Environmental Education in the Philippines
Tonight (at midnight!), I will embark on one of the most exciting trips of my adult career: I will be traveling to the Philippines on a 2-week volunteer education project with the non-profit Gawad Kalinga. Over the last few months, I have had the unique opportunity to work alongside my sister, Naomi Arbit — a PhD candidate at Columbia University and current masters student at University of Pennsylvania — to create an original environmental education curriculum. Our curriculum seeks to use a positive psychology framework to improve the way that individuals interact with and relate to the environment around them.
After doing significant research into pedagogical practices in environmental education (my expertise) in addition to the physiological and psychological benefits of biophilia (Naomi’s expertise), we crafted our own 8-day unit plan. Below are 5 key tenants we hoped to infuse throughout our curriculum.
We want our environmental education curriculum to be:
- Positive: first and foremost, we want this environmental curriculum to leave individuals feeling empowered and energized to change the way they relate to the world around them. By working alongside individuals at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology program, I have learned a lot about this area of thought and worked to use its guiding principles within this curriculum to foster hope rather than hopelessness. From an environmental education standpoint, this is critical. According to Diana Liverman, co-director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona, environmental education can unintentionally leave individuals feeling distraught. Liverman warns teachers that merely telling individuals about scientific progress won’t incite any changes in their behavior towards the environment. Instead, teachers should focus on positive examples of change. As Liverman herself explains: “I’m not ignoring the terrifying things we are doing to our environment and our neighbors, it’s just that I am providing solutions and hope as well.” (Liverman, 2014).
- Individual: Diana Liverman also suggests that a successful environmental curriculum will focus on personal control and individual impact. In our curriculum, we constantly ground individuals in their own experiences: how can they show their gratitude to nature? How do they relate to food?
- Thought-Provoking: similar to my daily practice in my own science classroom, this curriculum guides individuals to access new information by continually asking questions. As such, each day is framed with an essential question that will be revisited throughout the lesson.
- Focused on Interconnectedness: a big theme of our environmental curricula relates to the idea that humans are deeply connected to the nature around them and the food they eat. Through activities (like my personal favorite from my AP Environmental Science class: Operation Cat Drop), poetry, and discussions around the meaning of quotes by Daniel Quinn and Henry David Thoreau, individuals will discuss how entwined they are in the systems around them. This idea will complement the positivity mentioned above, and we hope to get individuals excited about their interconnectedness with nature and food.
- Motivating: through a positive and individually-focused curriculum, we aim to leave individuals feeling motivated and inspired to change the world around them. Though the curriculum itself focuses on the role of the individual, we will discuss with individuals how they can bring these ideas and concepts to the communities around them.
For more on the curriculum and our Philippines adventure, stay tuned for more blog posts! And, if you have any ideas to expand our thinking on environmental education, please leave me a comment below!
Works Cited:
Liverman, Diana. How to Teach About Climate Without Making Your Individuals Hopeless. Washington Post. August, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/20/how-to-teach-about-climate-without-making-your-individuals-feel-hopeless/