Teaching and Learning about Sustainable Communities
How can educators better understand and teach environmental literacy in our schools? With support from California’s Environmental Literacy Steering Committee and the California Subject Matter Projects, the California International Studies Project (CISP) created a new professional learning program to address this challenge. Working with teachers in Sonoma and Long Beach this summer, CISP launched a year-long program, Teaching for Sustainable Communities: Empowering Eco-Literate Global Citizens, designed to improve global competence, environmental literacy, and active citizenship among K–12 students across all disciplines.
Resources
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• A Brief History of Environmental Justice (ProPublica, 2017, 3:35): Landfills, chemical waste facilities and power plants are more often built in poor and minority communities, which don't have the power or money to advocate for themselves.
• Becoming an ECO J.E.D.I.: Exploring ways to bridge the gap between environmental education and environmental justice (presentation by Parker McMullen Bushman, 2019, 1:23:38): Ecosystem health and the health of communities and individuals are inextricably linked. It is often low-income and minority populations that carry the impacts of the weightiest environmental problems. Environmental education can provide an opportunity to connect people to nature and can help empower these communities to actively address environmental issues.
• 24 Hours of Reality: "Earthrise" by Amanda Gorman: Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gordon provides an inspiring presentation shared by the Climate Reality Project. "It is a hope that implores us at an uncompromising core to keep rising up for an Earth more than worth fighting for."
• Environmental Justice: (EcoSense for Living, 2018, 26:48): EcoSense explores the intersection of environmentalism and the social justice movement with representatives from the Partnership for Southern Equity and the NAACP. In Atlanta, meet members of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, a group that works hard to build and maintain a clean and healthy environment within its community.
• Environmental Justice, Explained (Grist, 2016, 3:33): We already know that pollution and climate change negatively affect people’s health and quality of life. But we’re not always clear about which people are most exposed and impacted.
• Hip-Hop Environmental Activism: Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (TEDxYouth@MileHigh, 2014, 13:36): What is the power of combining hip-hop and environmental activism? In this energetic performance, hip hop artist and 13-year-old indigenous rights activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez performs original works with powerful messages.
• Isha Clarke - A New Era of the Climate Justice Movement (Bioneers, 2019, 7:22): Sixteen-year-old Isha Clarke is a senior at Oakland High School and activist for Youth vs. Apocalypse. This is her presentation made at the annual Bioneers conference in October 2019.
• Van Jones: Towards a Green Alliance: Birthing a New Politics (Bioneers, 2015/2007, 33:23): Van Jones urges us to carry our spiritual, cultural and economic movements into the electoral arena to transform politics and forge a green "New Deal" coalition so that kids who are now prison fodder will help create a zero-pollution economy, harvest the sun and heal the land instead.
• Winona LaDuke: Seeds of Our Ancestors, Seeds of Life (TedxTC, 2012, 16:36): As Program Director of Honor the Earth, LaDuke works nationally and internationally on the issues of climate change, renewable energy, and environmental justice with Indigenous communities. In her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, where she works to protect Indigenous peoples.
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• CalEnviroScreen: CalEnviroScreen is a mapping tool that helps identify California communities that are most affected by many sources of pollution, and where people are often especially vulnerable to pollution’s effects. CalEnviroScreen uses environmental, health, and socioeconomic information to produce scores for every census tract in the state.
• California Hub for Environmental Literacy and Action (CHELA): Created by the California Geographic Alliance, this site is a tool to help young people in California understand, assess, and take action on issues related to the protection of the natural environment, the impacts and sustainability of human activities, and matters of environmental justice. Educators and students from any part of the state or in any kind of instructional setting are welcome to use CHELA.
• Center for Regional Change (UC Davis): The CRC is a catalyst for innovative, collaborative, and action-oriented research. It brings together faculty and students from different disciplines and builds bridges between university, policy, advocacy, business, philanthropy, and other sectors. The CRC's goal is to support the building of healthy, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable regions in California and beyond.
