Writing cleanse

For the past few months I've been working towards submitting a research paper for publication, my first for this area of research, and it's come to the fore in the past two weeks... ie. It's almost due and I've got to get the darn thing finished! lol. I'm enjoying the process though. Writing is a great way of synthesising those thoughts that have been floating around in the spaces of my mind. I find writing cleansing. It's like that day you've been meaning to tidy up your office, bedroom or the shed, to finally put things in their right place and make homes for the newly collected tid-bits. It's also the day you've procrastinated about the most... :)

The running title of my paper is Tapestry of Relationships: The Millennium Kids Approach to Sustainability Facilitation. I guess you'll be able to read it once it's done (wink wink), but basically I'm looking at the dynamics of accompanying a school to achieve it's goals in education for sustainability. It's important here to note that education for sustainability as described by UNESCO in outlining the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) and as agreed by other researchers in the field, should encompasses a range of environmental, economic and socio-cultural perspectives. These three areas need to go hand in hand to engender true sustainability.

It makes sense really. For example if a school decides to start a veggie garden, well that's great! They can integrate it into their teaching and learning across various curriculum areas. The kids can count seedlings that germinate or bugs that co-habit, write about different aspects, create artwork to decorate the garden, cook the food they produce, one year group can even learn about composting and then build a compost for the garden! Woohoo! :) But how much more significant would it be to the students', teachers' and perhaps indirectly the parents' holistic understanding and potential for personal behaviour change, if they were to incorporate indigenous ideas of food gardens? ...or perhaps they have a large greek or chinese community at the school? Why not invite those parents in so the kids can learn about different types of foods that are found in various cultures. Or perhaps the children could compare the price of different foods at their local store with the time and money it's taken them to grow their own foods. They could explore to some extent what factors a farmer needs to consider when deciding if it's cost effective for them to grow a certain food. But that's not all! The school could develop links with a rural or international school. They could learn about each other's cultures and even help the poorer school to develop a food garden of their own, by helping to fund-raise, etc. Or the school could link with a local community garden and thereby encourage children and parents to form their own personal links with the garden after school hours... There's really so much a school can do. But! Like the garden, it has to be organic... Students and teachers together should drive the project ideas because it needs to be relevant to their interests and concerns. The Principal can provide infrastructure, encouragement or connections to support the process. Parents can get involved where they feel comfortable. What a lovely whole-school vision, eh?

I guess this all sounds like quite a lot of work, but in reality it's fairly simple as long as the process is organic and allowed to grow in it's own time and direction. The key is helping to add the right amount of encouragement, guidance, professional support, curriculum links, self-assessment tools, clear links to different educational providers and resources along the way. That's where an unbiased external facilitator can work really well. They can help the school keep pushing the envelope, not to become satisfied with ticking boxes (eg. veggie garden = done.). They can provide perspective and simply be there with the tools or resources or unbiased listening ear as needed.

In fact, it's very much about capacity building. Sound familiar to some of you? Well yes, it's very similar to the approach underpinning the world-wide Baha'i community's efforts towards community building in every neighbourhood and locality. It's about tapping into and building every individual's capacity for contributing to the betterment of society, including caring for our environment, valuing the culture and beliefs of all people, and working to minimise extremes of wealth and poverty. This whole sustainability thing has a lot to offer, don't you think?

Hmmm... okay that's enough of my reflections for the day. Now I want to share a silly article I happened across this morning that made me laugh. It's about one clear day when a cuttlefish mistook a seahorse for a blade of grass and promptly began to lay it's eggs on the seahorse! Awkward... ;)
http://wildoceanblue.co.uk/2010/03/31/seahorse-versus_cuttlefish/