Developing International Understanding with a Commitment to Sustainability
Authored by: Catalina Adaglio and Santiago Nartallo from Belgrano Day School, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Summary
We perceive that people our age tends to be materialistic and expect instant gratification. They are more prone to lose sight of their surroundings and of the impact their actions can have on the world they live in. At the same time, technology opens multiple opportunities to raise people’s awareness of environmental issues, both by easily accessing information and by facilitating connections among individuals, communities, and nations alike.
Introduction
At the beginning of our research on commitment to sustainability, we thought our findings would be linked primarily with specific actions such as recycling. Therefore, the task seemed challenging and somewhat narrow. It is clear to us now, however, that this kind of commitment means something larger: that it can serve as a tool for increasing the level of awareness we have about our world. A lack of commitment to sustainability can lead to massive, global-scale problems which do not discriminate based on nationality, social status, or ethnicity; therefore, our generation should not act upon its present needs only, but on the improvement of our planet for the future.
Context
Belgrano Day School is a private selective bilingual mixed-sex day school located in the Belgrano neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It offers a national and international curriculum for pupils aged 2 to 18 years old.
Process
For this paper, we interviewed seven teachers and four students individually, and also had a brief discussion session with another four students.
Through our conversations we sought to explore, understand, and work on the importance of a Commitment to Sustainability for our generation, and to that end, we developed a number of questions.
The first one, which served as a starting point, was: “What relationship do you see between the discovery Commitment to Sustainability and the concept of International Understanding?”
The most frequent answers referred to a dependence between them; in the words of a student: “If there is no International Understanding among nations and their populations, a cooperation between them for Sustainability […] becomes very difficult. International Understanding and Commitment to Sustainability are certainly very relevant to one another.” The second most frequent answer involved what we could call “Cooperative Awareness.”
Interviewees referred to the need for a mutual awareness and conscience of the realities of other countries and communities to understand their problems and develop, collectively, the best Commitment to Sustainability possible. Being mutually aware, communities could consider other people’s views on sustainability and understand that, while for some sustainability might be a priority, for others, it might be a possibility. In relation to this idea, one of our teachers expressed that “Within some developing countries, it is believed that, if the basic economic and social needs are not covered [first], there could be a compromise in the future of a region, as well as of its future generations’ needs.” Furthermore, another teacher talked about the importance of taking action for the development of a Commitment to Sustainability: “One of the biggest issues our world has is that many times we work on understanding, on comprehending, remaining in the discursive sphere rather than taking specific actions.”
Although environmentalism is at the base of sustainability, we thought it would be important to discuss other aspects that are involved as well. Most of our interviewees mentioned that, currently, the economy makes the world go around and is viewed as a priority. The predominant idea referred to an inevitable link between a country’s economic development and its development in its sustainable agenda, sometimes prioritizing the economic wants or needs before considering others like environmentalism.
Other frequent answers involved political or governmental factors, which are considered necessary for the organization of a community since our world is organized by governments with authorities who make decisions (including environmental ones) in representation of many. Social factors were also mentioned, referring to the differences between social classes and a different view on sustainability which considers people’s quality of life: “A sustainable development does not refer only to the place where you live, but also how you feel about yourself; the quality of life of the population worldwide. So, people can really commit and worry about the environment taking their own personal development as a starting point”. In addition, we were also surprised by a particular answer given by both a teacher and a student which explained that, as humans, being the “dominant species” with our capability to think at a different level, we have the responsibility of taking care of our world and of those who depend on us, including wildlife: “The most vulnerable do not include only people with less economic resources, but also millions of species. They all live in the same place where we, humans, live. We are the dominant species and are responsible for these creatures. We shouldn’t take advantage of our responsibility either, as many [generations] have.”
Moving forward, we asked our interviewees about the activities that are being done at Belgrano Day School that help develop students’ commitment to sustainability. Answers can be summarised in the following groups: Community Service, Environmental, Curricular, and Extracurricular. The most frequent activities mentioned fell in the Curricular category, where certain topics such as global warming and its various effects (the melting of poles, rise in sea level, etc.), are covered in subjects like Biology and Geography. Other issues, such as the damage caused by various industries (i.e. textile and meat), are mentioned in other classes like Global Perspectives or Current Affairs through videos, newspapers, and the like.
