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Terril Shorb welcomes you to Sustainability Education |
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Written by Terril Shorb
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Sustainability Education-Learning to Live
in Right Relationship with the Earth
© 2006 Terril L. Shorb
The great challenge of this time is to create a theoretical framework and corresponding body of practice that fulfills human needs in ways that preserve the integrity of natural systems and Earth's biosphere. The perspective and collective effort to achieve this critical equilibrium is increasingly referred to as sustainability. This perspective is rooted in, at the least, the disciplines of sociology, ecology, and economics, and asks for a new kind of change protocol to transform sustainability consciousness into action across the many social structures and communities of humankind.
The purpose of this paper is to identify what appears to be such a protocol, a perspective called sustainability education. Related questions include: How does this kind of education differ from the traditional educational paradigm? What theoretical elements nourish this emerging, educational perspective? How does this perspective serve adult learners in either formal higher education settings or in the larger community? Does sustainability education sufficiently address the human-nature connection to generate integral relationship with and care for ecosystems? Does this perspective serve leadership education? Finally, are there examples of sustainability education in practice that demonstrate its effectiveness in moving people to equitable relationship with other humans and the natural world on which all humans depend?
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