the local (regional) curriculum (Ministry of Education (PRC), 2001). SBCD was perceived as “one priority in Taiwan’s school improvement” (Hwang et al., 2006: 206) and SBCD “uses the teaching philosophy of the school and students” needs as the core; school’s educational personnel as the theme; and school’s situation and resources as the foundations. And it assesses the characteristics of the school community, public expectations and matches the laws and regulations of the central and local education bureaus and governmental norms. It focuses on the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of the school curriculum” (Ministry of Education (Taiwan), 2001: 25; Kennedy and Lee, 2008: 96–97). For Macao, the Fundamental Law of Non-tertiary Education System (No.9/2006) stipulated that, “In the prerequisite of abiding by the curriculum framework of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the requirements of basic academic attainments, public schools and the private schools referred in Clause No. 3 (1) of Article 36 can autonomously develop their school-based curriculums” (Article 22, http://www.dsej.gov.mo/~webdsej/www/edulaw/law_9_2006/content/chap05-e. htm. Accessed on February 16, 2008). Promoting school-based curriculum development, may, at one level, appear to be the promotion of curriculum chaos. At a time when schools are increasingly being subject to closer supervision and evaluation, there are clearly tight limits on what is perceived to be “acceptable” school-based initiatives. Acceptability refers to official approval as well as to parental endorsement. Parents are anxious about seeing their children used as guinea pigs in educational experiments that may not lead to academic achievements. For them, the risks may be too high. Officials may be concerned not only about the distractions from more serious educational endeavour that may be seen in some fun-filled, extra-school activities but also with the scope for intervention in school activities by over-zealous NGOs. There would appear to be a contradiction implicit in the notion of having centrally directed, centrally resourced, and centrally supervised school-based curriculum development.
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Uniformity, Diversity and Flexibility There is a general acceptance in the Chinese communities that primary schools should seek to encourage students to engage in broad learning opportunities. Advocates of ESD have emphasised the importance of integrating the three pillars of sustainability-environment, economy and society-into school–based learning activities. Primary schools, where there may be some flexibility in timetable organisation, the use of classroom space and the allocation of teachers and other essential resources, can provide opportunities for curriculum integration, project learning and thematic teaching. In Hong Kong, project learning was selected as one of the four key tasks for curriculum reform. In addition, there was an active promotion of life-wide learning, which “offers learning opportunities conducive to whole-person development [and] it offers learning in real contexts… [and] experience of interdisciplinary studies” (CDC, 2001: 94). Such life-wide learning has close connections with environmental education as students’ environmental learning usually takes place directly in authentic settings and promotes whole-person development (Curriculum Development Institute and Hong Kong Environmental Education Group, 2001). In China, the Ministry of Education (PRC) (2003) issued a framework (Dagang) for primary and secondary students’ environmental education as a kind of “special topic education” or thematic education. The teaching content for primary 4–6 (4 hours per year) included, for example, “surveying and understanding the basic characteristics of the community and local environment” and “analyzing the direct or indirect possible impact of one’s own and other’s behaviour on the environment; make judgements on friendly and unfriendly behaviour towards the environment” (Lee et al., 2006: 237). In addition, there was the provision of “integrated practical activities”, including project-based learning, community service and social practices, which provided opportunities for students to develop their environmental skills and encourage them to accept responsibility for their environment. In Taiwan, the 9-year curriculum contains “integrative activities”, providing an important platform for ESD through “environmental education activities”, “social services activities” and “outdoor leisure and exploratory activities” (Yen, 2001: 39–40). In addition to the formal curriculum, ESD in the Chinese communities has often been delivered through extra-curricular (informal) activities and non-formal activities organised by non-governmental organisations. Zhu and Dillon (2001: 343) have commented that, “…primary schools in both China and England also implement environmental education through extra-curricular activities. Teachers often guide their students to participate in such activities as tree or flower planting, hiking and mountain climbing, aimed at developing their pupils’ initial awareness of protecting and improving the environment through observation and experience”.
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In all four of the Chinese communities, there appears to be greater scope for providing ESD outside the formal curriculum than within the existing curriculum of primary schools. As in the crowded formal curriculum, there is already competition for use of the limited time available for extra-curricular activities. There is pressure to use extra-curricular time to enhance the lessons of the formal curriculum. There are, however, opportunities for short, intense activities that may include involvement of some students in ESD activities. Alongside these must be placed the wide array of ESD-related practices that are becoming commonplace in primary schools. These include energy saving, water saving, recycling, composting, the cultivation of school gardens, better nutrition habits and the engendering of better consumer habits.
Knowledge Transmission and Knowledge Creation Both knowledge transmission and knowledge creation are complementary to learning. Influenced by examination pressures and an overcrowded curriculum, Chinese classrooms still tend to emphasise skilful and effective knowledge transmission and acquisition through traditional pedagogy. While there are signs of pedagogical changes in teaching environmental issues, as reflected in the case studies quoted in this book, Stimpson (2000: 72) lamented that, “Cramming the duck” is a metaphor for teaching in the mainland. Expository rather than the recommended experiential classroom approaches are adopted in the main, both in Hong Kong and particularly in Guangzhou...even though teachers recognize that pupils do not like the direct teaching of values…”. In terms of cultural influences on learning, Chinese learners are under the influence of what have been described as Confucian-heritage cultures (CHC). Baumgart and Halse (1999: 323), drawing upon studies by Biggs (1996) and Lee (1996) studies, suggested that “Asian students may well display initially the “docility syndrome” in their learning by being receptive and compliant. This is a stage when they do operate from an external locus of control... But the argument is that this stage is followed by periods in which the students reflect deeply on the material... These later stages in learning show an internal locus of control where knowledge is only accepted if it fits within the students’ understanding and meaningful application”. Despite the entrenched cultural influences, EE/ESD provides a vehicle for change in pedagogy. As regards environmental education or education for sustainable development, the experiences from the EPD project in China suggested that there were good examples of lessons or case studies where students’ subjectivity or centredness as well as students’ problem-solving and investigative abilities could be enhanced through interactive and experiential activities (Wang, 2004a). In Taiwan, the 9-year curriculum reform provides a good platform for integrating environmental education objectives and generic skills through issues investigation and problem-solving (Chang, undated).