• Climate Justice: Climate justice “insists on a shift from a discourse on greenhouse gases and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart,” said Mary Robinson in an interview. Read more at the UN SDG website here.
• Earth Guardians: We inspire and train diverse youth to be effective leaders in the environmental, climate and social justice movements. Through the power of art, music, storytelling, civic engagement, and legal action, we’re creating impactful solutions to some of the most critical issues we face as a global community.
• Environmental Health Coalition: Environmental Health Coalition is dedicated to achieving environmental and social justice. We believe that justice is accomplished by empowered communities acting together to make social change. We organize and advocate to protect public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. EHC supports broad efforts that create a just society and fosters a healthy and sustainable quality of life.
• Groundwork USA: The mission of the Groundwork USA network is to bring about the sustained regeneration, improvement, and management of the physical environment by developing community-based partnerships that empower people, businesses, and organizations to promote environmental, economic, and social well-being.
• Literacy for Environmental Justice: LEJ promotes ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco by creating urban greening, eco-literacy, community stewardship and workforce development opportunities that directly engage and support local residents in securing a healthier future.
• Mary Robinson Foundation: Climate Justice: The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice is a centre for thought leadership, education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalized across the world.
• Peoples Climate Movement: The Peoples Climate Movement uses two key strategies to demand bold action on climate change: mass mobilization and movement alignment. By mobilizing massive numbers of people on the ground; finding alignment with partners under the banner of climate, jobs, and justice; and lifting up our core priorities of economic and racial justice, we build the power required to win real and lasting climate policy on the federal, state, and local level.
• Sunrise Movement: Sunrise is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. We're building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people. We are ordinary young people who are scared about what the climate crisis means for the people and places we love. We are gathering in classrooms, living rooms, and worship halls across the country. Everyone has a role to play. We are not looking to the right or left. We look forward. Together, we will change this country and this world, sure as the sun rises each morning.
• This Changes Everything: Based on Naomi Klein’s book, this site provides information about the book, documentary, Leap Manifesto, Leap, and Beautiful Solutions.
• 350: We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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• 10 Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the U.S.
• California students join global strike demanding action on climate change (EdSource, 9/20/19)
• Climate Justice (UN Sustainable Development Goals)
• Green New Deal Puts Focus on Climate Justice (Yale Climate Connections)
• Movements for Climate Justice (Institute for Social Ecology)
• Principles of Climate Justice (Mary Robinson Foundation) The Principles of Environmental Justice Delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in Washington DC on October 24–27, 1991, drafted and adopted 17 principles of environmental justice. Since then, The Principles have served as a defining document for the movement for environmental justice.
• These Young Climate Justice Advocates Say It’s Time for A Revolution (Huffington Post)
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• Dr. Robert Bullard: The Father of Environmental Justice (Climate One, 1/2/20) Often described as the father of environmental justice, Dr. Robert Bullard has written several seminal books on the subject and is known for his work highlighting pollution on minority communities and speaking up against environmental racism in the 1970-1980s.
• Earth Talk: Poetry & Planet: Poetry is of the world and of the spirit. Poetry & Planet appears bi-monthly (six times a year) on EarthTalk.org and features the best contemporary poetry about this marvelous ecosphere we are all part of and the threats it faces. The podcast is produced by Ethan Goffman.
• Fired Up on Climate Change in California Schools (EdSource, 9/27/19) Featuring Ten Strands CEO Karen Cowe and Oakland high school student and activist Isha Clarke.
• Future Imperfect (CGEP) This podcast is dedicated to exploring how climate change will affect individuals and communities across California. You’ll learn about the predictions in California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment and how those predicted changes could play out in your day-to-day future and what you can do to work toward a good climate future, rather than a catastrophe. All the episodes are tied together by three important concepts: climate change mitigation, adaptation to climate change, and climate justice.
