18. Education and training

Lead Papers

Slav Akimov and Ozod Mukhamedjanov, S. Augustin, J. Katima, Oystein S. LaBianca (Ph.D) and Gary Brendel, E. Kilawe & B. Lyimo,Dr. Allan Barsky and Bill Diepeveen and Maureen Wilson and Karen Hanna, William Belsey, Dr. Alexander S. Bogolyubov, George Lutalo Bosa, Ludmila Ignatenko and Victoria Churikova, George L. De Feis, Michele Doncaster, , Dr. Yuriy Grynyuk, Dr. Galina Gutina, Nina Hrycak, Mikylas Huba, Vladimir Ira, Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy, Pr. Abdelmonem KAANICHE,Dr. Gennady N. Karopa, Dimitra KITSIOU, Vera Koveinik, Elena Krougikova, Elizabeth(Beth) Lange, David S. Liebl, Dr. Sue L.T. McGregor, Marin R. Mehandjiev (Professor) and Krassimira R. Mehandjieva,Gauri Mittal, Annick Monnerie, Dr. Nazih Noureldin, Helene Savard, Dr. Vyacheslav Sharov, Yuri Skochilov,Robert Unegbu,Douglas Worts

  LaBianca and Brendel have explained that more than perhaps any other factor, progress toward reaching the goal of sustainable social development will depend on building a cadre of leaders in the countries of the north and south with the capacities needed to create enabling environments for sustainable social development. In 1995, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency joined hands with Andrews University ’ International Development Program to create ADRA's Professional Leadership Institute or APLI. Over the past four years, this partnership has succeeded in mounting eight three-week training sessions on four continents in which over 500 governmental and non-governmental leaders representing 70 different nations and over 300 different grass-roots NGOs have been equipped to think critically and constructively about what works and what does not work in planning and implementing sustainable social development programs and projects in their home countries and regions. Topics covered in these 24 weeks of graduate-level leadership courses include principles of people-centered development, women and development, sustainable development and development research; planning, evaluation and grantsmanship; employee and stakeholder relations; and individual and organizational accountability. Training in various specializations also occurred, including responding to complex emergencies, micro-enterprise, food security, mother and child health, helping refugees and displaced persons.

  Bogolyubov explained that Russia has recently become a state of the "general ecologization". Moreover the importance of this sphere of human knowledge and the necessity of the environmental education are admitted by everybody including teachers and ministers. The final aim of the environmental education is the formation of a "healthy environment community" that lives in harmony with nature. Mixing concepts, terms and theories gives a negative phenomenon - representatives of different trends can not speak the same language in spite of the only and identical aim - educating a generation of people who would thinks "ecologically" (in an environment way).The idea was not a simple one to implement. First, for many years of the pioneer domination in the young naturalist movement the educational culture itself and the ways of the environmental education of children had been lost. Second, young biology teacher succeeded naturalistic biologists of the "old school". These new educators studied biology and geography only through books, they didn't know real nature and some of them never took part in the field work (owing to various circumstances). The third reason for this was a rapid development of ecological science, nature-preservation methods and monitoring research. Research methods had made a great progress but almost nobody tried to put them into the educational practice. Fourth, the early 1990s were marked by a great deal of foreign influence in the environmental education that was showered on "unprepared heads" of Russian environment teachers. An insufficient development of a "naturalistic" trend in the Russian environmental education can finally be explained by these factors. The last reason had played a very important role in the present correlation of trends of the environmental education. All-Russian Environmental Educational Association "Ecosystem" started its work in 1995. It is one of the first educational organizations that teaches "naturalistic" ecology to school children. "Ecosystem's" ultimate goal is to introduce "naturalistic" ecology into school environmental education. "Ecosystem's" Field Center helps to reach this goal through a variety of outdoor ecology courses.

  Victoria Churikova discussed about the new aspects for environmental education: a step into the 3d Millennium. They comprise:   1. Personal experience of life in wild nature with 3 little children. Life and work in the Kronotsky Bioshere Reserve. No electricity, no running water, status of the Reserve demands not to use local resources like in traditional way of life: no hunting and fishing. 2. Education and self education, using library and surrounding nature, consultations of coming specialists. An old concept of teaching children using nature itself, and their natural curiosity in new conditions. 3. An outline of existing state of nature protection and environmental education in Kamchatka. Different schools, trends and achievements. 4. Some history. The first in Kamchatka ecological schools, led by Nina Efremova, an outstanding geobotanist and educator. Her inheritance, which should be used now for the purposes of new generations. 5. Recent energy crises in Kamchatka and the necessity to teach children and ourselves. The energy crises with total off energy in Kamchatka, other regions of Russia and even in some other places in the world gave us this task: to change our mentality of energy consumption. "Back to nature" - is old and new. 6. Sustainable development approach. We will show how this new educational approach impact people, resources, economics and environmental. Interactions between them.

  Youth programs abound: Delta Sigma Pi, Future Business Leaders of America, Junior Achievement, Junior Chamber International (Jaycees), Operation Enterprise – youth program of the American Management Association, United Nations Youth Unit, and others(De Feis). It is in these organizations that the sustainable development movement must take hold. Many of these groups embrace a management and business mindset, with overtones of community service. As such, they could be tapped to participate in the much-needed "management" of the sustainable development process.

