World Environment Day: What can educators and families do

World Environment Day: What can educators and families do

by Lyndal O’Gorman

Initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Environment Day has been held every year since 1973. World Environment Day is the largest global event for environmental awareness. The theme this year is Only One Earth and it’s an important reminder that this awesome blue planet on which we live is our only home, and we need to do better at looking after it … and sharing it.

Sustainability is not just about the environment. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals refer to poverty and hunger reduction, health and education, equality, clean water and energy, employment, industry and innovation, sustainable communities, responsible consumption, ecosystems, climate change, peace, justice and global partnerships.  These goals address more than topics related to the natural environment. In 2006 Canadian educator Charles Hopkins came up with the idea that living sustainably is about ensuring there is “enough for all, forever”. This catchy but deeply meaningful phrase is a good reminder that sustainability is about justice for all people, for all creatures and for future inhabitants of the planet. Sustainability is about sharing.

Early childhood education has a critical role to play in helping young children to learn about sustainability and to become active citizens who make a difference, both locally and globally. Young children are hearing about climate change, natural disasters, pollution and famine, which are all indicators that humans are not living sustainably, and not sharing the planet on which we live. We know that children have the right to have a say about matters of importance to them. Children’s questions, views and opinions – their voices – need to be acknowledged, valued, respected and acted upon for sustainability education to be effective (Elliott & Davis, 2018).

It’s important for adults to think about what we can do to help children to remain hopeful and positive about the future. There is a view that wellbeing is not so much about unbridled happiness, but rather understanding that we can work together to make the world a better place for all inhabitants of the planet, and for future generations (Ryan and Deci, 2001). When children can take emotional risks, ask questions, express their views, and work together to solve local and global challenges, their wellbeing can be supported. Children may be more resilient than adults realise (O’Gorman, 2019; 2020), but educators should of course take a careful and thoughtful approach to discussing and acting upon big issues with young children. I like to think about this work as negotiating “emotional obstacle courses”. Just as educators will hold an uncertain child’s hand as they climb over playground equipment, an educator can support them as they negotiate emotionally challenging topics in an uncertain world.

The key to addressing the challenge of sustainability is understanding that we need to support each other and work together as citizens of this One Earth that we share.

Three things educators can do:

1. Learn more about sustainability and how you can make a personal difference by sharing the planet’s resources more fairly. Try an online ecological footprint calculator to work out how well you are sharing the planet.
2. Engage children in conversations about big issues relating to sustainability and social justice so that they know they can talk about these things.
3. Help children to address local sustainability problems through inquiry and project-based approaches. This will help them to know that their opinions are important and that they can make a difference.

Read more about world environment day here.

References

Elliott, S., & Davis, J. (2018). Moving forward from the margins: Education for sustainability in Australian early childhood contexts. In G. Reis & J. Scott (Eds.), International perspectives on theory and practice of environmental education: A reader (pp. 163-178). Springer International Publishing.

Hopkins, C. (2006). The role of education in the pursuit of a more sustainable future. Education for sustainable development towards responsible global citizenship [2006 conference report]. Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.

O’Gorman, L. (2019). Promoting children’s wellbeing and values learning in risky learning spaces. In H. Hughes, J. Franz, & J. Willis (Eds.), School spaces for student wellbeing and learning: Insights from research and practice (pp. 39–54). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6092-3

O’Gorman, L. (2020). Stories of disruption: Perspectives on the use of images to prompt children’s action taking for sustainability. In S.Elliott, E. Arlemalm-Hagser, & J. Davis (Eds.). Researching early childhood education for sustainability: Challenging assumptions and orthodoxies (pp. 179-191). Routledge.

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2001).  On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141-166.