Based on these trends, shown specifically in our frequency table (Figure 1), we gathered some conclusions as to what seems to be more effective in school.
We noticed that those activities which occur during school hours attract more students since no extracurricular time is needed and, thus, no after school commitments are affected. Furthermore, the activities in Community Service seem to be effective to promote an International Understanding and a Commitment to Sustainability. A teacher stated that “Actions taken by the Service department generate an awareness in students and allow them to leave their comfort zone to think about others’ need. ” The same teacher mentioned Techo as an example, which is an organization that allows students and teachers to go to humble neighbourhoods for a weekend in different groups and build houses together. Throughout the year, several activities are done to collect the money for construction materials.
Despite what is already being done, we realized there is much room for improvement and asked interviewees for suggestions. Mirroring our Community Service department, which has a specialized staff and its own space, a frequent proposal included developing a department exclusively dedicated to the Environment. Moreover, a general need for implementing further efforts was frequently highlighted, emphasizing that the awareness in school regarding Commitment to Sustainability should be strengthened, maybe through discussions with specialists. A student was very keen on this idea: “During my school years I have never received a talk about the environment. Maybe if there were some from specialists which lasted an hour or so, it could be informative and effective in generating a reaction from students”. An additional suggestion involved an increase in the amount of time spent in classes to cover environmental issues.
After setting the tone through the above themes, we decided to ask about the concrete, main concern of our research: “Why do you think it is important to promote a commitment to sustainability in students from our generation?”. In the answers received, we identified four key ideas which we believe are very important. First, that we are responsible for future generations and must use the mistakes from the past to improve and evolve. Another frequent answer had to do with the importance of promoting this commitment in students from our generation because it will help raise people’s awareness about current global issues and develop cooperation, actions which are crucial not only for today but for tomorrow. Second, that we are at a time in our lives when we are prone to absorb mostly everything; we observe, hear, learn, which makes it an ideal moment to expose us to truthful information, critical thinking abilities, and strong values. Also, due to changing views in our society, our surroundings have become more flexible and open-minded. A teacher specified that, although previous generations may have exceptions of people with open, progressive minds, our generation, in its majority, has a “revolutionary attitude filled with progressive ideas.”
In nearing the end of this research, we thought it important to mention that our Primary School has been developing this Commitment to Sustainability in more depth. We observed the youngest from our generation to compare activities, thoughts and actions. We went to their “Environmental Week” in which different grades presented science projects and created scale models using reusable materials. Furthermore, the youngest of our high school students carried out a similar activity, in which they were instructed to create artistic projects, using only reusable materials. Though the topic was free, most students focused on “green” issues, such as the environmental damage caused by meat industries and the plastic pollution at sea. This led us to the idea that we should try to seek ways of connecting the whole school community, for students and teachers to interact and learn from each other. We need to include the environmental aspect to the school’s agenda as a constant priority.
Conclusion
We believe education might be the key and that values such as Commitment to Sustainability need to be encouraged, though not demanded, from an early age. They should not be taught in a strict way, but rather presented for them to be embraced in a gradual manner. One of the biggest challenges is that we are responsible for every ecosystem, not just for ourselves, which makes it difficult to balance our needs and wants with the perspective of the future, “not compromising the future with the needs of the present,” as a teacher put it. There should not be a thin line between saying that humans must protect the environment and we must protect the environment from humans.
In closing, we would like to highlight a valuable recommendation we received by two teachers: “Do not feel discouraged by the bad choices from authorities. You need to find your voice to make a change.” We are, indeed, the future. We live in a common home and must embrace our responsibility. As a student very well said: “I think that our main global issue is the fact that we separate people because of their religion, race, culture, and because of that, we forget that we are all alike because we’re all human.” This applies to all species as well. We are all living beings in this home we call Earth.