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Assessment for Selection and Assessment for Learning In school systems generally, there is a need to achieve a balance between assessment for selection and assessment for learning. As discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, curriculum reforms in the Chinese communities have provided the impetus for pedagogical and assessment changes. In Taiwan, the basic (9-year articulated) curriculum guidelines included environmental education as one of the key issues and provided competency indicators for each of three stages of 9-years schooling (Grade1–3; Grade 4–5; and Grade 6–9) (cf. Chapter 3). The development of these student competencies could match Hungerford and Peyton’s (1986) Environmental Literacy Model, which contained the following components: ecological foundations, the awareness of issues and human values, the investigation and evaluation of issues and actions and citizenship action (Lee, 1995; Chang, 2001). However, one has to be aware of possible shortcomings of the technical and behaviouristic orientations of the Environmental Literacy Model (Lee, 1995; Hart, 1990). Reid (2003: 162–163) raised important questions. For writings like Hungerford and Volk’s, and Hart’s, [some] immediate questions to consider are: • In the context of measuring progress towards sustainability, how necessary and adequate are current understandings of assessment, where their focus and “technologies” centre on measuring knowledge, capacities, qualities and dispositions (Carr and Claxton, 2002)? • Will contemporary testing regimes simply be replicated for sustainable development…such that they do little more than generate new methods of labeling in classifying learners (Broadfoot, 2002)? He further suggested that in the context of lifelong sustainability learning, the emphasis on process and assessment for learning rather than product and assessment of learning may be more worthwhile (p. 163). Our observations are that assessment in ESD in many parts of the world remains still a neglected area of development. We incline to the view that ESD, apart from its knowledge domains, may not be objectively assessed. Given the status of EE/ ESD in the school curriculum, which is likely be a predominantly optional extra (found in the non-formal curriculum), perhaps it may be worthwhile, at least in the short run, to treat ESD outside the testing regime. ESD is likely to be more about daily habits (e.g., recycling, water saving, energy saving) as well as involvement in the community’s environmental improvement and therefore not part of the objective and summative assessment arrangements. Nonetheless, more efforts could be placed on tapping children’s views and experiences through interviews, observations or keeping journals or portfolios. Moreover, Wals (2007: 499) suggests that in designing and monitoring social learning in EE/ESD, the following activities or “sequential moments” could be helpful: orientation or exploration, (self)awareness raising, deframing or deconstructing, co-creating, applying/experimenting and reviewing.
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The Status of ESD and Successful Experiences from Various Chinese Communities In Taiwan, the Division of Environmental Protection Education at the Ministry of Education (MOE) was established in 1990 and the National Council for Sustainable Development was established in 1997. The master plan of the Ministry of Education, Stepping into the 21st Century-an Action Strategy for Sustainable Development Education of MOE, was issued in 1999. Three main objectives guided the development of ESD-related activities: • Introduce and incorporate the concept of sustainable development into the school education and citizen’s daily life • Coordinating the resources of governmental agencies, private sectors, business, and schools to implement education for sustainable development • International cooperation of education for sustainable development (Anon., 2004: 2–3) Nine environmental education related centres were established in various parts of Taiwan (http://www.giee.ntnu.edu.tw/index.htm. Accessed on February 10, 2008) and most of their activities focused on developing instructional materials for ESD, holding conferences focused on ESD and conducting teacher workshops for ESD. One of the outstanding achievements of ESD in Taiwan was the Greenschool Partnership Programme, an example of the reform of a software system as discussed by Wang in Chapter 11. Another recent initiative is the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP), the framework of which consists of three components: campus ecology, sustainable technology, and environmental management. In addition, it should be participatory, eco-designed, innovative, having a new curriculum and having campus-community connection (Chang, 2007: 3–4). As regards the instructional plans of TSCP schools, the content tended to be concentrated on themes such as (in order of decreasing frequencies): “ecology” (38% of 96 schools funded in 2004), “water (related theories, cycles and resources)” (15%), “culture” (13%), “energy” (10%), “wetland (including eco-pond)” (9%), “ material cycles” (6%), “campus space” (6%) and “planting” (3%) (Chang, 2007: 7). TSCP focuses on the reform of the hardware system, and since its implementation, “[m]ore than 80% of the funded projects have successfully promoted a more versatile teaching environment through the Program, and the meaningful process and outputs have been shared among the schools and the neighbouring communities; the exact essence and spirit for sustainable development” (http://140.115.150.98/ esdtaiwan_english/intro.php. Accessed on February 10, 2008). In addition, environmental education was included as one of the important issues in the 9-year articulated basic education curriculum. In China, an important document The Guideline for Advocating Education for Sustainable Development in China was issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)), the Central Bureau of Publicity and the Ministry of Education in 1996.
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In 2003, the 10th National People’s Congress announced the two-pronged strategies of Sustainable Development and Rejuvenating the Nation with Science and Education. In the same year, the Ministry of Education launched the National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG). Two other important documents were issued, namely the Syllabus of Thematic Education for Sustainable Development in Primary and Middle Schools and The Guidebook for Implementing Sustainable Education in Primary and Middle Schools, to promote ESD in schools (Wang, 2004b). As discussed in Chapters 6 and 7, a network of 21 EE/ESD centres was set up under the Environmental Educators’ Initiatives (EEI) project and, by the end of 2006, more than 35,000 green schools had been established and recognised under the auspices of the SEPA (now the MEP). ESD has been promoted in the school curriculum in China through three major avenues: thematic ESD lessons in classrooms; infusing ESD content in other subjects (such as nature, geography and moral education in the primary sector) in classrooms; and extra-curricular activities with ESD as a topic (Wang, 2004a). In our judgement, ESD through extra-curricular activities would be likely to be more successful because it causes few disturbances to the formal curriculum but ESD may remain “marginalised”. It will be desirable in the medium to long term to incorporate ESD into different school subjects or selective modules. Such development, however, requires the commitment of school principals as well as the receptivity and efficacy of teachers. Chapters in this book have demonstrated progress made in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao in achieving and accumulating successful experiences in promoting environmental education and education for sustainable development. Lin and Ross (2004a: 8) in a special journal issue on China’s green schools and environmental education pointed out that, …schools active in implementing environmental education have demonstrated that their programs create innovative opportunities for students and their teachers to explore multiple learning styles, conduct collaborative research, and reach out to the community. Such activities link academic work and advocacy, and stimulate and strengthen students” responsibility and awareness of their roles as global citizens.
