Sustainability Education's Gift

Abstract

The crisis of sustainability can be linked to the traditional forms of schooling driven by mechanistic and technocratic worldviews. Progressing to a more sustainable world requires a fundamental shift in the framework of formal education—its structure, content and process—to include principles of systems thinking and holistic learning. A case study from the United States draws upon the Learning Gardens model in Portland, Oregon, where students in kindergarten through eighth grades are learning to grow, harvest and cook food based within a curricular and instructional framework that is multicultural, interdisciplinary, intergenerational and multisensory. Students’ writings reflect that they are learning in patterns and relationships a critical aspect of sustainability education's gift.