The NAEE blog this week (published on Tuesday 14th) is a comment on an HMI document on curriculum and environmental education. Here’s a taster:
“What is perhaps most important is to convey the realisation that environmental systems are complex and environmental problems not easily resolved. This cannot readily be done solely through the medium of individual subjects or without taking a synoptic view from time to time. The proper study of environmental issues requires cooperative teaching approaches and automatically entails cross-disciplinary reference.” ∫∫∫
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Reframing Environmental Education: What does environmental education look like when we apply what we know about values? is a new action-learning project to be launched in the Spring. There will be scoping meetings in London and Bristol in February. This video by NAEE trustee Morgan Phillips – a presentation at a recent Anti-Black Friday event – gives background about the project. Morgan will be writing about this initiative in a forthcoming NAEE blog. ∫∫∫
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Teach the Future is working with its supporters (including NAEE) on a draft parliamentary Bill to be launched at a parliamentary reception at end of February. It is co-ordinating efforts with Peers for the Planet, a new organisation set up to get members of the House of Lords to work together on climate legislation.
Teach the Future offers
- free teaching materials and support for educators who want to Teach the Future
- professional development for educators and student workshops
- the Futures Thinking Playbook, a guided workbook for students to introduce them to futures thinking. ∫∫∫
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RSPB says get ready for 25-27 January and the Big Garden Birdwatch. You can sign-up and get access to Big Garden Extra and access articles, downloads and interviews. You can submit your results any time between 6th January and 21st February. ∫∫∫
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GEEP, the Global Environmental Education Program has open its first regional office – the GEEP Asia-Pacific Regional Center – in Taiwan. The regional office is located on the campus of the National Taichung University of Education, and will be jointly operated by EPA Taiwan, the US EPA, Taichung City Government, and the North American Association for Environmental Education. The center aims to support local, national, and regional environmental policy-making and implementation by providing opportunities for training, technical support, leadership, information sharing, and professional development. ∫∫∫
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Learning for Sustainability Scotland has received ‘Acknowledged Flagship Project’ designation for its role in contributing to SDG 4: Quality Education. award for its College Learning for Sustainability Champions Programme delivered in partnership with EAUC and piloted in Dundee and Angus College. ∫∫∫
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The recent IPBES report said that one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, and that the rate of species extinctions is accelerating. The report found that over-exploitation is the top driver in marine, and the second biggest driver in terrestrial and freshwater systems, of negative impacts on nature.
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There is a new book published: Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education – Canadian Perspectives. It’s by Douglas Karr and focuses on contemporary practices, trends, and issues in outdoor and environmental sustainability education in teacher education, providing novel and inherently Canadian and Indigenous theoretical understandings, policy directions, and instructional approaches. Further information is here.
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The fierce urgency of now: Navigating paradoxes in sustainability education is the title of the 5th Sustainability in Higher Education (SHE) Conference being held at Canterbury Christ Church University on 20th and 21st May. The conference is free to attend, but places must be booked in advance here. There will also be a pre-conference Welcome Garden Party held in the grounds of St Martin’s Priory the evening before on Weds 20th May, from 17.30-19.30. If you wish to attend, please book separately here. Abstracts should be sent to adriana.consorte-mccrea@canterbury.ac.uk by 28th February 2020. ∫∫∫
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The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), takes place in Kunming in October and will be finalising the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and Strategic Plan – helping set the future conservation agenda. ∫∫∫