Written by Raksha Vasudevan (rv2451@tc.columbia.edu)
Over sixty students and faculty recently participated in a virtual international workshop on Sustainability Education. Masters and doctoral students from Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts in Israel, Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, and Teachers College in New York City came together to share lessons from their research on environmental and sustainability education. Faculty sponsors in each of the three schools include Dr. Dafna Gan, Dr. Attila Varga, and Dr. Oren Pizmony-Levy.
The opening plenary session included student presentations from each of the three institutions. From Hungary, Zsuzsa Székely and Tamara Temesvári presented a conceptual representation of the relationship between the individual, state, and society. They described the relationship as “a circular and dynamic system,” highlighting the various opportunities to initiate environmental changes in each of the three sectors. Next, from Israel, Orel Aseo-Ben Shimon, a biology teacher, presented the barriers and opportunities to implementing Green School Advanced Certification according to staff in schools. She found that environmental learning spaces and support within and outside of the school encourage staff to persevere with environmental education, whereas complicated certification processes and unsupported school communities are often barriers to persisting as green schools. Finally, Erika Kessler, from the United States, presented on the role of civics knowledge, environmental education, and institutional trust on youth’s climate change risk perceptions across 22 countries. Among other findings, Kessler shared that for the more than 82,000 students surveyed, climate change was among the top perceived threats to the world’s future. Following the opening plenary, participants were separated into breakout rooms to share more research, and then came back together for final reflections. Breakout room presentations included examples of educational activities for K-12 students; barriers to environmental education in the higher standards; and ideas for alternative testing strategies.
Perhaps the most striking outcome of the workshop was that despite the range and scale of topics and geographies represented, there were clear connections between student work, as well as lingering questions for future workshops. The value of learning from and with nature was evident in many of the presentations, as well as the creativity utilized by teachers in order to help teach students about environmental education. Participants excitedly shared implementation strategies for environmental education as other took notes. Future workshops will build on the excitement from this workshop, delving into what teachers can do in various social and political contexts, as well as how to manage environmental education systems more generally.
If you are an educator interested in environmental and sustainability education, email us to participate in future events: TCSustainability@tc.columbia.edu.