• Living Downstream (NPR) Living Downstream explores environmental justice in communities from California to Indonesia and is hosted by NCPM News Director Steve Mencher. The podcast features some of the most experienced environmental reporters in the public radio system, as well as a handful of talented newcomers.
• The Environmental Justice Landscape (In this Climate, 4/3/20) In this bonus episode, IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor David Konisky helps us understand the modern environmental justice movement in the context of its history.
• Think 100%: The Coolest Show on Climate Change (Hip Hop Caucus) There are over 50 episodes about justice, solutions, and realness. "It isn’t depressing. It is about the beauty of our world and the grit of fighting for our existence." "Featuring stories from communities facing deadly impacts from pollution and climate change, and conversations with celebrities, artists, activists, youth leaders, Congressional Members, issue experts, and more, the show will break down barriers between issues within the movement for justice and a sustainable planet for all.”
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• Analyzing Environmental Justice (Learning for Justice): This lesson helps students understand how pollution disproportionately affects people who are poor and members of racial and ethnic minorities as well as use a map to locate environmental injustice.
• Climate Champions Curriculum: Explore phenomena, understand the science, engage with solutions, and integrate Indigenous knowledge with units created by Climate Champions Teacher Leaders. These units for secondary science align with NGSS, center student learning, use 5E pedagogy (Engage, Explore, Explain, Evaluate, Elaborate), include strategies for English learners, integrate standards and practices for math and language arts, and can be adapted for other disciplines.
• Earth Guardians Lesson Plans: Our Lesson Plans, complemented by artist Shepard Fairey's painting of Earth Guardians Youth Director Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, were created through a partnership with Amplifier. Amplifier is a design lab dedicated to amplifying the voices of social change movements through art and community engagement, bringing We the Future into classrooms across the United States.
• Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) K-12 Curriculum: The K-12 EEI Curriculum uses the environment as a context to help students learn science and history-social science. It is a model to demonstrate how to integrate environmental literacy into instruction. Teachers may access all of the EEI Curriculum online for free, and until the end of this school year students may access form-fillable workbooks and other materials.
• Eight Ways to Teach Climate Change in Almost Any Classroom (NPR): This reporter shares what was heard from teachers and education organizations who are introducing the topic of climate change in subjects from social studies to math to English language arts, and at every grade level, from preschool on up.
• Learners to Leaders: Environmental Justice Literacy Curriculum (Groundwork USA)
• Learning to Give: Links to resources, materials, and lesson plans across subject areas and K–12 grade bands
• Roots of Success Environmental Literacy & Work Readiness Curriculum
• Social Justice Books — A Teaching for Change Project: Environment/Climate Justice
• Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference (Richard Beach, Jeff Share & Allen Webb; NCTE & Zinn Education Project)
• U.S. Green Building Council Environmental Justice Curriculum
• Introduction to Scientific Sketching (California Academy of Sciences): In this lesson, students learn how to sketch like scientists. You can teach it even if you think you can't draw!
• Project Wild: Project WILD's mission is to provide wildlife-based conservation and environmental education that fosters responsible actions toward wildlife and related natural resources. All curriculum materials are backed by sound educational practices and theory, and represent the work of many professionals within the fields of education and natural resource management from across the country.
Books for Teachers
A People’s Curriculum for the Earth (edited by Bill Bigelow & Tim Swinehart)
A collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom-friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollution–as well as on people who are working to make things better.
As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, From Colonization to Standing Rock (Dina Gilio-Whitaker)
Through the lens of “Indigenized environmental justice,” researcher and activist Gilio-Whitaker explores the history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. This book shares the history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.
Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future (Mary Robinson)
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson's mission to bring together the fight against climate change and the global struggle for human rights has taken her all over the world. It also brought her to a heartening revelation: that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Robin Wall Kimmerer)
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.
