Traditional education contributes to the sustainability crisis by isolating academic disciplines from real-world contexts. In contrast, sustainability education teaches through patterns and relationships. The Learning Gardens model in Portland illustrates this shift by replacing mechanistic frameworks with systems thinking and holistic learning. This pedagogical approach is multicultural, interdisciplinary, and multisensory, integrating core subjects like mathematics and science with hands-on gardening. By embedding pedagogy in "place," students develop ecological literacy and recognize that the "web of life" is a network where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Such programs address critical social justice issues, including childhood obesity, food insecurity, and urban disconnection from nature. Through active participation, students cultivate a sense of ownership and belonging, discovering that the health of individuals, the land, and the community are intertwined. Ultimately, this model fosters an ethic of care, empowering students to perceive the hidden connections that define a sustainable world.
STOP #1: “The project is guided by several urgent issues nationwide: (1) The percentage of hungry children in the state of Oregon and nationally is increasing; (2) Obesity and diabetes among children are on the rise at an alarming rate; (3) The gap between the academic performance of white and ethnic minority students is growing; and (4) Students in urban schools are particularly vulnerable to a loss of connection with nature and to the source of food, which on an average gets shipped thousands of miles.” (p.43)
Although this quote speaks for itself. It did make me stop reading for a minute and think about how sad this is. Many of the children in these situations are in them due to external factors that they cannot control, but we as educators can make a smidge of a difference for these kids by exposing them to these types of sustainability projects.
STOP #2: This type of project “wove community service as an important component of this learning.” (p.45)
Community service used to be a requirement in school. We should be bringing it back. There are so many benefits to community service including social skills, which honestly many teenagers lack now. Community service also usually entails working in a group, and that requires that students “learn group dynamics” (p.45). An essential skill for the future as you will always have to work in some sort of group environment at some point, and being able to navigate those dynamics is crucial. If we can teach students these skills before throwing them into the workforce, that would set them up better for success.
STOP #3: “[...]because of the issues of obesity and diabetes increasingly affecting young children and youth, matters related to food are coming to the forefront.”
We are also seeing the flip side right now in teenagers, specifically girls, eating disorders and the obsession with “skinny” is currently a hot topic in our grade 8-10 girls. As a coach, I am continuously having conversations about the importance of food and healthy eating, and the impacts that your body may face if it is not fueled properly, or at all. These are all important things that students need to learn, but they aren’t exactly written into our curriculums, but by bringing in cross-curricular sustainability projects, we can embed them into the project while still hitting curricular points.
QUESTION: Can you think of another type of project that may contribute to sustainability while also hitting curriculum in multiple subject areas?
Your reflections on this reading remind me of the fact that education has to assume its political role in society (Skovsmose, 2022). Not only mathematics education should be bringing social justice issues, but also be built in a way that sustains the development of skills and knowledge students will need to flourish in their life. Today, learning about healthy habits is essential, why not create a multidisciplinary unit around this? Mathematics is useful to understand this topic. Peter Liljedahl (2018) argues that problem solving should be done as a community, and it’s important for educators to work on building this sense of community. Mathematics can be used to develop group working and community-building skills. Those are all political choices schools and educators can make to ensure students’ success in our society. Although, it can be difficult to make these choices in the system we are bound to.
ReplyDelete“Can you think of another type of project that may contribute to sustainability while also hitting curriculum in multiple subject areas?”
I think most of the project we built in the last course could contribute to sustainability while being multidisciplinary. I would like to create one about waste. In our remote community, we still burn most of our waste, including plastic. It is important my students learn about what they can do to diminish household waste or if they could look into finding a way to recycle paper and plastic. My biggest challenge with multidisciplinary project is to take the time to get together with the teachers of other disciplines. I also wonder how we will overcome the challenge of our students’ poor attendance. Something I will keep thinking about!
References
Liljedahl, P. (2018). Building Thinking Classrooms. In: Kajander, A., Holm, J., Chernoff, E. (eds) Teaching and Learning Secondary School Mathematics. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92390-1_29
Skovsmose, O. (2022). Concerns of critical mathematics education – and of ethnomathematics. Revista Colombiana De Educación, 86(86), 365-382. https://doi.org/10.17227/rce.num86-13713