Summer 2005

Education for sustainability

Together we can do it

What better place to begin exploring such a critical and global issue as sustainability than with the students in our education system whilst they are still passionate about caring for their environment? Jennifer Paul presents the lessons.

When we first began working towards becoming a Sustainable School, the Anula School community had very little understanding of how to approach such a task. We had no shared vision or broad plan and we had no real understanding of the related issues.

In the beginning

To begin exploring this, two of us attended a two-day workshop run by the Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training. Highlights of this workshop included the sharing of:

• our aspirations
• what each participating school community was already trialling with regards to sustainability
• enablers and blockers for each of the projects underway—such as the difficulty of convincing parents of the need to recycle waste water on a vegetable patch when simply staying alive until the next day was their focus!
• understandings of both the support available through government departments and the restrictions their policies may place on a project
• strategies for harnessing the commitment from parents/ community and for developing partnerships.

On returning to the school, we held a workshop for teachers and met with the School Council and the Student Representative Council for the purpose of creating a shared vision. Together we explored and audited our existing practices and, in the process, we developed a greater sense of direction for any future projects. A shared vision was developed out of the discussion, consultation and exploration of ideas, concerns, beliefs and values of the school community.

The workshop initially created a not unexpected or unwarranted sense of panic as already overloaded teachers wondered how on earth they would cope with the envisaged increased workload. To ease this sense of panic, we invited interested/curious staff (teachers, office management and grounds staff) and parents to come together to form Anula’s Sustainable Schools Working Party.

This group of 14 meets at least twice a term to discuss progress/ problems and future direction. With each of us taking on a specific role, no one has been burdened with an overbearing additional workload. This process of sharing responsibility is continually being shifted from one person to another as one project progresses and another begins. In the long term, it hopefully means that if one of us leaves the school, the projects will continue with the support of those remaining. Having representatives from across our school community in this group has meant that we have access to a vast range of skills and knowledge to tap into as the need arises.

Up and running

Once formed, the group identified which projects to tackle first and how they might best be approached. For each project, we explored ways of harnessing the energy and expertise of the wider school community, as well as maximising the engagement of the student population. In the process, we hoped to build a stronger sense of ownership.

A policy for ecologically sustainable development was drafted, ensuring that the vision, links with the curriculum and tools for monitoring progress towards the stated goals were described. Acceptance of this policy will embed these goals of sustainability in all school practices thus ensuring the related changes are not short lived.

The development of a Bush Tucker Garden was our first project, partly because we had already won a related grant and partly because it had already been identified by the School Council as a goal. Two teachers tackled the task of writing units of work that required the students to research regional Bush Tucker Plants and to visit existing Bush Tucker Gardens. Students then selected appropriate plants for our garden. These were ordered from Greening Australia as we had become members as part of the Project and a community working bee was organised to prepare the site. As part of National Tree Day, students across the school planted, mulched and fenced the garden.

We have also just begun a recycling and litter abatement program. This began with writing submissions for funding, followed by researching our school’s litter problem and identifying the hot spots, purchasing extra rubbish bins and two composting drums, collecting and composting our food scraps across the school, conducting surveys with students about attitudes towards litter and littering, and consulting with experts. Throughout the process, student contributions to decision-making and to taking action were maximised.

Looking back

Despite the fact that we only began to embed sustainability into our school practices three short terms ago, we have learned and achieved a great deal.

The gardening project was our first and we experienced many hiccups along the way. This included the process we used for selecting the site—which initially did not take into account people’s emotional attachment to the existing plants. Failure to consider the need for a back-up watering regime meant that some of our plants died. This was because our chief-waterer (our janitor), left unexpectedly and our new janitor was not made aware of his crucial role in the success of the project.

Due to inexperience and a lack of forethought, we wasted a great deal of time in mulching because of where and how it was delivered. As the project had to be completed within a limited time, we also found it difficult to fully capitalise on expert advice available from the wider community. This meant the placement of our plants within the garden was based on limited research and we can only hope that it is enough to ensure their survival.

The litter abatement and recycling project initially suffered from a lack of leadership. This meant that we committed ourselves to action relating to a grant before researching the litter problem and or completing detailed plans. It also meant that the commitment and interest of the SRC were difficult to secure, and teachers, already overloaded, found it difficult to be actively supportive.

As a group, we are beginning to recognise the need to begin projects with less haste and with more consideration of other activities already underway in the school. We have also learned about the importance of securing expert advice to avoid problems and to ensure win/win solutions can be achieved.

More recently, we have become better skilled at consulting with the community and really hearing what they are telling us. In addition, we have identified the need to build awareness of the environmental issues amongst students and staff before expecting them to take action.

Towards the future

The future of ecologically sustainable development at Anula School will require innovation and creativity from a community committed to collaboration. It will also require resilience to overcome any hurdles, and affirmation to celebrate successes.

The development of teaching and learning programs linked with the Northern Territory Curriculum Framework and fostering the Anula vision of sustainability is a critical task for the future. This will enable our work in the classroom to have a real-life link with the work we’re doing in the schoolyard. The further development and delivery of programs focused on sustainability will importantly serve to maximise student knowledge, understandings, attitudes, and student/community involvement in the projects.

The future will also give us opportunities to explore new and better ways to enable our students to have a deeper and more meaningful level of involvement. This will involve parents and staff in finding ways to capture students’ interests and in providing appropriate support so that they become resilient and resourceful when facing obstacles.

Jennifer Paul is a year 4/5 teacher at Anula Primary School in Darwin.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au