Notes from an outstanding seminar hosted by Routes2Resilience.

1. EDUCATION FOR A
SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL
FUTURE
Hosted by: routes2resilience.org
At Hilton College (1-3 October)
Feedback from Dave Goodwin
Academic Advancement @ Uplands College

2. CREDIT & THANKS TO:
Geordie Ractliffe & Elspeth Donovan (Routes2Resilience)
Prof. Lausanne Olvitt (Rhodes Environmental Learning
Research Centre)
Dr Gary Kendall (sustainability expert)
John Roff (transformative nature guide)
Jocelyn Anderson (Nature Connect)
Gerry Noel (Michaelhouse)
Alexei du Bois (Hilton College)
Prof. Joanne Hardman (UCT)

3. STARTING POINT – A DISCUSSION WITH
ANY CLASS OR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
TEAM
3 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
• What exactly do we want to sustain?
• For whom?
• Why is this important to sustain?
If we, the educators and school leaders, don’t have clear answers to these 3
questions, we have no basis on which to design a curriculum or a strategy.
What would your answers be to these 3 questions?
It is difficult to reach consensus on these questions.
The UN’s published 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals provide a
useful framework for this discussion at any level.

4. • If we look at our immediate environment, and our surrounding
community, which goals are relatable and relevant to our pupils?
Which goals could inspire our pupils to affecting change?

5. IDEAS SHARED BY PROF. LAUSANNE OLVITT OF
RHODES UNIVERSITY ENVIRO LEARNING CENTRE
• Do we envisage a future where living things just survive, or thrive?
• Don’t allow sustainability to cause division among us as educators or school leaders; use
it as a means to greater synergy, to taking action, and to finding shared interests.
• An education that will make pupils future-ready, active citizens is called a QUALITY
EDUCATION. There is no need to specify that eco-awareness or social responsibility or
21st century skills and values underpin such an education – it is self-evident.
• Sustainability is not the scope of the EnviroClub, or some pupil volunteers, or some
‘champion staff’.
These notions are utterly archaic.
• Sustainability is a vital aspect to all learning, in all age groups, in all subjects, and our
responsibility as educators is to draw this topic out from behind all our curriculum and
position it at the forefront.
• Our work and learning in this space will never be done.
It requires ongoing orientation from us, and from school leaders, not pursuit of a
definitive destination.

6. HOW TO APPROACH EDUCATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT?
An approach that is systemic, dynamic, holistic, connected…
We cannot approach things in isolation or silos – all is
connected
Pupil exercise: Explode the connections
Pupils are given a simple object, such as a teabag or sandwich or phone
Their tasks is to draw on paper as many connections as they possibly can
that resulted in the object in front of them – origins of resources or raw
ingredients, processes, supply channels, packaging, marketing, labour legal
and health influences at every level, energy sources behind every step… and
so on
This exercise will illustrate the connectedness of industries and sustainable
issues.
Use the 17 UN SDGs to inspire thought for this task.

7. WE NEED TO TEACH SYSTEMS THINKING

8. AN APPROACH THAT IS INTER-DISCIPLINARY,
CROSS SUBJECTS…
I found the below image helpful in clarifying this.
If each circle below is a school subject, how do we tend to teach concepts?
We are being called to push pupils into the complex space where many things
collide.

9. A RELATIONAL APPROACH IS REQUIRED
There is little use
in pointing fingers
at ‘them’ whoever
‘they’ may be. We
have to move
forward together.
We are all deeply
embedded in
relationships and
systems that
involve our
common home
(Earth). To solve
our shared
challenges
pro-actively
requires
significant
relational /

10. OUR APPROACH NEEDS TO BE CRITICAL &
PROBING, TOUGH QUESTIONS SHOULD BE
WRESTLED WITH IN CLASSROOMS
- ‘Education’ has replaced traditional knowledge and natural wisdom of
indigenous cultures; how did that happen? Who decides what is valuable
knowledge?
Who decides which worldviews or perspectives are valued?
- Does prosperity really require economic growth?
- Why do we even use the word ‘nature’? It is problematic because it suggests
something other, something out there, rather than our constant surroundings –
all of which in fact include nature in an adapted form. We cannot dissociate
ourselves from nature.
- Why do we want to know and understand so much? Why are we not content
enough to just be sometimes? To co-exist with our incredible inherited world?
To silence our cleverness and listen…
- Why not just forget the rhino? It’s extinction will have no impact on any
ecosystem.
Similarly there are numerous species of endangered birds in Hawaii – why
continue to pour money into solutions for these species if they have no critical
role to play?

