This week, I am in the San Francisco area as one of fourteen US teachers and 14 Japanese teachers who are creating collaborative projects for ESD. ESD stands for Education for Sustainable Development, which is an idea that evolved out of environmental education during the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development. According to the UN World Commission on the Environment and Development Brundtland Report of 1987, “Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” One of the more interesting aspects of this conference is the language barrier; although most of the teachers from Japan speak a fair amount of English, I am sorry to say that I can count the number of Japanese phrases I know on my fingers (and for the ones that I can consistently pronounce correctly, you could use a binary system). But despite my complete inability to speak Japanese, it is amazing how much you can communicate and realize you have in common. Yukiko, the teacher whom I sat next to yesterday, was also a humanitarian volunteer in sub-Saharan Africa (she in Tanzania; I in Togo), and we realized we had had several shared experiences. We agreed frequently on how to prioritize global competencies in our very different classrooms, and several laughs were shared during the long day. Most importantly, in our group discussions, which were centered around ESD in the classroom, I was so humbled by all the fantastic projects and ideas everyone contributed. This is already a fantastic learning experience, and I can't wait to plan more and to visit Omuta and Tokyo.
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ESD and common groundArchives
February 2016
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