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Sustainability: Educating for ACTion Conference

“There can be few more pressing and critical goals for the future of humankind than to ensure steady improvement in the quality of life for this and future generations, in a way that respects our common heritage—the planet we live on. . . . Education for sustainable development is a life-wide and lifelong endeavour which challenges individuals, institutions and societies to view tomorrow as a day that belongs to all of us, or it will not belong to anyone.”

(UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005–2014)

Welcome to our conference on Sustainability, sponsored by the Manitoba Association of School Superintendents and Manitoba Education. 

• The conference, designed for divisional teams of superintendents, trustees, principals, teachers, school business officials, and maintenance/transportation supervisors, and for staff from Manitoba Education Program Division, also warmly welcomes representatives from the universities and the many agencies and NGOs dedicated to sustainability issues. 
• A student forum of some 90 high school students, organized by MB4Youth, will also be part of the divisional teams, and students will participate for much of the time in sessions designed especially for them. 

Such a mix of delegates should make for wonderful networking and dialogue.  

The Current Problem

Human activities are having an immense and escalating impact on the planet—leading to increased loss of biodiversity, air and water pollution, changing climates, desertification, and rising sea levels, to name just a few. All of these effects on the planet are also having an effect on our well-being. Ecological stresses exacerbate poverty, limit the availability of fresh water, threaten food security, and pollute healthy air. They also intensify struggles over increasingly scarce resources. A culture and economy of material consumption are exploiting Earth’s resources beyond regeneration with devastating impacts for future generations.

The Change Required

Sustainability focuses on ensuring the well-being of all of Earth’s inhabitants by modifying the way we live so that we are in harmony with Earth’s natural systems and not using up natural resources beyond the capacity of the environment to supply them. An Indigenous perspective states, “We cannot simply think of our survival; each new generation is responsible to ensure the survival of the seventh generation.” For the sake of current and future generations, we must transition to sustainable economic and social development. This will require a stronger connection to the natural world to which we belong. We cannot continue along the path we are on—we need to change the way we live, reconnect to the environment, develop an ethos based on ecological thinking and global concern, and teach our children to do the same.

The Challenge Ahead

Meeting the sustainability challenge requires educators to build a strong foundation for our youth to engage in and understand the interdependence among the environment, the economy, and our social systems. Education embedding sustainability offers the opportunity for learners to ask critical questions; to clarify their values; to envision more positive and sustainable futures; to think systemically; to respond through applied learning; and to explore the dialectic between tradition and innovation. It also means that sustainability is not just applied within curricula and learning approaches and techniques but that it is also embedded within the operations and management processes in schools themselves. With this core understanding and engagement, our youth will be in a better position to take action and make the changes necessary to become effective stewards of the planet. We will graduate students who are experts on being in the world.

Dialogue into Action

Ecological citizenship in our schools and communities is, and will continue to be, the responsibility of adults, children, and youth alike. This conference has been conceived to support participants in developing strong ecological skills and perspectives. Our hope is that it will build upon the sustainability initiatives that are currently taking place in Manitoba schools and in our communities, and stimulate further dialogue, and of course, Education for ACTion.