How will ESD affect what you teach?

When planning a topic, a teacher might think of starting points from which pupils can ask questions and begin an enquiry. These might include links with other areas of the curriculum and with current issues in the community and the media. There is also the opportunity to challenge values and attitudes and to take learning beyond the classroom. This may necessitate a leap into the unknown for some teachers. As an example, read the Curitaba Case Study.

ESD can provide the opportunity to involve other agencies and link to a campaign for local or global improvement. As the UNESCO quote in the previous section emphasises, developing a sense of action competence is a key part of ESD.

Pupils and teachers at one school in Mumbai had observed the growing problem of plastic bags in the city, creating litter and blocking drains in the rainy season, leading to flooding. They started a campaign to request vendors not to provide customers with plastic bags. They were sponsored by a local hotel and also got television coverage. The hotel gave cloth bags to the pupils with the slogan 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle'. The municipal authorities have since taxed plastic bags. The school started this work 10 years ago and pupils have taken their ideas and 'action competence' on to further education. For example, some of them persuaded their college canteen to stop using polystyrene plates and cups; the students said they were prepared to wash reusable ones themselves.