GEED 13

BUILDING ECOLITERACY IN THE 21st CENTURY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To demonstrate knowledge and understanding of environmental and sustainable education
theories, concepts and principles.
2. To exhibit Eco literacy skills.
3. To relate the role of TAU in advancing sustainable development through its strategic mechanisms in
relevant fields of endeavor.
4. To develop and implement programs and activities promoting Eco literacy.
5. To gain basic understanding of ESE history and theories and begin to apply these into practice in
environmental and sustainable education.
LESSON 1: MEANING & NATURE OF ECOLITERACY

ECOLOGICAL LITERACY
The first step in this endeavor is to understand the principles of organization that ecosystems have
developed to sustain the web of life.
Ecological literacy, or eco-literacy, is a term first used by American educator David W. Orr and
physicist Fritjof Capra in the 1990s, in order to introduce into educational practice, the value and well-being of
the Earth and its ecosystems.
ECOLITERACY It is a way of thinking about the world in terms of its interdependent natural and human
systems, including a consideration of the consequences of human actions and interactions within the natural
context.

 Equips students with the knowledge and competencies necessary to address complex and
urgent environmental issues in an integrated way, and enables them to help shape a
sustainable society that does not undermine the ecosystems upon which it depends.

CORE ASPECTS OF ECOLOGICAL LITERACY

1.Principles of Living Systems
The ecological problems facing society are rooted in a lack of understanding of our place in the web of life.

 Developing a ‘connected wisdom’.

  Students are immersed in experiences of the natural world as part of their classroom learning,
they discover and study the principles guiding the functioning of natural systems.

2. Design inspired by Nature

According to David Orr, the goal of ecological design is to transform how humans act in the world to
provide food, shelter, energy, materials, and seek their livelihood.
Ecological literacy asks what people know and how should they learn it, given the limits of the Earth
and its systems.
Human actions and design conform to how the world works as a biophysical system, and that societies
be designed with future generations in mind.
3. Systems thinking

Ecological literacy is also guided by an understanding of systems, or systems thinking, sometimes called
holistic or relational thinking.
Involves applying a way of thinking that emphasizes relationships, connectedness and context.
The habit in which include seeing the whole of a system rather than snapshots of its parts, looking for
patterns and connections, and uncovering and testing assumptions.

4. Ecological Paradigm and the Transition to Sustainability

 Teaching young people that we are part of the natural world is the basis for the shift to an
ecological paradigm.
 As Fritjof Capra notes, “in the coming decades, the survival of humanity will depend on our
ecological literacy – our ability to understand the basic principles of ecology and to live
accordingly.”
 This shift to an ecological paradigm is part of a transition to sustainability – meeting human
wellbeing while substantially reducing poverty and conserving the planet's life support systems.
 Sustainability is not just about basic needs and human survival, sustainability is the process to
create a vibrant society.

5. Collaboration, Community Building and Citizenship

An ecological education occurs both within the natural environment and in the local community where
students can build relationships and apply their understanding in a real world setting.
Ecoliteracy knowledge empowers students to help create a better society and make a difference.
Studies have shown that combining civic engagement and ecological literacy creates positive change
leaders willing to participate as citizens and engage in creating solutions.
 • ECOLITERACY is to understand and internalize sustainable ecological relationship in the nature and to
transfer the sustainable lifestyle to daily life despite the fact that ecoliteracy does not only one or
unique definition.
• AIMS OF ECOLITERACY

ECOLOGICAL
INTELLIGENCE

ECOLITERATE
PERSON

The Purpose of Ecoliteracy

The purpose of Ecoliterate is to explore the framework of ecoliteracy through a series of case studies.
• These case studies are the stories of people tackling four crucial issues:
1. coal mining,
2. oil drilling,
3. food usage, and
4. water usage.
• “The goal of environmental education is to develop a world population that is aware of and concerned
about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes,
motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current
problems and the prevention of new ones (UNESCO 1976: 1).
• Table 1. Components of environmental literacy, adapted from Simmons (1995).
 • Do you know from which direction prevailing winds originate?
• Do you know which spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here?
• Where the boundaries of your regional watershed are? Where does your garbage go?
• According to environmental writer and Oberlin College professor David Orr, to be ecologically literate
is to not just know these facts but to also:
• " Know the rudiments of ecology
• understand that no good economy can be built on the ruins of natural systems
• have experience in the out-of-doors
• understand the rudiments of environmental ethics
• understand the difference between optimum and maximum, stocks and flows, design and planning,
renewable and non-renewable, dwelling and residing, sufficiency and efficiency, can do and should do,
health and disease, development and growth and intelligence and cleverness."
• If you don't know the answers to most of these questions, then maybe it's time to find out to increase
your ecological literacy.
Five Ways to Develop “Ecoliteracy”
• 1. Develop empathy for all forms of life
• Empathy also can be developed through direct contact with other living things, such as by
keeping live plants and animals in the classroom; taking field trips to nature areas, zoos,
botanical gardens, and animal rescue centers; and involving students in field projects such as
habitat restoration.
• 2. Embrace sustainability as a community practice
Organisms do not survive in isolation. Instead, the web of relationships within any living community
determines its collective ability to survive and thrive.
• 3. Make the invisible visible
• 4. Anticipate unintended consequences
• Many of the environmental crises that we face today are the unintended consequences of human
behavior. For example, we have experienced many unintended but grave consequences of developing
the technological ability to access, produce, and use fossil fuels. These new technological capacities
have been largely viewed as progress for our society. Only recently has the public become aware of the
downsides of our dependency on fossil fuels, such as pollution, suburban sprawl, international
conflicts, and climate change.
• 5. Understand how nature sustains life
Ecoliterate people recognize that nature has sustained life for eons; as a result, they have turned to nature as
their teacher and learned several crucial tenets. Those tenets are particularly imperative to ecoliterate living.