Schools, other environmental educators as well as other sectors of society face the reality of environmental problems and the threats they are causing to society and our culture as we know it. Our environment provides us with both the material and mental foundations for our culture. If we are to save the planet, we need to act now. Young people recognise these problems as well as the anxiety it is causing to themselves and to their peers.

 

1. Environmental Education – A model

 

Paloniemi and Koskinen [1] have described the dynamics of different aspects of environmental education in their model of the learning process in environmentally responsible participation (Pic. 1).

As in other models of learning you can find cyclical elements in the model based on socio-constructivist learning theory. Learning always happens in a context. Involvement and participation are prerequisites for environmentally responsible behaviour, which affect a person’s environmental impacts. The experiences and their reflection have an impact on a person’s environmental action skills and may lead to self-empowerment or disempowerment and rejection. A person’s environmental action skills also have an effect on one’s ability to influence one’s operating environment (context).

At the same time, there is also another cycle including external motivation and social empowerment, which may lead to involvement and participation and further to the first learning cycle. It is important to recognise all these factors when planning environmental education, especially in formal institutions such as schools.

 

Involvement and participation

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Involvement and participation are closely related, but there is a slight difference. Involvement can be described as taking part in and influencing planning and decision-making in general. Whereas participation may be defined as taking part in actions such as running a project at school to enhance recycling in classrooms. Thus, involvement may lead to participation and participation can lead to involvement. Both aspects must be considered in promoting environmentally responsible behaviour.

 

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(Picture 1. Paloniemi and Koskinen describe the dynamics of different aspects of environmental education in their model of the learning process in environmentally responsible participation [1].)

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Self-empowerment and social empowerment

 

Empowerment simply means becoming powerful and skillful in one’s life. It is the ability to take control of one’s life by making positive choices and setting meaningful goals. It also includes developing self-awareness, and an understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses - knowing one’s own limitations is key to personal empowerment. Social empowerment is the process of developing a sense of autonomy and self-confidence, in addition to acting individually and collectively to change social relationships and institutions. [2].

 

Environmentally responsible behaviour

 

Empowerment, involvement, participation, as well as reflection of your experiences and actions, leads to environmental action skills and environmentally responsible behaviour.

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2. Learning for Sustainability

 

Learning for sustainability aims to go beyond individual behaviour change or single actions often associated with environmental education. It seeks to implement systemic change within the community, institutions, government, and industry. The focus is on equipping learners with the necessary skills to be able to take positive action to address a range of sustainability issues. It motivates, equips and involves both individuals and institutions in reflecting on how they currently live and work, which assists them in making informed decisions and creating ways to work towards a more sustainable world. [2].

 

The Key Components of Learning for Sustainability are

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•   Envisioning a better future

•   Systemic thinking

•   Critical thinking

•   Participation

•   Partnerships for change

 

Envisioning a better future

 

Envisioning engages people in capturing a vision of their ideal future. Envisioning or ‘future thinking’, helps people to discover their possible and preferred futures. It also helps to uncover the beliefs and assumptions that underlie these visions and choices. Envisioning also helps learners to establish a link between their long-term goals and their immediate actions.

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The following steps show a practical approach to envisioning a better future.

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•   Make a vision of the best possible future.

•   You may use text or pictures etc.

•   Plan, which actions you should take to achieve your goals.

•   Share your ideas with your group (if you can feel safe)

•   Lesson 1: Your personal future

•   Lesson 2: Your own region or nation

•   Lesson 3: The globe

 

Systemic thinking

 

Systemic thinking is based upon a critical understanding of how complex systems, such as environments and ecosystems, function by considering the whole rather than the sum of the parts. It is a better way to understand and manage complex situations as it emphasizes holistic, integrative approaches, which consider the relationships between system components. Systemic thinking also works toward long-term solutions.

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The following example shows a practical approach to systemic thinking by illustrating how many things are needed for us to get a jar of blueberry juice. Pupils are asked to make a list of all the possible things that make it possible to buy blueberry juice in a shop. Here are some items from the list:  •        Trees, for the package, cars to take trees to a factory

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•   Iron mines to get the steel for the cars

•   Factories to make cars

•   Oil for the cars to run to a factory to make juice

•   The same for the tractors to use in growing sugar

•   Fertilizers, a factory to produce them

•   Concrete for the shop, electricity for refrigerators in the shop, etc.