Dumping In Dixie: Race, Class, And Environmental Quality, Third Edition (Robert D. Bullard)
This book provides the major economic, social, and psychological impacts associated with the siting of noxious facilities and their significance in mobilizing the African American community. It explores the barriers to environmental and social justice experienced by African Americans.
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (edited by Paul Hawken)
An international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists came together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
EcoLiterate: How Educators are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence (Daniel Goleman)
Hopeful, eloquent, and bold, Ecoliterate offers inspiring stories, practical guidance, and an exciting new model of education that builds - in vitally important ways - on the success of social and emotional learning by addressing today's most important ecological issues.
This book shares stories of pioneering educators, students, and activists engaged in issues related to food, water, oil, and coal in communities from the mountains of Appalachia to a small village in the Arctic; the deserts of New Mexico to the coast of New Orleans; and the streets of Oakland, California to the hills of South Carolina.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (David Wallace-Wells)
This book is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s.
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis (Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac)
Figueres and Rivett-Carnac—who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015—have written a cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity. The authors outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate targets. In the other, they lay out what it will be like to live in a regenerative world that has net-zero emissions. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination and optimism.
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (Naomi Klein)
Climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She demonstrates why the market has not—and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.
Children’s Books
CGEP has created a list featuring globally themed children’s books aligned to the Environmental Principles and Concepts. Look for the titles that have learning activities in our Global Book Bags resources or lesson plans in our K-12 Global Education Resources at CGEPresources.org.
Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay (Susan Hood)
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth (Mary McKenna Siddels)
Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle (Claire A. Nivola)
Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World (Laurie Lawlor)
Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa (Jeannette Winter)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (William Kamkwamba)
The Girl Who Spoke to the Moon: A Story about Friendship and Loving Our Earth (Land Wilson)
Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya (Donna Jo Napoli)
The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps (Jeanettte Winter)
We Are Water Protectors (Carole Lindstrom)
Butterflies Belong Here: A Story of One Idea, Thirty Kids, and a World of Butterflies (Deborah Hopkinson)
Greta and the Giants: Inspired by Greta Thunberg's Stand to Save the World (Zoe Tucker)
Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet (Jeanette Winter)
The Water Princess (Susan Verde)
Young Water Protectors: A Story About Standing Rock (Aslan Tudor)
Young Adult Literature
Coming of Age at the End of Nature: A Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet (edited by Julia Dunlap & Susan Cohen)
Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (Paul Fleischman)
How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other (Naomi Klein)
Kids Who Are Changing the World: A Book From the GoodPlanet Foundation (Ann Jankeliowitch)
Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
No Planet B: A Teen Vogue Guide to the Climate Crisis (edited by Lucy Diavolo)
We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement that Restores the Planet (Xiuhtezcatl Martinez)
One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet (Anuradha Rao)
World Without Fish (by Mark Kurlansky)
Frequently Asked Questions
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This is a year-long program that begins with a 90-minute virtual launch, which prepares K-12 teachers for a 5-day institute during which participants collaborate with academic scholars and other professionals to develop knowledge about environmental principles and sustainability issues. Participants also learn how to develop students’ global competence and eco-literacy through inquiry-based instructional practices. Over the course of 5 days, participants engage in learning activities that prepare them to use design thinking and other strategies that address equity and inspire authentic, context-relevant learning. During the institute, teachers prepare instructional plans that culminate in a local (and/or virtual) showcase of student learning. Options include attending one of several local showcases/youth summits, collaborating to design their own, and participating in a statewide virtual event. In addition to learning and collaborating with university scholars and community professionals, teachers will have planning time to design their action plans in alignment with existing curriculum, standards, initiatives, and other resources. Following the 5-day institute, participants have access to follow-up support, including 3 webinars, local field study, and/or coaching.
