Teaching and Learning - Introduction

Teaching and Learning styles (Methodology/Pedagogy) are a key part of Learning For Sustainable Cities and are linked to the concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). ESD reflects the notion that the process of working towards sustainable development (e.g. inclusive debate, participatory structures, ongoing re-evaluation) is as important as trying to reach the destination.

This has been clearly demonstrated in the Learning for Sustainable Cities project. At our first international partners meeting we had to agree what we wanted to get out of the meeting and how the project would work. We agreed we needed to have an understanding of sustainable development and what a sustainable city might look like. We came out with a vision in words and images.

We then had to decide how to relate it to education. We agreed that how we engaged with pupils and the whole school community was crucial, that we had to start with where people were and all of us move beyond where we were at the moment.

We all have different starting points and situations, so our journeys individually and in our city contexts are different. However, there is a lot of commonality in the problems we face (structure of schooling, narrowness of curriculum, cynics versus idealists, how to engage the wider community etc. and we have learned, from sharing strategies with each other, to keep the process going.

Try the activity 'Vision of a sustainable school' and compare your results with another school in the UK or abroad.