The concept of sustainability includes a lot of different aspects. It depends also a bit on the individual focus of every person. But sustainability is a topic every human should thought about.
The main important words for the below shown concept are society, economy and environment. The three word are only headlines which includes a lot of aspects. At first a main definition is necessary and than a connection to the three headlines will be given. The last part shows how some of the concepts works in schools in Berlin/Potsdam.
It should be mentioned, that the three topics influenced the sustainable development. But what does the word sustainable or sustainability mean? It is very difficult to give definition about it, because for every person is another fact more important than the definition below shows. I tried to define the concept sustainability, but it does not works, so I have found the definition below and that shows a lot of relevant aspects.
"Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.
Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have, the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment."
( http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm)
It shows a kind of dependence to the natural environment, that we should not waste natural resources. It is important to show a connection between the definition and the three headlines.
The society, the environment and the economy should work together so, that a sustainable development can work. That means the society should make it more popular to behave sustainable. That includes not only to prevent waste and that every home has the opportunity to recycle it has to be done by the persons, not just said that they should do it. That includes also a kind of responsibility about the natural environment. Another important aspect is to prevent the waste of resource, it includes the water, oil and a lot of different natural materials. To get a kind of responsibility it is important, that the people has the knowledge about the topic and they talk should talk about more with persons, who has different opinions. It is necessary to get a exchange of views.
It is necessary as well, that the economy become more responsible for the topic sustainability. That includes not only that they start campaigne about the topic and say that the will fight for the sustainable behavior. They should not just talk about it, the big companies should also act like it. That means, they should recycle the waste instead of to trash it. That includes a lot of more expense but it is necessary, because they have also have to prevent the natural environment.
The environment should support the behavior of the economy and the society that it is easier to behave more sustainable. An example could be the puplic transport system. If there is an opportunity to go more easy and less expensive from home to work or from home to university a lot more people would use it. Another important aspect is the personal comfort zone. If the environment can leads the individual from the personal comfort zone to the toughts about sustainability and shows that there is an positive effect. A few people would maybe come out of it, that they can influence the future.
My personal experience at school with sustainable behavior was, that they should recycle waste, that means also the youngest children at school get the knowledge how they can do it and why it is necessary. I think even if pupils with an age of 6 or 7 can do it. The adults should lead by a good example.
Hej Maria
ReplyDeleteYou stress the complexity of teaching sustianability and defining it. We presented the peadagogic concept of action competence to describe a framework for teaching this complex matters. Hope you succed in that purpose in your work as a teacher.