Another research report published in Australia revealed that, “one region of China noted an increase in environmental knowledge and consciousness amongst students and teachers as a result of the Green School project” (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004: 41). In addition to green schools, the Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) project, because of the launch of the National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG), was the only educational project to receive in 2003 the Gift of the Earth Award, the highest award of the WWF (http://www.wwfchina.org/english/sub_loca. php?loca = 14. Accessed on February 15, 2008). Moreover, another national project on Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development (EPD), through the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and UNESCO since 1998, has been successful in “establishing the concepts of sustainable development among the teachers, and raised the youngsters’ knowledge, moral and practical level of concerns over environment, life, and the sustainable development of the country and the nation” (Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, 2004). The
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Greenschool Project in Taiwan (GPPT) and the Hong Kong Green School Award scheme have also recorded remarkable achievements (http://www2.greenschool. org.tw/english/about.htm;http://www.ecc.org.hk/english/core/core_detail_list. php?catid = 29. Accessed on February 15, 2008).
Challenges and Difficulties Encountered in the Implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Schools Emphasis on education about the environment instead of education in and for the environment remains an entrenched challenge for environmental education and ESD in the Chinese communities. As Wang (2004b: 10) pointed out, “…for a long time, ESD in primary and middle schools in China has paid more attention to impart the relevant knowledge while much less to the cultivation of attitudes and skills, especially the right environmental ethics and sense of social responsibility which are necessary for the future citizens”. It was also a result of the constraints put on teachers who were heavily occupied in tasks stipulated by educational authorities. Teachers had “no time to research the methods of environmental education in the relevant subjects” and had “no time to consider how to educate their students for the environment and in the environment” (Zhu and Dillon, 1999/2000: 41). In addition, the BNU-Gakugei Research Group (2002) found that most teachers did not teach much content because of the following constraints (Wasmer, 2005: 22): lacking time; lacking teaching materials; lacking recognition from the school principal; lacking financial support; and having difficulties with implementation. As regards the challenges faced by developing green schools in China, Shen (2004: 71–72) identified the following problems: constraint of outdated concepts; pressure from an examination-oriented education; funding shortfalls and outdated facilities; and lack of qualified teachers. The government officials of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (now the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)) also identified difficulties in the creation of green schools, pointing to the “blind pursuit of quantity, neglecting quality”, “confusing “green school” with “green campus””, and “neglecting environmental management at school” (Jiao et al., 2004: 53). As regards the challenges of ESD in Taiwan, a report circulated in the UNU– APEC Education Network Invitation Programme remarked that, “one of the critical challenges and constraints to the speedy progression[s] will be the lack of qualified, well-trained, and enthusiastic personnel to be positioned in the right settings, either in public, governmental, or private sectors. It is probably the key to future development when we can have more professional[s] of all levels to collaborate in this topic throughout different parts of the country” (Anon., 2004: 3). A study on constructing an environmental education (EE) evaluation system for primary schools in Taiwan highlighted three process indicators related to the domain of “environmental management”. These were the school’s resource management, the school’s pollution control and the school’s management of environmental hygiene. In
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addition they identified one output indicator related to the domain of “environmental literacy”, namely teachers’ environmental literacy and another output indicator related to the domain of students’ learning effectiveness”. All of these were considered to be priority indicators for future EE evaluation in school (Kao and Kao, 2004). Summers and Kruger (2003: 161) and other scholars (e.g., Lee, 2002) have referred to the report Education for Sustainable Development in the Schools Sector published by the Council for Environmental Education in England. This identified a school-based curriculum framework with seven domains or dimensions, which were later adapted by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1999) and the National Curriculum in England: • • • • • • •
Interdependence Citizenship and stewardship Needs and rights of future generations Diversity (cultural, social, economic, biological) Quality of life, equity and justice Sustainable change (development and carrying capacity) Uncertainty and precaution in action
The Curriculum Development Institute (CDI) of the Education Department in Hong Kong also referred to this framework in its Teacher Handbook on Sustainable Development Education for Primary Schools. Summers and Kruger (2003: 178) remarked that, “we pointed to a growing consensus that sustainable development must be viewed holistically in terms of social, economic and environmental factors which cannot be disentangled, and the importance of a global perspective”. According to Wang (2006: 60–62), seven core themes of education for sustainable development were identified in the Chinese context, namely: development, population, equity, diversity, interdependence, environment and resources and energy. There is some correspondence with those in the US where the core themes of lifelong learning, cross-subject teaching, systems thinking, collaboration, multicultural and personal rights have been highlighted. According to our observations and information revealed in the case studies drawn from the Chinese communities in this book, it is clear that many schools have tended to work with younger children on developing activities and teaching content related to their own countries and local communities/environments. To some extent, children were able to consider social and economic issues and learn about the perspectives of people from the wider community, but more attention could be given to teaching global environmental issues. In terms of the dimensions of ESD, there were good examples of children learning about and making use of the “4Rs” (reduce, reuse, repair, recycle) in connection with the dimension of citizenship and stewardship and varieties of biodiversity related to the dimension of diversity. More emphasis could be placed, however, on issues of inequality and poverty (related to the dimension of quality of life, equity and justice), issues pertaining to the dimension of sustainable change as well as different views on sustainability by people (related to the dimension of uncertainty and precaution in action) (Summers and Kruger, 2003: 169–170).
