Introduction
The Learning for Sustainable Cities project was an international project coordinated by DEP, with partners in Banjul (The Gambia), Brescia (Italy), Curitiba (Brazil), Halifax (Canada) and Mumbai (India). The project was funded by the Department for International Development and ran between January 2001 and December 2003.
Brief overview
The project was established to explore the concept of the sustainable city and to identify opportunities for young people to be involved in positive change in their communities.
The work supported schools to promote understanding of sustainability and help young people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to play their part as active citizens. For example, school councils were established to enable pupils to have an active voice within their schools and experience practical democratic processes. Improvements to school environments were also made to create sustainable and vibrant spaces for young people.
Aims
The Learning for Sustainable Cities project aimed to:
- establish links between educators in participant countries to share case studies and information on young people’s involvement in sustainable communities
- promote education for sustainable development (ESD) teaching and learning in participating schools
- explore a variety of teaching and learning styles to deliver ESD
- develop a learning resource featuring teaching activities and initiatives for whole school involvement in ESD.
Activities
The project’s partners each developed activities in their own countries to further the aims of the project, including:
- Banjul: the development of a sustainable vegetable garden and orchard in a Banjul school. Also: a peer education health programme to disseminate information on HIV/AIDS to pupils in secondary and primary schools
- Brescia: a student-led project and information campaign on the historical significance of rivers in the city, and worsening of water quality due to factory pollution and urbanisation
- Curitiba: a student-led project and information campaign on the environmental and health impacts of waste, including dumped tyres, which provide habitat for mosquitoes and lead to the spread of dengue fever
- Manchester: the promotion of partnership working between organisations involved in ESD in the Greater Manchester area, including the Urban Voices, Future Choices end-of-project conference to share experiences and learning. Also: a school linking project in Oldham to promote racial and intercultural understanding between pupils from different cultural backgrounds
- Mumbai: a student research project and exhibition on Sanjay Gandhi National Park (an important source of drinking water for the city, a leopard habitat, and home to the 2000-year-old Kanheri Caves), which focused on the park’s sustainability issues and the importance of preservation
The work undertaken produced a collection of teaching resources which have been published as What`s the Score on Education for Sustainable Development?, published by Nelson Thornes.
A sample activity, Our school in the future, is a guided visioning to allow pupils (and others) to think about their ideal school and develop their vision beyond the confines of day-to-day reality.
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