11. OUR APPROACH SHOULD BE AFFECTIVE,
EMOTIONAL, TANGIBLE, EXPERIENTIAL…
Pupils will not protect or enhance what they do not already value.
• We are well positioned at Uplands to ensure our students find JOY in
their interactions with our natural world – animal interactions,
excursions, beauty, wilderness, camps, Journey, Kruger Park, our
campus gardens, local birdlife, wildlife on campus.
• Are pupils aware of ecosystem services? These are things nature does
for humanity ‘for free’, such as bees pollinating, grasslands
preventing flooding… are these services in evidence here?
• A chameleon was found on campus this week – how many
pupils got to touch it or see its amazing feet
and eyes up close?
WHAT ARE OUR POSSIBILITIES IN THIS SPACE?

12. AN APPROACH THAT IS MULTI-VOICED, WITH
VARIED CULTURAL INPUT, WITH NO SINGLE
AUTHORITY.
WE NEED TO INVITE AND SEEK ALL VALID
PERSPECTIVES.
‘This is all yours’ pupil exercise
Give pupils complete ownership of the Uplands campus and
surrounding fields
Pupils then draw an identity out of a hat – such as miner /
farmer/ property developer / politician / land claimant /
conservationist / entrepreneur / community activist…
They must present their vision for this property
and its buildings 5 years from now.
Pupils can choose to be self-serving or altruistic (inclusive).
They listen to every vision and discuss the validity of each voice.

13. AN APPROACH THAT IS REFLEXIVE – WE ALL
REFLECT DEEPLY AND RESPOND
We are in the habit of commodifying knowledge – suggesting it has value in
itself.
We need to shift so that knowledge informs actual decisions and actions by
pupils.
This requires much deeper learning, substantial pupil reflection and the
opportunity for pupils to apply knowledge in contexts that matter personally
to them.
Bishops ‘BIG IDEA’ – Grade 9 project, designed by Gerry Noel
Pupils (parents) were given the choice to attend normal classes in 5 subjects
for 6 months.
Or to use the lesson time for those subjects to work on their own BIG IDEA.
Inspired by the UN’s 17 SGDs pupils provided a solution to a real problem in
their community.
Ride share/Car pooling apps (to reduce emissions), School Notes app (to
share quality learning notes with disadvantaged pupils), Social networks and

14. AN APPROACH THAT IS JUSTICE ORIENTED,
POLITICAL
“Women who hold up the Sky” – powerful documentary about African women who are
opposing big industry in Uganda, DRC and SA (mining, hydro-electricity)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAHLhEqBI0c (35 minutes)
We watched the film and discussed 3 questions:
• Who are the winners and losers here? Think in terms of short term and long term.
• Which group of women were most successful? This question required discussion on
what success is in contexts like this – it’s not simple.
• A controversial hydropower dam in DRC is supplying SA with electricity – how do we
respond to this? What agency do we have in this scenario?
The ‘global north’ has for too long been the dominant voice; it is time to tune into the
‘global south’.

15. POSSIBLE PUPIL CASE STUDY: DRC’S INGA DAMS

16. FOR PUPIL
INQUIRY
Land Rover ‘life straw’
initiative: a straw
through which all
water becomes
potable/drinkable.
GET PUPILS TO
INTERROGATE CSR
PROJECTS LIKE THIS
FROM MULTIPLE
VIEWPOINTS…

17. AN APPROACH THAT IS ETHICAL AND CARING
What is the role of philanthrocapitalism today?
Pupils can investigate the charitable work of global CEOs and evaluate it.
CSR initiatives pose many ethical dilemmas and perpetuate problematic narratives of rich saving
poor.
“More and more wealthy CEOs are pledging to give away parts of their fortunes – often to help fix
problems their companies caused. Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan have pledged to give
away 99% of their Facebook shares – valued at $45 billion.
The Giving Pledge, a philanthropy campaign initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in 2010
targets billionaires around the world, encouraging them to give away the majority of their wealth.
Essentially, what we are witnessing is the transfer of responsibility for public goods and services
from democratic institutions to the wealthy, to be administered by an executive class.
Firms must now balance, at least rhetorically, a dual commitment to profit and social outcomes.
This has been reflected in the promotion of the “triple bottom line”, which combines social,
financial and environmental priorities in corporate reporting.”
In 2000, 51 of the largest economies in the world were corporations, and 49 were national
economies.
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman famously told last year’s Davos participants, “stop talking about
stupid philanthropy schemes” and focus on tax instead.
Can organisations do ‘good’ to offset their ‘bad’?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/24/the-trouble-with-charitable-billionaires-
philanthrocapitalism