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Possible Directions for ESD in Schools in the Chinese Communities Shallcross and Wals (2006), based on the work of Wals and Jickling (2002), have put forward a process-based typology of sustainability. One of their suggested approaches for ESD is that, “experts would determine outcomes, which would then be prescribed to passive schools and their staff... The dominance of this authoritative and universal approach to ESD, in which educational authorities use their power over schools to expect all schools to do much the same thing, can result in big brother sustainability” (Shallcross and Wals, 2006: 6). Another approach emphasises bottom-up, grassroots participation, democratic and social learning as well as more local and open outcomes co-created and determined by the schools and pupils. Between these two approaches are those with limited openness, shallow interactions and/or involvement. From the literature of ESD, it is clear that many advocates hold the view that, ideally, ESD should be collaborative, participatory and contextualised. But this raises the question of whether this essentially Western perspective matches the context of socialist China where there is still a dominance of centralised decision-making. There is a dearth of research on the value and limitations of the “social” environmental education or ESD approach. It raises such questions as: “Is this social approach to environmental education universal or is it desirable for implementation only in the context of Chinese society?... Is it possible, without critical reflection, to develop not only socially aware and responsible citizens but also empowered individuals who can change their environment? Is it realistic to work towards environmental sustainability through social and citizenship participation without challenging the political context which has permitted environmental exploitation in the first place”? (Lee and Tilbury, 1998: 234). This begs the question whether progress towards ESD will be achieved gradually in China by the Chinese following their own route. In the fields of international economics, politics and policy, two approaches prevail, the “Washington Consensus” (a US-knows-best approach “telling other nations how to run themselves”) and the “Beijing Consensus” (a Chinese perspective, being “pragmatic and ideological at the same time”) (Ramo, 2004: 4). The “Beijing Consensus may serve as an example for some western or non-western countries in the long run” (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/18/eng20050618_190947.html. Accessed on February 17, 2008). While there may not be consensual view(s) on the meaning(s) and definition(s) of education for sustainable development (ESD) or education for sustainability (EfS), these two terms suggest potentials for educational reform highlighting social equity and justice in general and school reform, emphasising whole school development, in particular. For the latter, Wade (2007: 108) remarked that, “education for sustainable development permeates all areas of school life as it is, at heart, about a way of living and being. Above all, it is about the ethos and value base of the institution and the relationships that sustain this”. Environmental education as education for sustainability, according to Rauch (2002: 48), implies the following elements:
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• To address constructivism as a general scientific outlook (all statements on nature, humankind etc. are subject- and culture-dependent) • To examine guiding principles which bundle the hopes, wishes and aims of societies and thus have a motivating, orientating and coordinating function • To understand the environment and equity issue as a corollary of an economic system that is based on competition and exploitation • To consider inter- and intra-generational equity as a core element of the educational discourse • To better observe the process of individualization (the trend from “us” to “me”); and at the same time • To recognize the need for participation and sharing Sterling (2001: 60–61) put forward three notions related to ESD: • Education about sustainability highlighting broad sustainability concepts and possibly having a knowledge/content bias • Education for sustainability emphasizing “learning for change”, critical and reflective thinking and possibly having values and capability bias • Education as sustainability focusing on the process and quality of learning being creative, reflexive and participative (Wade, 2007: 106–107) So far as the status and progress of ESD in the Chinese communities is concerned, our initial, subjective assessment is that they have achieved some success in terms of education about sustainability and have started some initiatives heading towards education for sustainability. There is a need, however, for substantial school and social transformation to be achieved to facilitate a real transition towards education as sustainability. All the above elements and directions provide possible signposts for, and implications for, short-term to long-term strategies for launching future ESD endeavours in the Chinese communities.
Short-Term and Medium-Term Strategies Among different strategies, teacher education and training of ESD personnel should be the first priority for promoting ESD in schools and other sectors in the Chinese communities. In addition to helping teachers understand the concepts of education for sustainable development, the method of delivery and teaching method should be perceived as practical to teachers for the implementation of ESD in schools (Lee, 2000). In the context of China, there is a preference for “an infiltrative method in primary school education and teaching... The delivery of environmental education for sustainable development should not only achieve the objective of environmental education, but also maintain the orderly teaching routines” (Huang and Tian, 2004: 84). Lin and Ross (2004b: 6) report that there has been a “…call for integrating elementary and middle school environmental education across the curriculum in
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ways that add neither staff nor student workload. The problem is successful integrative approaches depend not only upon “efficient” teachers, but also exceptionally well trained ones who can facilitate open-ended, research-based learning”. The workshop activities organised by the Environmental Educators’ Initiatives (EEI) project provide a very good example of teacher training. They emphasised the principles of equity, openness and democracy as well as adopting a participative, inquiry and interesting approach to learning (BNU EE Centre, ECNU EE Centre and SWNU EE Centre, 1999). Shi et al. (2000: 210) quoted the following workshop participants’ remarks: Whether in terms of content or form, the workshop was new and original; it changed our perception, The trainer opened a broad new scope of inquiry learning for us, which is very enlightening to primary education… (it) enhances communication between teachers and students and widens thinking. The cross-curriculum mode of environmental education has helped us to realise our expectation of integrating environmental education in different subjects.
Experiences from the UNESCO Project on Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development (known as the EPD project) provide useful teaching models for implementing ESD including the problem-solving model (modular teaching, social investigation and project work), the skills-based model and the affective model (Wang, 2004b). Another example is a school-focused model of in-service or continuing professional development (CPD), integrating three knowledge bases: substantive, theoretical; contextual, case study; and personal, experiential. In addition, this school-focused model has the following characteristics: local development of the whole school; training trainers and providing schools with support materials; and having integrative links with local communities (Shallcross, 2006: 77–78). Whatever the model or mode of teacher education for ESD, it is imperative to challenge teachers’ technical, professional ideologies and their dominant objective beliefs about knowledge, teaching, learning and assessment (Stevenson, 2007). Apart from training teachers and ESD personnel, it is important to raise the awareness of principals and government officials through leadership training in launching ESD activities in schools. As a primary school practitioner remarked: “Teacher training, system management, operating expenses, educational research activities, and plan implementation depend on principals who are highly environmentally conscious and are willing to take powerful measures to support environmental protection education” (Bian, 2004: 52). The EPD project in China has started to reinforce the concept of “learning organisation”, which promoted the concept of “implementation of sustainable development (SD) needs learning; learning is conducive to SD”, emphasized the establishment of learning mechanism and organisation of system learning as well as highlighted sustained learning actions (Wang, 2005: 26–28). Wasmer (2005: 3) undertook a German project intended to “provide funding and implementing institutions in donor countries with the information on how, where
