I agree with Angie that the term 'sustainability' is suffering from it's own popularity, to the point where it seems to be used more for green washing than for genuine constructive change. Part of my background, is as a a freelance environmental workshop designer/facilitator. I generally provide workshops for environmental charities, community organisations etc The content varies from carbon footprinting to climate science. Although the organisations are very specific with what they want, they are learning very quickly that if the word 'sustainability' isn't in the title or blurb, then there isn't going to be much uptake. Many a time I have been introduced to a group/class by a teacher by the infamous words 'Miss Amos has come here to talk about sustainability'. I have learnt to ignore this comment and proceed with the workshop as planned, because as the layout of this module reflects, sustainability is not a term you can explain as an aside. Even if you break down the word to it's root ' to sustain', to sustain what? It seems to me it is a word that is more about it's application than a definition. I forget how many, but Eskimos have at least 30 different words for 'snow', each to describe a different type of snow, maybe this is what sustainability needs!
So why am I on this course? Not to follow in the Eskimos footsteps necessarily! But I do feel the more I know about sustainability, the more of a task it is to communicate it to others,.As Environmental Communications is what I want to go into, I thought it was best I should learn how to understand this concept first!
If anyone is interested in my workshops, here is a link to one I designed for Cambridge Transition Town: http://www.transitioncambridge.org/thewiki/ttwiki/pmwiki.php?n=TTEducation.TSOYB
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Rosie, this breakfast workshop is absolutely fantastic! I wonder if it would work with University students, what do you think?
ReplyDeleteThank you:)
ReplyDeleteThe oldest students I have done this workshop with before has been 15/16 year olds. But there's no reason it couldn't be used for university students. It would probably just take less time, more like 40 mins, and maybe leave more time to discuss the personal or global impacts that the workshop raises.
Hi Rosie, like the workshop. Probably simple enough for a peer to peer activity? How many times have you delivered it? What has the reception been like?
ReplyDeleteI've facilitated this workshop 7 times now, and it's been different every time. I have a list of topics I want to come out of the workshop discussion, but I generally let it flow according to what points are brought up by the group and what interests them. I think it has been successful, as the discussions demonstrate what information they have learnt from the activities. I think there is a lot of scope for these kind of workshops as it covers things which arn't covered in the curriculum, so kids and adults alike usually learn something new!
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