REVIEWS
Rolf Jucker, Swiss Foundation for Environmental Education
This is a wonderful book and an admirable effort: it brings together some of the most eminent thinkers from a variety of relevant fields - and in the end you find all the jigsaw pieces which combined provide a pretty clear picture of where our sustainability journey ought to go.
James Pitt, University of York
The best book on sustainability for many years. This book comprises 33 well-written chapters by experts in the areas of education and sustainability. Superbly edited, the collection challenges most of the assumptions of the current educational establishment in a refreshing way. If we are to have a sustainable future we need to rethink what education is and how we set about it. The book is truly a handbook which will inform and inspire anyone who cares about learners and their future. As someone who runs a masters degree in education for sustainable development I make it mandatory reading for all my students.
Jo-Anne Ferreira in The Australian Journal of Environment Education.
Extract:
The book begins, thankfully not - like many texts - with a litany of environmental problems but with a focus on the underpinnings: an examination of the systems, structures and assumptions that enable the environmental crisis. These are not doom and gloom chapters, however. Rather they offer a way for us to re-think, challenge and actively oppose these normally unquestioned underpinnings. The remainder of the text has chapters that deal with new ways of thinking, valuing and doing. The book concludes with chapters dealing specifically with how educational systems and institutions will need to – and can – change to enable students to develop sustainability literacy. The range of skills and dispositions discussed in the text will all contribute in some way to developing sustainability literacy so the book as a whole offers a great way into thinking about, and enacting, sustainability...There are many things to like about this book, not least that the text focuses on the how, that is, on what we can do, and importantly, is written with a tone of hope. For these reasons, this book offers grounds for optimism and as well as concrete strategies for achieving sustainability.
Laurence Coupe in the Times Higher Education
Extract:
[The book reminds us] that the forces that are oppressing nature are simultaneously repressing our humanity. We are exhorted to "find meaning without consuming" (Paul Maiteny), to widen our aesthetics to include natural beauty as a "way of knowing" (Barry Bignell), and to discover new ways of "being-in-the-world" (John Danvers). This last initiative involves regarding the self as "open work", as process rather than as object. As such, it is continually emerging and merging with "the unfolding communal mind", itself inseparable from the whole "web of being". In that sense, we may say that the self makes sense only when it is viewed in the context of a human culture that is tied to a more-than-human nature...Although...to promote a way of life that is in touch with the Earth demands critical awareness...it has to be understood in a much wider and deeper sense. Sustainability Literacy helps us to do just that, and in doing so equips us to confront the unprecedented challenges to come.
Mary Loveday-Edwards, from the Higher Education Academy ADM Subject Centre
Extract:
The cohesion in the book may be at least partially explained or supported by the fact that the authors attended a series of workshops and symposia to encourage interaction and discussion before the book was compiled. This is one illustration of the level of deliberation and holism underlying each aspect of this book, which is exemplary. The fact that the book is both an information resource and a fund of practical ideas that, as it says, “can be applied to a wide range of educators, from parents to professors”, without trying to be rigid in its approach, shows an understanding of how learning is most effective...This book can function simultaneously as an introductory reader, as a sourcebook for further reading and research, as a kind of workbook or source of exercises for students, and as a structuring device when devising ways to teach sustainability. It is far-reaching and inclusive and will provide a multilayered resource which could be used in many different teaching and learning situations.
Michael Norton, Shinshu University Innovation Management Institute
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the many dimensions of the (rather too) flexible and multi-faceted term ‘sustainability’. Its premise is one that is difficult to disagree with-that the ability to develop one's own abilities in relation to sustainability, as well as helping build a more sustainable society, requires far more people to have sustainability ‘literacy’. The book defines this as “the skills, attitudes, competences, dispositions and values that are necessary for surviving and thriving" in our unsustainable world and helping to reverse current unsustainable trends. The book is based on the philosophy that sustainability is not just about learning facts and definitions, but requires active learning involving self-reflection, self-directed inquiry, learning by doing, and engaging in real-life issues.
The book presumes a prior knowledge of the environmental problems which are undermining the ability of the Earth to support human life and concentrates on the social, cultural and economic systems that underpin these problems. In doing so, it addresses the economic and social forces which encourage unnecessary consumption, debt and environmental destruction; and provides practical skills to equip people for a transition to post-consumerist societies capable of meeting needs with minimal use of energy and resources. It addresses ways of working with Nature to make best possible use of ecosystem services. It also focuses on the world as a system and the ways of thinking that are in harmony with this, together with the ethics and values which underpin a sustainable future. The challenge of communicating concerns and ideals about the future are also addressed in terms of skills for oral presentation, writing and use of New Media in delivering messages related to sustainability. Skills in reducing environmental footprints are seen as an essential part of sustainability literacy and covered in a number of chapters, together with associated technological issues.
Furthermore, since many of the underlying problems can be traced back to our ways of thinking and how we measure our well-being, several chapters are devoted to the ‘psychological’ aspects of emotional well-being and finding meaning without consuming. The final section of the book addresses the educational transformation necessary for sustainability literacy, and how the education system and teachers can enable learners to gain sustainability literacy skills.
Through this book's 33 chapters (each by different authors)therefore the book provides a thought-provoking inventory of the many faces of sustainability, and the many skills which can contribute to a more sustainable future. In particular, the literacy in this book is not just the literacy of the professional, but it also provides a valuable measuring stick for those involved with teaching sustainability-what are the key attributes, how can a teacher adapt to the particular educational challenges and audience that each faces? This book provides a comprehensive menu of sustainability "flavours" or "colours" which can help educational professionals refine their approach and adapt to their particular teaching objectives.