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and why to implement what kind of project on EE in China”. One of the conclusions was that in the vast country of China with complicated bureaucratic structures, it was “appropriate for projects that try to improve existing structures or areas and where no additional administrative decisions on [the] national level are necessary. With a suitable partner these projects will show quicker results It is easier to act through networks of people than through the (political) system” (p. 57). Nonetheless, any project is likely to have a greater impact in China if the government could be involved in the promotion of ESD in the medium to long term. There are ample opportunities in the existing large-scale programmes or projects, such as the Green School Project and the EPD project, to either strengthen international collaboration or establish new collaborative projects under the auspices of the Chinese government. As regards the development of the Green School project in China and Taiwan, there is a need for a systematic and rigorous programme of evaluation of its impact. This should include not only the impact of these schools on students, teachers and schools but also the impact on local communities (Henderson and Tilbury, 2004: 48). The Taiwan experience, discussed in Chapter 11, revealed that, apart from strengthening partnership, funding support and providing accreditation, it was important to promote a whole-school, cultural transformation approach in green schools. A case study research study on the green school project in Taiwan showed that there was a need to establish a professional membership list in the Green School network, provide advice and support to help schools resolve their problems, organise seminars for experience sharing and to offer recognition for green school development (Liu, 2002; http://etds.ncl.edu.tw/theabs/site/sh/detail_result.jsp?id = 090NTNU0587001. Accessed on February 15, 2008). In terms of partnership between universities and schools in promoting ESD such as the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP), it was found that the success factors of higher/teacher education institutions were “integration and cooperation, real practices with research support, professional development and system management, curriculum and instructional materials, and involving students, faculty, residents, and communities” (Chang, 2007: 5). In the Special Administrative Regions (SAR) of Hong Kong and Macao, there is a need to establish centre(s) or institute(s) of environmental education or ESD to collaborate with government departments in the implementation of ESD-related policies and measures (Hills, 2003), work in partnership with universities and NGOs in training ESD personnel, and embark on regional and international research on ESD within and beyond the Chinese communities. Recently Anji and Beijing in China have been involved in the establishment of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCE) on ESD. The regional role of RCE Anji aims to “coordinate and manage Shanghai’s environment education practice base in the region” and “explore available environment education resources within the county and integrate them in the design of a system of practical ecological training” (http://www.ias.unu. edu/resource_centre/RCE%20Anji_1.pdf. Accessed on February 16, 2008). Taking the Beijing RCE as an example, its main goals are to “develop public understanding and awareness about sustainable development, to establish a regional
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knowledge base on ESD and good practices in the region, to improve the quality and availability of sustainable development curriculum, and to influence the role of the people in Beijing in sustainable development practices, including shifts in behaviour and production and consumption patterns” (http://www.ias.unu.edu/ resource_centre/RCE%20Beijing.pdf. Accessed on February 16, 2008). In Taiwan, there is a move towards developing Environmental Learning Centres, providing settings, displays, education, facilities and activities for education in the environment. A declaration highlighted the following (Chou, 2007: 65; http://refuge. wwg.org.tw/index.php. Accessed on February 16, 2008): • Working with the government’s related units, enterprises, NGOs, schools, small communities and individuals to build up a “nation-wide partnership of environmental learning centres” and to make environmental learning centres universal • Integrating “knowledge economy”, “experience economy” and “lifelong learning” so as to drive environmental learning centres to become the first choice of lifelong learning and meaningful leisure activity experiences for Taiwan residents • Helping sites to build up their own basic data, conserve natural ecology, preserve cultural heritage, boost local enterprises and provide quality environmental learning opportunities and • Helping sites to promote environmental caring and action, strive for and practise local sustainable development Moreover, there could be possibilities for integrating environmental protection and environmental education in areas needing biodiversity protection. Case studies of environmental education for biodiversity protection in mountainous and wetland areas of southwest China (Yunnan Province) provide useful examples not only for national development but also international co-operation (Wang et al., 2007). Another recent project, Promoting Sustainable Development in Education through UNESCO Development Project in Mongolia, involving collaboration between the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the UNESCO Beijing Office, highlighted “the production and use of distance learning materials to promote training of rural school teachers and principals” (Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2007: 4). Among the Chinese communities, still much needs to be done to reduce the regional disparity of educational development especially in some backward and remote areas in the vast country of China.
Long-Term Strategies Hills (2003), based on the document Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living (IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991), suggested that there were four stages in the evolution of environmental education (EE): Reactive, Receptive, Constructive, and Pro-active. The Chinese communities, especially Hong Kong and Macao, still remain in the Receptive stage and more substantial work needs to be accomplished to reach the Constructive stage where “EE programmes and objectives
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are more thoroughly implemented. There is community participation and objectives are oriented towards sustainable living” and the Pro-active stage where “the culture of all organisations is defined in terms of ecologically sustainable living supported by comprehensive, lifelong environmental learning integrated within education systems, industry, social organisations and neighbourhood groups and government” (Hills, 2003: 63–64). In the long run, there will be a need to provide students with opportunities to work on real problems on their school grounds, in surrounding communities, in collaboration with the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the government and local industry and commerce (Leal Filho and Behrens, 2003). In addition to having a comprehensive, integrated lifelong environmental learning system, there are huge potentials for building up a distinctive Chinese approach to education for sustainable development based on traditional Chinese ethics as well as the indigenous philosophy and knowledge accumulated in cultural minorities, such as the Zang traditions. As Yu (2003: 39) remarked: “When looking at the traditional Chinese philosophy…, one cannot doubt how coincident the SD is reflected in the remote indigenous culture such as holistic view of the nature, this maybe could be used as a shortcut to localize the meaning of SD and also find the cutting point for implementing” (Pei, 2002; Zhu, 2002). There are useful examples from other places around the world, such as South Africa where “emerging methods and methodological perspectives for mobilizing indigenous knowing in and for contexts of environmental learning in schools” could be explored (O’Donoghue and Neluvhalani, 2002: 122).
