The previous section has focused on where within the school, change towards ESD takes place and what some factors that determine that are. This section discusses different values, topics and concepts associated with ESD that schools try to solve and embed while undergoing change. These issues are central to the schools’ change process.
Healthy Living and Value of Care (self, others, environment) 5.4.3
A common issue that is embedded across all schools is healthy living and a common value of care. All schools have to address these, as they are part of governmental agenda (healthy schools and Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda) driven by
encouraging schools to place more emphasis on the children and their well-being. However the scope at which they are addressed varies, this is partly based on whether the school perceives it as part of an ESD agenda and whether the school
Cases 1 and 3 view healthy living and value of care (self, other and environment) to be an essential part of an ESD agenda and to be an essential part of the school itself. For example, healthy living in Case1 is a topic that has been developed since 1996. The issue has risen from the need to increase pupil attendance in the school due to poor health and poor eating habits, with “no adult role models for learning” (Online report, 1). The school took on the role and began to give all students fresh fruit and drinking water (Online report, 1). Currently the school’s goal is expanding to “show children how to achieve healthy lifestyle” (School Prospectus, 1)
approaching it as the ‘development of a whole child’. The issue is approached in more than one way. Within the school the focus is on engaging children with the real world experiences (Deputy Head teacher, 1) including sporting activities (School Prospectus, 1) as well as providing children with ‘field to fork’ knowledge, where the care goes beyond the child and towards environment. The bridge between
emotional well-being and care for the environment is seen in the school’s
curriculum, developed for active learners, and an intervention program for students who have emotional difficulty.
Case 3 also perceives this connection between the emotional well-being, or care for self, and active participation in caring for others and the environment. Multiple opportunities are developed for the students to engage with the environment through the school clubs and the formal curriculum. Local context is used as an inspiration for developing such opportunities, for example the use of the school’s farm, beehive, gardens, and woodlands. Here the school also practices the
development of ‘a whole child’, both emotionally and physically, encouraging physical activities and healthy eating.
Value of care for self, others and environment may be found in both schools (1 and 3) across several levels, in the formal and informal curriculum, the projects that the schools work on and other themes and concepts it embeds. While the value for self, others and the environment are all part of the ECM agenda by the government, the government mostly oversees the value of care for self and others. In these two schools however, the value of care for environment has a strong presence in all the
work and ethos of the schools. There are several reasons for this, care for
environment is perceived to be integral to the ‘whole child’ development, it is also perceived in broader terms in relation to the world and whether the school can have an impact. “It is seeing your school as a part of the sustainability movement...” (Head teacher, 1). ‘It’s all about the wrap around 'care' of everything! Environment/ people in it/ what we're doing to the world... etc.‘ (Staff questionnaire, 3). In
addition, both schools derive value of care (self, others and environment) from their local contexts. For example, Case 1 is situated within a deprived area where care for environment is closely interconnected with establishing care for self and others. “The main thing for us here we are on an inner estate, very poor families, lots of older siblings that are in an out of prison, and things like that. So we start basically by if you care for your school, in your environment, then you will care for yourself” (Teaching assistant, 1). In Case 3, the history of the school and its care for
environment has been preserved and built upon in its current work. “The history of the school, has always been closely linked to what we would consider in old
vocabulary, a nature study, or environmental study “ (Head teacher, 3) (see Figure 5-3).
Cases 2 and 5 also associate healthy living agenda with ESD and practice value of care for self, others and environment. However, the definition of these topics and approach towards them is narrower than those of Cases 1 and 3, and is less consistent. For example, the schools do not view themselves in relation to a wider context and derive most of the issues from the NGOs, such as the Eco-Schools program, rather than from the local context. “That’s another route why we went for Eco-Schools as well, we went that route, because that gives us, not target, but
suggestions of what you can look at next“ (Head teacher, 5). This
narrows the definition and how the schools approach the issue to
that which is prescribed by the program.
Issues of healthy living and care for self, other and environment are sometimes perceived as integrated while other times not, and most issues do not consider the ‘whole child’. For example, Case 2 emphasises physical well-being rather than an emotional well-being as a healthy living agenda. The agenda of ‘walk to school’ combines the school’s agenda of healthy living with care for the environment. On the other hand, the ongoing gardening in the school is only described as engaging in behaviours of care for the environment, and is not associated with care for self or healthy living. Case 5 has a similar view on a healthy living agenda with an emphasis on physical well-being. It may be seen in a similar project to Case 2, a sheltered area has been constructed to encourage outdoor play during bad weather, decrease congestion in the area and “to encourage parents to walk to school” (School document, 5). This project combines care for self, others and environment with physical well-being. Case 5 also views physical well-being as having an objective of healthy eating, which led to the gardening project that combined topics of healthy living and care for the environment. In these two schools, both healthy living and value of care (self, others, environment) are considered, yet with an emphasis on physical well-being rather than a ‘whole child’ development. This lends itself to the informal curriculum and therefore these topics are less likely to show up in schools’ formal curricula.
Case 4 views healthy living through physical activity with the focus on care for self. “To improve the quality of health, improve the quality of sports, games and such things at the school” (Head teacher, 4). This view then relates to physical activities that are encouraged in the school and further planned for in the school
development. Value of care for self and others may also be seen in other topics and concepts that are specific to the school, whereas value of care for environment has been mainly considered in relation to the schemes of saving money, detached from its influence on the children.
Two topics that relate to value of care of others, and relate to social sustainability are the topics of community outreach (Case 1) and diversity of students (Case 4)
where values of diversity and equality are important. Both topics have an origin within the local context, a deprived community and a multicultural community. Case 1 relates its work to ESD, partly because community outreach has a strong correlation with ESD work that a school engages in, particularly developing eco literacy in the community and seeking to solve fuel poverty. In Case 4, the work is not associated with ESD, nevertheless the topic is addressed through formal curriculum and community outreach. It is based on equal opportunity to education and value of respect for diversity, making it a complex and a sensitive topic (that may be viewed as an ESD topic).
Conclusion 5.4.4
Whilst all cases demonstrated some work on two government agendas, healthy living and value of care, their approaches differ widely in depth and scope. In particular, if the school perceived healthy living to encompass development of the ‘whole child’, it seeks to encourage its development in all areas of physical and emotional well-being, through a formal and informal curriculum (Cases 1 and 3). If it is viewed as development of a particular section of it, then the school will focus only on the development of that area (Cases 2, 4 and 5). The scope of the schools’ work is also based on whether the school views care for self, others and environment to be an integrated agenda, or separate. In Case 1 and 3 however, these issues are integrated. Care for self integrates healthy living and care for environment, and care for environment integrates care for others. In other schools however, this
integration does not exist. If the projects seem to have an impact on both the environment and children’s well-being, it is viewed as working on two agendas rather than one. The involvement that each school has with the topic of healthy living and value of care seems to also be influenced by whether they are derived mainly as a result of the governmental agenda, or have a strong relevance to the school itself, the needs of its children and the local context. When the school builds upon the needs of the children and its local context, there seems to be a greater
is not. In Cases 1 and 3, value of care for the environment is established in the schools through their local contexts and in relation to broader concepts such as becoming part of a sustainable movement and therefore is really grounded in the schools’ work. Cases 2 and 5 care for the environment is established through external input, such as specific aims and objectives found through NGOs and
therefore is less prominent. In Case 4, care for the environment is an agenda of only a few building projects.