18. AN APPROACH THAT AIMS TO BE
TRANSFORMATIVE, CHANGE ORIENTED… EVEN
TRANSGRESSIVE (DISRUPTIVE, UNCOMFORTABLE)
There is little point to aiming any lower than this.
Change is uncomfortable.
Pupils should challenge the status quo and examine their
circumstances critically.
We are unlikely to inspire young people with doom and gloom
prophecy of planetary collapse.
Our role is to model, to empower, to sharpen, to support, to enable
and give agency to pupil ideas and actions.
A key message for this generation is that deep personal fulfilment is
attainable through simplicity in lifestyle, through lower consumption,
by having meaningful purpose, by building authentic relationships,
and in having efficacy and autonomy through personal health and
ongoing quality learning. These are critical ideas to position alongside
short cuts to wealth, materialism, career success, and societal
validation. ARE WE PREPARED TO LIVE THIS?

19. AN APPROACH THAT IS LEARNER CENTRED,
INTERACTIVE, GENERATIVE, EMPOWERING!
Like the Bishops BIG IDEA project, it is up to us the educators to provide choice to our
pupils and to not limit their exploration or agency.
Holy Rosary PBL, designed by Mia Nixon, adapted from work by Ashleigh Askew
Summarised objectives:
Pupils are to repurpose/redesign an old piece of furniture – it may not fulfil its original
purpose.
Pupils are given R500 per group for materials.
Donated / dumped furniture items are allocated randomly to pupil groups.
Pupils find inspiration from design experts and from the informal economy – a tour
through JHB city centre where entrepreneurs are re-invigorating tired infrastructure and
wares are created from recycled materials; pupils see ingenuity, art, vision, creativity
first hand.
Pupils find a worthy charity and prepare a presentation about it.
Pupil furniture creations are auctioned at an event and the winning group donates all
proceeds to their chosen charity.

20. A MORE LIKELY FUTURE
Some surprising facts:
- In 1969 Boeing launched the 747 – it is still widely in use today, 53 years
later.
Air travel has not evolved as quickly as one may have anticipated it to. Flying
cars?
- The last manned moon landing was in 1972 – 50 years ago, but we’re going
to live on Mars?
- Electric cars were already around in the mid-19th century.
Innovation tends to accelerate when we are faced with a significant and
inconvenient problem.
Human beings will likely turn to technological innovation to solve
sustainability problems, rather than have to change behaviour.
So our educational purpose is to inspire and enable pupils’ creativity to
innovate, and instil in them the moral consciousness to implement such
innovation responsibly.

21. THINKING FAR AHEAD – A GOOD
ANCESTOR
This is such a smart idea.
In any strategic meeting, put ‘ceremonial robes’ on some
members in the room…
Their job is to represent future generations, to think for those
who are not born yet but will inherit the results (intended and
unintended) of our decisions.
HOW COULD WE USE THIS THINKING IN OUR CLASSROOMS?

22. POSSIBLE PARTNERS FOR THE JOURNEY
AHEAD
For R350 per annum, Uplands can access the online curriculum
resources and expert support from Nature Connect.
Routes2resilience can help teachers to incorporate
sustainability principles and theory into daily curriculum and
teaching practice.
Offered by routes2resilience, an 80-hour deep immersion for
pupils, spread over a series of experiences that explore
sustainability concepts, systems thinking and complexity
theory. Costed per pupil. Online, experiential and face-to-face
components.

23. A POSSIBLE VISION OF UPLANDS IN
2030
Whole campus is energy independent – off the Eskom grid;
A ‘re-wilded’ campus – continuous enhancement of our flora and fauna (indigenous Matric forest,
ecosystems in evidence - wetland system and dam, existing MTB pump-track is a transformed
wilderness space for walking, learning, animal watching, listening… and cycling);
Visible sustainable practices – water collection and reuse; solar panels; no waste (only recyclable
bins, worm farms, composting); 2nd hand store for all excess;
Food production on campus (what if pupils rotated ownership of the tuckshop and could only sell
what they produce/grow?);
Established sustainability curriculum from Grade R-11 (partnership with NatureConnect?) that
pulls learning topics together and enables deep learning and unique responsiveness from pupils;
Ongoing celebration of pupil initiatives, pupils’ problem-solving ingenuity, pupils’ active citizenry;
Intentional inspiring input from alumni guest speakers, industry experts, community activists;
Pupil-led social strategies that continuously drive change from habits of consumerism, immediate
gratification, and self-serving patterns towards simplicity, improved health, altruism, and long
term thinking.
A pervasive sense of collective purpose – a campus that models the future of sustainable living
and provides tangible experiences that instil a reverence for our common home (Earth).
WHAT WOULD YOU ADD TO THIS?