Conclusion Some of the above short-term and long-term strategies and approaches are in line with the promotion of ESD from an international perspective. Hopkins and McKeown (2002: 23) have offered the following guidelines: • The educational community must develop ESD leadership. • Ministries and school districts must assign responsibilities at all levels, and those who are responsible need to be held accountable. • Innovation must be encouraged. • Innovative practices must be disseminated. • Programme designers must establish research and evaluation techniques as part of the action plan. • Teacher training must incorporate pedagogy and content appropriate to ESD. The basic responsibilities of educators, as Scott (2002) reminded us, are: “one, to help learners understand why the idea of sustainable development ought to be of interest to them; two, to help learners gain plural perspectives on issues from a range of cultural stances; three, to provide opportunities for an active consideration of issues from appropriate pedagogies which, for example, might begin from learners’ and teachers’ different interests, helping pupils understand what they are learning
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and its significance; and four, to encourage pupils to continue to think about what to do, individually and socially, and to keep their own and other people’s options open. Doing less than this seems neglectful; doing much more runs the risk of indoctrination”. This journey towards education for sustainable development needs to be contextually-appropriate and be achieved, individually and collectively, through rigorous, sustained conception of theory and practice, thought and action and purposes and possibilities (Gough and Scott, 2001). One of the dominant recurring themes that emerge in discussions about education for sustainable development (ESD) is the need for a profound change in values. This is easily stated but value change is highly complex and reaches deep into human consciousness at all levels. Value systems underpin all aspects of teaching and learning, all aspects of school organisation and all aspects of community life. Often tacit, they are nevertheless the key to commonsense, as shared meaning, and personal and shared habits and customs. Education for sustainable development challenges commonsense and everyday habits. It requires cultural transformations at many levels. In this book, we have drawn attention to the interlocking changes required in primary schools in order to introduce programmes of education for sustainable development. School organisation, classroom organisation, the organisation of school grounds, curriculum development, non-formal activities, staff development at all levels, including non-teaching staff, funding and resources organisation, school-community partnerships, relationships with non-governmental organisations, all of these and more must change to accommodate ideas, insights, policies and practices that come under the broad umbrella of education for sustainable development. Clearly, there are other umbrellas that compete for the attention of busy primary school principals and teachers. The educational needs of the primary school child are extensive and many of them are addressed through campaigns with, often, more resources and greater support from policy makers and community leaders than education for sustainable development. One has only to point to literacy and numeracy. But just as obvious are the needs associated with moral education, citizenship education and sex education. Physical education and aesthetic education are just as demanding. It is not only this curricular competition for space and resources that stands in the way of single-minded and die-hard enthusiasts for education for sustainable development. It is not common that primary school teachers are curriculum experts in particular subjects. They are usually generalists who, as the pace of educational change quickens, have to rely less on less on whatever they learned in their initial training courses. The need for them to be updated and engage in lifelong professional learning is as great as the need for their students to engage in lifelong learning. This, of course, is a lesson that does not need to be taught to adults and children in economically deprived communities. Children who walk some distance daily to collect water do not need lessons in sustainability; day after day they learn and relearn harsh lessons about survival. This is lifelong learning at the sharp end. Turning off taps and electric switches and engaging in composting and cultivating plants in school mini-gardens are luxuries well beyond their reach. Not for them is
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there a dream for establishing school-community projects focused on sustainability. In wealthier environments or big cities, opportunities for professional learning for primary school teachers may be ample. There are, however, difficulties related to motivation and for heavily loaded teachers to find the time and energy to engage in professional learning. Yet, this professional learning, in both substantive and pedagogical dimensions is essential if education for sustainable development is to be implemented successfully. Professional development of teachers, the establishment of school/university partnerships, inter-institutional networks and collaboration between governmental, private organisations and NGOs lie at the heart of current policies and plans for promoting education for sustainable development in the Chinese communities. This is most clearly seen in the EEI project in China. We need to notice that this was a heavily resourced time-limited but cost-effective project. Curriculum projects of various kinds characterise education for sustainable development. Experience shows that it is often much easier to inaugurate a project than it is to evaluate a project and to provide the necessary resources and commitment to ensure that lessons learned through the project are sustained once the formal project has ended. In some places, like Hong Kong, primary schools appear to be inundated with projects derived from many governmental and other agencies. Much attention is needed in those schools that engage in projects to find better and better ways of consolidating project gains into their ongoing work. In the recent 4th International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE) in India, the Ahmedabad Declaration 2007, Education for life: life through education, stated that “We are all learners as well as teachers… We pledge to build partnerships and share our diverse experiences and collective knowledge to refine the vision of sustainability while continually expanding its practice… We urge all people to join us in pursuing the principles of sustainability with humility, inclusivity, integrity and a strong sense of humanity. We move forward from Ahmedabad in a spirit of hope, enthusiasm and commitment to action” (ICEE, 2007). It is imperative in future years that environmental educators, politicians, NGO executives, teachers and students should join forces with counterparts from the Chinese communities in the field of environmental education and education for sustainable development to work with and learn from each other through constructive actions for realising the ideals of sustainable development.
