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The Whole School Approach to Sustainable Development is a framework that supports schools in giving shape to education for a sustainable future, in consultation with all stakeholders and interested parties in and around the school. The WSA helps to integrate sustainability issues structurally and coherently into the school organization.
Each school can shape the WSA in its own way and take steps at its own level. The WSA provides scope for getting started per component, without losing sight of the cohesion.
De WSA uses a flower as a metaphor. The petals are the domains of change. The heart of the flower is the school’s vision on education in the context of the 21st century. This is the place where all the petals are connected.
WHY? The WSA helps to anchor sustainable development within the school organization in all areas. In this way, students are nourished and stimulated from all petals of the WSA to think and act sustainably. Attention to sustainability becomes self-evident. Subsequently, the foundation for a sustainable attitude and lifestyle is created at school.
The WSA
helps schools to ask each other – youth, teachers, management, educational
supporters and external stakeholders – the right questions and thus arrive at a
place where people live and breathe sustainability. This framework is an
invitation to discover what contribution your school can make to the transition
toward a sustainable society.
The core of the WSA is about vision and the question what we want to achieve with our education. On the one hand, the vision is about responsibility as a school towards youth and their development as people, citizens and professions. On the other hand, it is about the responsibility that schools are willing to take for each other and for planet earth, and to constantly connect with the social context of our time. The WSA for sustainable development invites you to reflect on one of the biggest issues: How can and will our school contribute to a sustainable world and future?
By giving substance to the future image of the school together with a broad group of colleagues, youth and other stakeholders such as parents or companies, a jointly shared “dot on the horizon” is created; a dream that is realized together. Such a vision inspires and provides guidance to the interpretation of education for sustainable development.
Questions to discuss with each other
Keywords
The complexity of sustainability issues requires an integrated approach. It is key that education for sustainable development is reflected throughout the curriculum. This begins with the question: what do we want our pupils or students to learn regarding sustainable development? Which knowledge and skills are important for them – as individuals, as citizens and as professionals? Based on our vision, what do we want the context of education to look like? When this is clear, a curriculum can be built in which education for sustainable development is integrated.
Questions to discuss with each other
Keywords
Growing up and educating in the 21st century rises special demands for teachers. It is important to discuss with each other what your individual view is and how your team can mirror and strengthen each other. This complex time, in which changes occur faster, also requires didactic forms that stimulate and maintain the curiosity and motivation of youth. How do you organize that as a school?
Pedagogy is about you own attitude as a teacher, about attention, about being a role model and making connections. With the concept didactics, we refer to the way of teaching. Which teaching methods do you use and how do you create a learning environment in which students can explore what they find important? How can this help students take action for a sustainable world?
Questions to discuss with each other
Keywords
Coordination between the vision and the learning environment is important in order to bring learning for sustainable development to life. How do users of the building, the schoolyard, the canteen and the classrooms experience the importance of sustainable thinking and acting? This can be done in many ways. Think of sustainable energy, recycling, a healthy and sustainable canteen, a repair shop, and classrooms and schoolyards with lots of greenery. This creates a school that breathes sustainability.
But also, by facilitating sustainable transport, thinking about green ICT, building or renovating in a circular manner and applying sustainability criteria when closing contracts (purchasing, cleaning), you show what you stand for and set a good example. In addition to these examples, schools also pay attention to social aspects of sustainability, such as promotin
Questions to discuss with each other
Keywords
● Sustainability visible and tangible
● Actively involve youth
● Inspiring learning environment
● Safeguarding the vision in all supporting processes
● Housing and real estate, maintenance and management
Professional development focuses on all staff in the school, from janitor to teacher and from policymaker to principal. It is about keeping up with and discussing both professional developments and the social developments that we as people and citizens all have to deal with. Think of climate change or the gap between rich and poor.
If you want to be a school where sustainable thinking and doing is self-evident, this requires you to reflect individually and as a team on whether the knowledge and skills are available for this. The educational institution stimulates and facilitates the development of a basic attitude that promotes sustainable behavior. For example, there is also given attention to sustainability in human resources, when hiring new staff and during performance reviews with employees.
Questions to discuss with each other
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More and more people, including entrepreneurs and governments, are engaged in sustainable development. Everyone knows why this is important, but exactly how we can achieve the transition from an unsustainable to a sustainable world is a learning process for everyone. The school can make an important contribution to this. Therefore, the school’s connection with society and the physical environment plays an important role in the WSA. The cooperation with the environment nurtures the school, and the school nurtures the environment.
This exchange creates opportunities for meaningful learning. Both for youth, for the teachers and for those involved in the school environment. A network of people, organizations and companies with passion and expertise in the field of sustainability forms around the school. Think of parents, local residents, social organizations, local entrepreneurs and the municipality. The environment can also call on the school to let youth help solve sustainability issues.
Questions to discuss with each other
Keywords
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