News
AAEE ASIA EDUCATION FOUNDATION VIETNAM STUDY TOUR FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATORS
19 Sept – 1 Oct 2010
This new program is tailored specifically for Environmental Educators and offers a suite of activities to support professional learning on sustainability in Vietnam. This 12-day / 11 night program will connect you with environmental agencies, NGO’s and local communities, and will offer a first-hand insight into environmental sustainability and local community responses to the issues.
Delivered in collaboration with AAEE and the Asia Education Foundation, Educators will also learn about how they can utilise these learning’s with their students. This tour will be led by Mr Patrick Burke who is an experienced Vietnam development specialist and former School Educator. Mr Patrick Burke is also the writer of Heinemann Outcomes: Studies of Asia textbook. This tour will take you beyond the tourist experience, giving you a culturally rich experience and opportunities to interact with people working on these key challenges facing Vietnam today.
AAEE COMMENT
Teaching for the Future
by Sue White, ABC On-line
Teachers keen to integrate sustainability into their classrooms no longer face a dearth of inspiration or resources. Click on the following link:
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/03/23/2853856.htm
AAEE MEDIA STATEMENT June 2009
Sustainability Re-orientation Overlooked in National Curriculum
“It is government policy that schools be reoriented towards sustainability and yet the National Curriculum Board’s (NCB) recently released The Shape of the Australian Curriculum completely overlooks that priority”, says Phil Smith, President of the Australian Association for Environmental Education. Mr Smith said that sustainability educators from across Australia were extremely disappointed with the document.
“The document contains so little reference to the environmental crises facing our country and the planet that it appears the NCB doesn’t believe they exist”, says Mr Smith, “and yet as a nation we need to seriously transform the way we live and work to ensure there is even a possibility of living sustainably when the children starting school next year graduate”.
Mr Smith pointed out that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has acknowledged climate change as the overarching issue facing this generation. And yet the NCB has used the term “where appropriate” to qualify the commitment to sustainable living. “It’s hard to understand”, Mr Smith commented, “it’s less like a cross-curriculum perspective than a cross-your fingers approach.”
Sustainability educators will be asking the NCB to apply government policy by stating that the overarching national goal for education at all levels is to reorient schools and education systems towards sustainability, so that jurisdictions and schools can organise their planning for learning accordingly.
Professor Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Griffith University in Brisbane and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, yesterday expressed solidarity with the sustainability educators in stating that: “We know we are now changing the global climate and causing the loss of biodiversity, degrading our rural landscapes and the state of our inland rivers. Therefore, we need to make fundamental changes to the ways we work and play. One way to do this is to teach our children from their youngest years through a new culture of sustainability. Schools and schooling systems must take on that overarching goal to reorient towards sustainability. We need to envision healthy, caring environments for and with our children. We must work to create these desired futures. Substitutes are no longer acceptable.”
Linda Zibell, AAEE member from Ballarat University, yesterday asked: “What’s the worth of education if we are not seriously working towards a future worth living in?”
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