Creating Sustainable Environments in Our Schools

To educate children to become active global citizens wanting to achieve sustainable lifestyles requires the replacement of school effectiveness and improvement models with process models: with how schools educate. A focus on learning through doing and on action-focused education features significantly in the agenda for the United Nations' decade of education for sustainable development that begins in 2005. It is also in keeping with the values of self-evaluation and school development. Each section in this book integrates theoretical, contextual (case studies) and personal knowledge within its own distinctive focus. The first section offers overviews of school development, whole school approaches and self-evaluation. The chapters in the second section present detailed case studies of European schools that are developing a whole school approach, in England, the Netherlands, Greece and Malta. Each describes work in progress, and critical analysis of each reveals the processes that support school development and holistic approaches in the school. The final section indicates ways in which schools can promote school development through whole school approaches and suggests relevant resources. This book is a major outcome of a seven-year European Commission funded project on professional development for pre-service and in-service, and is designed to contribute to the UN decade of education for sustainable development. It is for practising teachers and other professionals, and will be essential reading for trainee teachers and teachers studying courses in whole school development and education for sustainable development.