Earthwards: Practices for Transformative Ecological Education

by Katharine Burke

Overview

This educational resource addresses the anxiety of students facing the climate crisis by offering them practical hope. It is a useful and inspiring ecological learning resource for teachers, with practical examples from classes 1 to 12, starting with questions about how to develop ecological awareness. It explains how to deepen students’ profound experience of nature e.g. with sit spots, observation, reflection, survival challenges, gardening, and outdoor experiences. It also informs students’ analytical skills with systems thinking through units on cycles, paradigm shifts in viewing nature, embodiment exercises, imagination, and exploring deep time. Useful theory, principles, resources and action research methods are included, along with access to a global interactive, resource sharing website being built by a community of Earthwards educators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912480913
Publisher:	Hawthorn Press
Publication date:	01/21/2025
Series:	Education
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Katharine Burke holds a MEd in Nature, Ecology and Sustainability. She is a Regenerative Design Practitioner and a Permaculture farmer. She teaches Nature Connectedness sessions for Rudolf Steiner University College, Oslo, founded the Small Earth Institute in 2017 for school ecological awareness and action, offering workshops for teachers and for the sustainable development of schools. She is newly retired from Skagerak Primary and Middle School, Sandefjord Norway, where she taught for 21 years. She hosts the website EARTHWARDS: : https://earthwards.mn.co

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction PART ONE: HOW TO START 1. Student Despair and a Culture of Care: Generation Not Much Longer 2. A Unit on Resources: From source to appreciation 3. Teachers Plan for Change: Circles of self-organisation PART TWO: IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 4. In The Garden: The Enticement of Tomatoes- 5. A Compost Project: Meeting Worms 6. Reflecting in Nature: Sit Spot 7. A Unit on Cycles: Converging Cycles of Awe 8. A Unit on Adaptation: Out in the Woods PART THREE: IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 9. A Service Club in the Middle Years: Green Squad 10. A Language Unit: Satire As a Tool for Shifting Paradigms 11. A Geography Unit: Deep Time and Earth Systems – 12. A Social Studies Unit: Social Change 13. Economics Tasks: Economics and Systems Games 14. Environmental Studies: A Contagion of Gratitude PART FOUR: GOING FORWARD 15. Earthward: Principles and practices 16. The Role of Schools