 

Critical thinking and reflection

 

Critical thinking and reflection challenge us to examine the way we interpret the world. This should show us, how our knowledge and opinions are shaped by people around us. Critical thinking leads us to a deeper understanding of how community interests, media, and advertising are influencing in our lives. This is demonstrated may be examined with pupils while we are discussing the actions in our “Save the World” project.

 

​Participation

 

Participation goes beyond mere consultation processes involving people in joint analysis, planning and control of local decisions. It can be self-initiated and directed with participants having full control of the process, decision, and outcomes. During the project, this can be done in the pupil’s own life and often at home with the whole family. Advanced pupils can even contact local authorities.

 

Partnerships for change

 

Learning takes place with others while planning the actions in the project and sometimes taking actions together. An important aspect is sharing ideas for the actions in the project and reflecting, on how pupils are making progress in the change of their own lifestyles. In the process, they should also question their own and other peoples’ mental models. Partnerships also strengthen ownership and commitment to sustainability actions.

 

Learning for Sustainability Approaches

 

Mentoring provides individuals and groups with support, advice, and understanding so they can engage with sustainability.

Facilitation encourages learning to be driven by the learner and furthermore encourages people to engage in open dialogue, because it eliminates inequitable power hierarchies as it does not rely on expert knowledge.

Participative inquiry helps participants to collectively understand an important question to them by helping them to freely examine their existing ideas and practices.

Action learning involves the participants in developing and implementing an action plan. It also involves reflection on what to learn from the action plan. A facilitator or mentor assists the participants to develop their plan and learn from their experiences.

Action research combines action (change) and research (understanding) at the same time, through a cyclical process of planning, action, observation and reflection. It views change as the desired outcome and involves participants in investigating their own practice.

 

3. Environmental anxiety

 

More and more especially young people suffer from environmental anxiety. It appears as symptoms that people describe as anxiety, which varies from serious anxiety disorders to undetermined restlessness. There are different emotions, behind anxiety, that are not dealt with well enough either alone or together with others. Many people are affected by environmental anxiety, especially sensitive personalities such as children and young people. There are several reasons for the anxiety. The uncertain future is paralyzing. A variety of social problems such as exclusion increase the possibility of anxiety. It is also true that environmental issues are intertwined with other things for example climate pacing is perhaps the most common form.

 

Feelings are important

 

Feelings are vital for our well-being and for us to feel alive. All emotions become desensitized if we try to stop feeling anxiety instead of dealing with it. Nevertheless, life is worth living; we need to be able to feel both genuine sorrow and pleasure. Feelings have always a story to tell. It is better to have “difficult” than negative feelings. Even learning skills and creativity suffer if there are a lot of locks in one’s mind.

Learning to deal with anxiety helps us with problem-solving. Anxiety gets worse if a person feels that he cannot adequately influence the situation. We need enough personal resources to act!

We need to find the best ways for us to listen to our feelings and deal with them. Going to forests or shores of waterways are standard practices for many people. Also, music, sports, movies, work for others. More literature is published all the time, about dealing with emotions. [3], [4].

 

4. Conclusions

 

In coping with global environmental problems at schools we need a holistic approach based on models for environmental education including the following elements. Involvement and participation are prerequisites for environmentally responsible behaviour. Experiences and their reflection have an impact on a person’s environmental actions skills and can lead to self-empowerment or disempowerment and rejection.

We need to provide pupils with problem-solving skills to cope with environmental anxiety as well as to promote hope, optimism, and ways to live a meaningful life.

 

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Bibliography

 

1. Paloniemi, R., & Koskinen, S. (2005). Ympäristövastuullinen osallistuminen oppimisprosessina. Terra, 117(1), 17 - 32.

2. Tilbury, D. and Cooke, K. (2005) A National Review of Environmental Education and its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia: Frameworks for Sustainability. Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability.

3. Access mode: http://ekoahdistus.blogspot.com/2018/09/10-suositusta-ymparistoahdistuneelle.html

4. Access mode: https://www.wikihow.com/Desensitize-Yourself-from-Emotional-Pain