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Outside of the five institute days (contained during the summer or spread out during the school year) that require teachers' full participation, optional support is available during the school year for teachers to implement their plans and guide students in their Sustainable Communities Action Projects. Based on their professional learning plans and goals, teachers will determine whether they need ongoing support as part of the learning community; mentoring/coaching around implementing the action project, and/or fieldwork experience. Teachers commit to developing or entering an existing student showcase for students to exhibit their action projects.
We will support educators in setting up fieldwork experiences, working with local organizations and partners, and finding additional resources to learn more about the issues they cover in their action project with students. The cost for participation in this program depends on the regional site (please refer to your regional flier). Program materials, refreshments, and parking costs will be covered during the summer institute. All participants will have to arrange their own transportation to and from the institute. Stipends may be provided to participants who complete the program deliverables by the end of the school year.
For this program, the out-of-state registration fee is $500 (without accommodations), travel and accommodations will be the participant's responsibility.
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Sustainable communities are those that value and embrace social, economic, and ecological diversity. As such, we are looking for diverse representation amongst teacher participants and the students they teach. We invite all K-12 teachers from various disciplines and teaching contexts who want to focus on strategies for increasing equity and engagement of all students, including students from vulnerable populations such as low-income families, foster youth, students of color, students who are undocumented, and students who identify as LGBTQ+.
We encourage applications from teachers who work in schools that embrace environmental and outdoor education, project-based learning, community-based learning, global learning, and alternative assessments as core to their ethos. Green schools, academies focused on environmental and/or global studies, and Linked Learning schools are encouraged to apply.
We also encourage school teams or pairs of teachers to participate together.
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Yes. Teachers can earn salary advancement (or graduate-level extension) credits through the Professional and Continuing Education department at the University of San Diego.
Teachers can apply to earn 3 graduate-level extension credits at the total cost of $225 by registering online before or during the institute and paying USD directly. To earn these units, teachers must sign in daily and successfully complete the program deliverables. These units will be awarded at the end of the institute.
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Educators want to make learning authentic and relevant for students, and we are all indigenous to planet earth. Therefore, applying our learning to the protection of our planet and the rights of our fellow human beings is a compelling challenge that positions students as heroes of their own stories, and makes learning come to life. Teachers of any discipline can leverage the content and skills taught in their classes to give students an opportunity to apply their learning in alignment with the greater good — actions that take place in their own local homes and communities to address sustainability and environmental justice issues.
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There are many festivals, summits, exhibitions, showcases, and other events around the state where students can share what they have learned through an action project. A showcase serves as a site for sharing reflections on the process and outcomes. Showcases can take place at schools, district or county offices, universities, or in the community. In 2021-2022, we will launch our first online/virtual student showcase in Spring 2022 to provide another opportunity for students to share and learn from each other.
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Teachers will develop knowledge and skills related to:
* Understanding global conditions and current events
* Creating a classroom environment that values diversity and engagement
* Experiential learning to understand multiple cultures and perspectives
* Promoting equity and social justice
* Integrating learning experiences that promote content-aligned explorations of the world
* Developing local partnerships that provide real-world contexts for global learning opportunities
* Developing and using appropriate methods of inquiry to assess students’ global competence development
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• During the summer institute, teachers will have time, resources, and support to design instructional plans that lead to sustainable communities action projects, including general lesson plans and a timeline for implementation.
• Over the course of the year, teachers will document and reflect on (with help from CGEP) the outcomes of their lessons and projects leading up to the student showcase, especially as they relate to student agency and building global competence and eco-literacy.
• As this is a professional learning community, teachers will reflect (through check-ins and/or written reflections) on their own growth as educators empowering eco-literate global citizens and share their reflections with others.
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The UNESCO site on Education for Sustainable Development reminds us that, “the message of sustainability is not ‘new’; it can be summarized into three main themes that help bring all disciplinary learning together under one umbrella: a) all living systems are connected b) human quality of life is just as important as economic development c) there can be no long-term economic development without attention to human development and the quality of the environment. Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. There are three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet, and profits.