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Index
A Acid rain, 11, 16 Acidification, 11 Action research, 45, 59, 60, 63, 86, 110, 119, 124, 126, 128, 134, 142, 176, 185, 230, 254 Active learning, 45, 120, 190, 216 Afforestation, 11 Agenda, 21, 12, 15, 32–34, 96, 115–116, 213, 214, 230, 257 Art, 5, 40, 86, 110, 132, 137, 180, 199, 202, 205, 225, 247, 248, 250–251 Assessment, 4, 19, 20, 39–40, 53–71, 77, 82, 84–86, 99, 132, 142, 154, 191–193, 195, 197, 211, 217, 235, 264, 270–271 Australia, 47, 48, 67–68, 80, 82, 88, 96, 266, Authentic assessment, 54, 57, 71
B Beijing Olympics, 5 Biology, 3, 16, 29, 32, 38, 43, 116, 127, 235 Brainstorming, 63 Buddhist, 5, 7, 98
C Capitalism, 5 Cartesian dualism, 97 Cartesian–Newtonian worldview, 98–99, 103, 107 Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), 44 Chemistry, 16, 116, 127, 234, 235 China International Economic and Technological Exchange Centre, 117 Chinese Communist Party, 9 Chinese Society for Environmental Education, 140, 141
Civic education, 10, 18, 177, 178, 184, 185, 208, 234, 247 Collaborative learning strategies, 55 Collective school action, 18 Communism, 7, 78 Communist, 2, 5, 7–10, 15, 153 Communist Party in China. See Chinese Communist Party Communitarian curricula, 45 Communitarianism, 5, 259 Communities of learning, 45 Community helpers, 158, 164, 166 Community service, 120, 124, 126, 128, 129, 134, 137, 262 Community-based education, 142, 195, 197, 208–209 Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT), 103, 108 Complexity theory, 20, 98–99, 103 Conflict management, 63 Confucian, 1, 4, 6–7, 84, 85, 106–107, 263 Confucian Heritage Cultures, 4, 263 Confucianism, 6, 7, 106 Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 29 Constructivism, 45, 270 Consumers’ rights, 148 Council of Europe, 26 Country parks, 158, 238 Critical enquiry, 55, 175 Critical thinking, 8, 42, 49, 53, 55, 57, 60, 63, 243, 254 Cross-disciplinarity, 126, 134 Cultural elite, 6 Cultural Revolution, 2, 5, 8, 29, 32, 106 Curriculum design, 82, 127, 132, 191, 192 Curriculum Development Council (CDC), 18, 56, 61, 86, 104, 158–159, 196, 239, 258, 261–262 Curriculum guidelines, 10, 17, 48, 69, 258, 264 281
282 D Decade for Environmental Education, 32 Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), 34–36, 53, 96, 116, 121, 124, 135, 257 Decision-making, 29, 33, 40, 45, 63, 67–68, 83, 97, 108–109, 176, 195, 211, 221, 245, 260–261, 269 Declaration of Thessalonika, 96 Deng Xiaoping, 2, 8 Department for Education and Skills DfES, 66–67 Desertification, 11, 88 Discovery learning, 45 Double-loop learning, 100 Drawing, 10, 45, 65, 86, 149, 161, 247, 251, 263
E Earth Summit, 32, 34, 96, 257 Ecological cities, 139, 143 Ecological Footprint, 78, 81 Ecological sustainability, 172, 173 Economic progress, 3, 9, 26, 81 Economic sustainability, 172, 173 Eco-schools, 14, 46, 54, 64, 139–144, 217, 229 Education for Environment, Population and Sustainable Development (EPD), 20, 109, 115–135, 150, 263, 266, 271, 272 Education for sustainable development157– 193Education Initiative for Water (EIW), 120, 124, 126–128, 133 Endangered species, 2, 161, 166, 169, 171, 179, 181, 205, 249 England, 27, 29, 37–44, 66, 96–97, 104, 195, 262, 268 Enquiry learning, 45, 120, 181 Entrepreneurship, 5 Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI), 20, 44–47, 65–66 Environmental awareness, 12, 17, 44, 55, 68, 70, 89, 116, 125, 129, 143, 146, 148, 152, 153, 203–205, 236–237, 245–246, 251 citizenship, 18, 48 conservation, 2, 28, 121, 201, 203, 216 degradation, 2, 11, 16, 138, 148, 174, 215 ethics, 83–84, 267 improvement, 11, 81, 121, 158, 198, 209, 253, 264 Information Centres, 237, 248, 250, 251
Index knowledge, 12, 19, 54, 60, 80, 88–90, 121, 129, 148, 149, 152, 188, 203, 228, 240–242, 245, 247, 249, 251–253, 259, 266 literacy, 138, 225–227, 264, 268 management, 17, 19, 68, 142, 144, 145, 150, 154, 156, 200, 201, 219, 265, 267 messengers, 149 pollution, 2, 251 protection, 2, 11–19, 41, 69, 70, 89, 104, 116, 117, 123, 131, 134, 137–141, 143–145, 148–154, 156, 158, 162, 170, 182, 184, 185, 189–190, 196, 197, 200–207, 209–210, 215, 234–240, 242, 245–251, 265, 267, 271, 273 science, 12, 29, 81, 148, 175, 259 studies, 29, 36–40, 44, 48, 163 teaching, 17–19, , 221, 223, 225, 237, 239, 241 trails, 59 values, 6, 17, 70, 149, 253 vanguards, 149 volunteers, 150 Environmental Educators’ Initiative project (EEI), 15, 20, 86–87, 115–135, 266, 271, 276 Equity, 14, 35, 36, 50, 80, 159, 173, 175, 186, 217, 268–271 Ethnic minorities, 9 European Enlightenment, 97 European Union, 26, 141 Examinations, 27, 37, 39, 40, 44, 49, 57–61, 65, 84, 121, 154, 263, 267 Extra-curricular activities, 12, 42, 43, 47, 123, 124, 127–129, 133, 146, 182, 197–199, 201, 260, 262, 263, 266
F Fieldwork learning, 55, 59, 63 Focus Group on Habitat and Learning, 49 Formative assessment, 56–58, 63 Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), 139, 217 Fourth World Conference on Women, 34 Friends of the Earth, 29
G G8 Environment and Development Ministerial, 41 General studies, 202, 239, 243, 245–253 Generic skills, 18, 70, 87, 263
Index Geography, 10, 13, 16, 32, 37–41, 43, 44, 48, 84, 89, 116, 127, 233–235, 266 Global community, 4, 173 Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour and Effectiveness Research Project (GLOBE), 107, 229 Global River Environmental Education Network, 229 Global warming, 2, 36, 95, 247, 249, 251–253 Globalisation, 2, 20, 27, 83–84, 107, 258–260 Green communities, 139, 143 Green schools, 20, 54, 64, 68, 69, 108, 137–156, 165, 195, 196, 205, 208, 210–212, 228, 266, 267, 272 Greenhouse effect, 2 Greenpeace, 29, 38
H Habitats for learning, 59–60 Han Chinese, 89 Health education, 16, 40, 44, 199, 202, 208, 211 High-order thinking abilities, 55 History, 2, 4, 7, 10, 17, 29, 40, 44, 116, 120, 127, 129, 145, 202, 233, 250 Hong Kong Green School Award, 158, 196, 267 Human rights, 28, 39, 96, 259
