OUR ECO-LITERACY PROJECT

Schooling for Sustainability lays emphasis on the development of knowledge, understanding, appreciation, and relational practices for children and teachers that:

• Facilitates understanding about Life’s basic principles;
• Stimulates and rewards caring for our natural environment, and each other;
• Generates curiosity and an eagerness to learn more about our natural ecosystems;
• Encourages enquiry-based learning, individually and together;
• Nurtures a sense of awe and appreciation for the wonder of Life.

To support our eco-literacy services, ELIA also conducts research on Education for Sustainability, which includes the development of pedagogical tools, products, and learning-aids.

Through our research we explore creative ways to support the conventional educational system to make the shift to Schooling for Sustainability. Conventional education has been created to prepare people to become economically-productive and consumer-based citizens within a competition-driven economy. Unfortunately this has left people largely unprepared for their role as stewards of our planet. The conventional educational system is still largely based on an old mechanistic paradigm that saw human beings as separate from and superior to our Natural World. Based on this dualistic world view, people gave priority to the development of rational and technical skills at the cost of developing relational skills that are embedded within a deeper understanding of our natural interconnectedness and interdependence.