These ideas are central to the wisdom and values that inform ways of living sustainably that have characterized indigenous and farming peoples in many parts of the world for thousands of years. Eco-literate students have the knowledge, awareness, and ability to make decisions that promote health and well-being for themselves and their communities without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
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Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, & enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This goal will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
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Global competence is a set of dispositions or skills that all young people need to navigate a rapidly changing world. These competencies, which are practiced throughout the summer institute and will be built into student action projects, are framed by the domains of Investigating the World, Recognizing Perspectives, Communicating Ideas, and Taking Action. Please refer to the CGEP website for more information on global competence and to download the Global Competence Framework.
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Design thinking, project-based learning, interdisciplinary learning, place-based learning, community-based learning, participatory action research, action research, Socratic inquiry, storytelling, values-based education, future problem solving, experiential learning, learning outside the classroom, community-based problem solving (and more!) position students to develop the skills and knowledge needed to recognize and establish their voice while contributing to a sustainable future. Through these practices and an inquiry mindset, teaching and learning are used to empower and inspire students to see themselves as lifelong, active global citizens in their communities and the world.
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Yes! Project-based learning invites students into a sustained inquiry process that ends in developing a public product that is shared beyond the classroom. Designing sustainable communities action projects follows many of the same principles and serves as an authentic public product that intentionally considers students’ problem-solving interests in alignment with local, national, and global policy and solutions.
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This program will help educators meet common LCAP Goals including:
• Increase academic learning through use of action-oriented pedagogy; project-based learning, design thinking and action research
• Increase attendance through authentic student engagement
• Increase (stakeholder) parent and community involvement through design of a standards-aligned sustainable communities action project
• Contribute to positive school climate culture through standards-aligned action projects that allow for the application of disciplinary learning to the development of sustainable, healthy, and equitable communities
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In the 5-day institute, we will explore ways that your standards and frameworks connect to global competence, eco-literacy and issues of sustainability. Sustainability education is an overarching and global concept that cuts across and unifies all disciplines, offering pathways for integrated projects and collaboration across disciplines. In addition, we will make explicit connections between this project and your efforts to prepare students to be college and career ready including:
• Identifying personal goals
• Utilizing critical thinking to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
• Reflecting on responsibilities as a citizen
• Working productively in teams while integrating cultural and global competence
• Demonstrate creativity and innovation
• Employ valid and reliable research strategies
• Understand the environmental, social and economic impacts of decisions
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As UNESCO states, “Individuals, families and community groups are best placed to tackle global issues at the local level – and it is at the local level that teachers, schools and students can also learn skills for building a sustainable future.”
One of the primary purposes of this project is for students to think critically about an issue and the challenges surrounding it. We look at ourselves and our own local landscapes because we have more entry points for authentically engaging and understanding an issue; students have more access to firsthand information and the capacity to take the types of direct actions that allow them to develop agency and empathy.
As students understand how personal and local issues and solutions also manifest globally, they learn that acting locally does indeed serve communities beyond their own local community. This concept of thinking globally and acting locally allows educators to think about developmentally appropriate ways to bring the complexity of the world to our classrooms. Ultimately, acting locally inspires grassroots solutions, and helps build community support for our schools and students.
To practice and develop agency, students need to see themselves as actors in the broader community. In this work, educators explicitly make space for students to see their action projects in relation to local policy, national and global goals for society. By connecting learning to what is happening in the wider community, students grow personally, develop relationships with people outside their school and families, and gather new ideas that can be applied to their own experience, or within their school communities.
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Please contact your local CGEP Regional Director for specifics about the program:
CSU Fullerton: Dr. Lisa McAllister
CSU Long Beach: Barbara Vallejo Doten
CSU Stanislaus: Maureen McCorry
UC Santa Barbara: Dr. Lisa McAllister
University of San Diego: Stephanie Buttell-Maxin
Questions about the CGEP signature program can be directed to Program Manager Stephanie Duran or Executive Director Emily Schell.