I Identity, 5, 42, 211 Indoctrination, 12, 243, 253, 254, 275 Information and Communications Technology, 39 Information technology, 18, 36, 47, 70, 137, 177, 184, 207 Infusion approach, 116, 127, 142 Instructional design, 18, 129 Integrated activity curriculum, 14 Integrated Coordinated Curriculum, 215, 230 Integrated curriculum, 17, 201 Interactive learning, 18, 117 Intercultural learning, 17 Interdisciplinary themes, 18 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 95 International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE), 20, 50, 276 International Conference on Population and Development, 34
283 International Environmental Education Programme, 30, 31, 122 International Implementation Scheme, 34, 37, 54 Internet, 37, 78, 83, 248 Issue-based approach, 62, 86
J Johannesburg summits, 37 Justice, 36, 42, 55, 64, 67, 80, 84, 105, 109, 159, 175, 186, 268, 269
K Knowledge creation, 263 Knowledge transmission, 263 Kyoto Protocol, 80
L Lamaist, 5 Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education, 8 Leadership, 20, 43, 50, 82, 83, 97, 99, 101–110, 129, 133, 143, 146, 153, 205, 207, 223–226 Learning Areas, 70 Lifelong education, 13, 30 Life-wide learning, 56, 71, 190, 200, 209, 262 Literacy, 9, 27, 34, 36, 39, 122, 138, 225–227, 236, 264, 268, 275 Living Planet Index, 77 Local community, 4, 35, 47, 65–68, 86, 124, 130, 142, 147, 152, 163, 204, 225, 242 Local studies, 29 Localisation, 3, 90, 134, 258–260 Localised, 15, 20, 29, 82–84, 91, 122–124, 126, 136, 247
M Mainstreaming, 46 Manchu, 3 Mao, 2, 5, 8 Marine parks, 158 Market economy, 10, 78 Marxist-Leninist ideology, 27 Mental maps, 63 Mentoring, 63, 147 Metacognition, 45, 57 Migration, 11 Millennium Development Goals, 34, 81, 82 Modernisation, 8, 9, 79
284 Mongolian, 3 Moral education, 8, 10, 43, 89, 137, 149, 177, 208, 235, 248, 266, 275 Moscow Congress, 31, 32 Multi-national corporations, 29 Music, 10, 40, 60, 127, 132, 137, 185, 235, 247, 248, 250
N National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD), 213, 265 National Environmental Education Guidelines (NEEG), 15, 104, 119, 120, 138, 266 National Environmental Education Network (NEEN), 82 National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools, 67–68 Nature studies, 10, 29, 89, 179 New Environmental Paradigm, 90, 188, 239 Noise pollution, 16, 163, 179, 237, Non-formal curriculum, 260, 264 Non-governmental organisations, 4, 7, 26, 28, 29, 116, 196, 262, 274, 275 Numeracy, 9, 39, 260, 275
O Office for Standards in Education Ofsted, 66 Online learning, 160, 163, 166 Opening-up policy, 8 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 26, 44 Organisational learning, 20, 100 Outdoor teaching, 17
P Paiwan people, 87 Participative inquiry, 63 Partnership, 18, 36, 45, 47, 49, 67, 81, 97, 142, 158, 176, 215, 220, 265, 276 Patriotic education, 129, 178 Patriotism, 10, 258 Peasantry, 6 Peer-assessment, 57 Performance-based learning, 55 Personal, social and health education (PSHE), 44 Physical education, 10, 17, 40, 41, 87, 116, 128, 132, 137, 235
Index Pollution, 11, 16, 69, 79, 146, 148, 152, 157, 162, 163, 174, 179, 181, 201–203, 205, 209, 210, 216, 234, 237, 239, 249, 251–253, 260, 263 Population, 1, 11–14, 30–32, 78–79, 88, 91, 96, 109, 117, 122, 125, 174, 202, 213, 249, 266, 271 Portfolio assessment, 62 Poverty, 10 Private schooling, 5 Problem solving, 17, 32, 45, 53, 55, 61, 63, 67, 68, 70, 120, 130, 158, 163, 180, 187, 200, 224, 243, 254, 263, 271 Professional community, 20, 28, 100 Project learning, 18, 87, 140, 181–182, 184, 191, 193, 199, 262
Q Quality Criteria Project, 46
R Rio Summit, 12, 33, 115, 122, 213, 230, 257 Role play, 59, 63 Rural studies, 29, 37
S School grounds enhancement, 195, 202, 207 School self-evaluation, 60, 63–64 School-based curriculum, 4, 18, 61, 86, 87, 110, 119, 125–135, 144, 148, 158–161, 163, 164, 199, 207, 208, 215, 220, 236, 260, 261, 268 School Development through Environmental Education Network (SEED), 65 School-self evaluation, 71, 110 School-university partnerships, 158 Science, 9, 12, 29, 36, 37, 122, 123, 148, 233, 234, 238, 266 Scientific Revolution, 97 Second UN Conference on Human Settlements, 34 Self-assessment, 63, 68 Service learning, 126, 127, 142, 179 Service learning projects, 142 Shangri-la Institute, 87 Single-loop learning, 100 Situational leadership, 224 Social studies, 16, 17, 29, 97, 128, 131–132, 149, 235, 239 Social sustainability, 173
Index Socialist communitarianism, 5 State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), 13, 15, 16, 116, 117, 138, 143–144, 156, 265, 267 State schooling, 5 Student ambassadors, 183 Student environmental pioneers, 198 Student Environmental Protection Ambassador Scheme, 158, 196 Student exchange, 87, 144 Student-centredness, 126, 134 Summative assessment, 56, 58, 264 Superstition, 5 Sustainability Education in European Primary Schools (SEEPS) Project, 64 Sustainability Leadership Institute (SLI), 105 Sustainable communities, 3, 7, 82, 91, 119, 258 Sustainable Development Education Panel, 41 Sustainable Development Fund, 18, 158, 176 Sustainable school, 18, 43, 48, 50, 54, 64, 67, 200
T Taiwan Environmental Action Network (TEAN), 79 Taiwan Sustainable Campus Programme (TSCP), 218–220, 222–227, 230, 265, 272 Taoist, 5–7 Teacher Education Project, 46 Teacher receptivity, 239, 240Teacher training, 16, 31, 40, 46, 49, 118, 120, 124–126, 146, 154, 164, 169, 246, 271 Team work, 17, 67, 185, 227 Technology, 9, 13, 17, 175, 273 Textbooks, 8, 10, 27, 44, 49, 131, 133, 171, 233, 239, 249 Thematic days, 42 Tianamen Square, 2 Tibetan, 3 Tibetan Buddhism, 87 Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility, 33 Truancy, 9
U UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 32
285 UN Conference on the Human Environment, 30 UN Environmental Programme, 32 UN Food and Agriculture Organisation UNICEF, 10 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 13, 14, 30–32, 34–35, 37, 53, 54, 63, 95–97, 116, 117, 122–124, 150, 171, 257, 266, 271, 273 United Nations Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, 34 United States, 47, 48, 77, 80 Universalisation, 8, 9 Uygur, 3
V Values analysis, 19 Values clarification, 18, 216 Vocational skills, 9
W Whole school approaches, 19, 48, 54, 63, 82, 91 Whole-person development, 125, 262 Whole-school approach, 69, 86, 110, 158, 191, 196, 201, 210, 229, 230 Whole-school approaches, 21, 63, 64, 68, 69, 71 World Commission on Environment and Development, 32, 95 World Conference on Education for All, 34 World Education Forum, 34 World Environment Strategy, 32 World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC). 50 World Food Summit, 34 World Summit for Children, 34 World Summit for Social Development, 34 World Summit on Sustainable Development, 116, 213, 230 World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 28, 32, 77
Y Young Pioneers, 146, 148
Z Zang Nationality, 86