 Gutina discussed about the educational program in Moscow. One section is called "ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN". Children have contributed drawings to our exhibitions: "Save the nature of our Native land"; "Nature Needs our Help"; "I Wish my City to Look Like this"; " The Air we Breathe"; "The Water we Drink"; "The Food we Eat"; "Nitrates Surround us"; "The Problem of Garbage in our City"; "How can the Pollution of our Environment be prevented"; "What Help can I offer City?". The pupils and myself carry out simple monitoring of the environment. Ecological information sheets dealing with the ecological problems of our city, and children’s norms of behavior, are distributed in schools. The pupils are participating in ecological performances which deal with urgent ecological problems of our city. After the performance the actors involve the children-spectators in a discussion of the problems raised in the performance. The discussions are held by way of different competitions, for instance: "How can the Amount of Garbage be diminished?’ "Reprocessing of waste ", "Ways of saving water" etc. The pupils readily participate in these competitions, offering unexpected solutions accompanied with drawings. This simple of ecological knowledge is dissemination easily embraced by the children.

  Lange used a wholistic definition of sustainability as the key learning pivot in the conceptual framework that guided her study. A review of the international development and sustainable development discourse underscored that the present political economic systems of capitalism, social and communism share the same conceptual roots that have created escalating environmental degradation, gender inequity and concentration of power. In particular, they share a preference for economistic and technological modelling, social engineering and other interventionist prescriptions as well as instrumentalist views of humans and natural systems. Even the notion of "development" says Wolfgang Sachs (1992), is a conceptual invention that relies on the myth that all social, cultural, economic, political and ecological elements in a society can be managed toward a utopian state. This has resulted in a tremendous loss of diversity through the standardization of desires, homogenization of architecture/clothing/daily objects of use, and a crippling of human creativity. This research was positioned within this post-development discourse.

  As we enter the new millennium, one of the growing concerns among First Nation people in Canada is the under-representation of Aboriginal students in all science disciplines such as health-related professions(Noureldin and  Michell). For those students who are interested in working with Aboriginal populations, there is a requirement for an understanding of basic science as well as traditional healing philosophies and approaches. Furthermore, as society continues to rely more and more heavily on technology, it is increasingly important that there should be a large proportion of Aboriginal people with a balanced scientific background. There has been, therefore, a great need to initiate, develop, and promote programs in science among First Nations students in order to attract them into scientific professions. The Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC) first opened its doors in May of 1976 with only a handful of Aboriginal students. It is the only independently administered university-college in Canada that is geographically located in the heartland of the Precambrian Shield. SIFC is affiliated with the University of Regina and is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The mission of the college is to serve the academic, cultural, and spiritual needs of First Nations students. While it caters to the needs of the First Nations students, the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College also accepts students from all nations and from all walks of life.

Sharov explained that  ecological education is vital for inhabitants of the Chelyabisnk region to preserve the greatest values - their health and life. We have developed interactive computer programs for ecological education of population and specialists. One of computer programmes 'What Radiation Is?" consists out of two parts: database and tests and that is why the user can simultaneously study and carry out self-testing.

 The Youth Ecological Center of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, is a non-governmental social- ecological organization (NGO) It is promoting development of civil society in Tajikistan through the conducting of social- ecological and educational programs (Skochilov). The main task of EcoCenter is consolidate of efforts of students, teachers and sciences for the saving and restoration of environment, assist on forming of action social- ecological position of citizen and careful attitude to environment on the base of the principles of ecological ethics and stable development of Republic of Tajikistan.

Human rights education, training and public information are essential elements in order to create stable and harmonious relations among all members of The Global Community  and to foster understanding, tolerance and peace.

The importance of the role of human rights education in The Global Community context cannot be ignored. Human rights are universal values and their protection can only be achieved through knowing the rights of all and the means to ensure their respect. Human rights education constitutes an essential contribution to the long-term prevention of human rights abuses. It requires the full involvement not only of students but all those concerned: teachers, administrators and parents. It is taught in an atmosphere of mutual respect with the understanding that it is a common responsibility to foster human rights in The Global Community.

An indicator measures the average level of education attained upon completion of formal education. Studies have shown that higher education results in better employment opportunities and higher wages. Education level attained is a good indicator of potential economic progress.

An indicator measures the per cent of post-secondary graduates finding employment in their field of study and training. This indicator reflects whether or not post-secondary institutions are training or educating people in fields where they can be most gainfully employed within a region, and it indicates whether the education system serves the economic structure and the employment opportunities it offers. 

An indicator measures the per cent of teaching units per grade (kindergarten to grade 12) that have a sustainable development message. Successful sustainable development education supports both the understanding of the concept and subsequent behavior changes toward sustainable activities at an early age, and then reinforces and improves them in succeeding years.

The Glass-bubble concepts

A sample-mini lesson plan to assist Elementary School Teachers to demonstrate the concept
of Global Community to children.

To experience the concept of "global community" walk outdoors in a location
with as many natural elements as possible - city, park, river, mountains - be prepared
to really look, to really see whatever surrounds you.

Look up, look down, to the right, to the left, in front and behind you.

Imagine all this space is inside a giant clear glass bubble.
This is "a global community."

Wherever you go, you are inside a "global" community. Every thing, every living creature there,
interacts one upon the other. Influences inter-weave and are responsible for causes and effects.
Worlds within worlds orbiting in and out of one another's space, having their being.
Your presence has influence on everything else inside your immediate global community.

Learn to be aware of that and act accordingly, to create good or destroy, to help or to hurt.
Your choice.

Now let us explore this Global Community that we have visited and discover why each
member is important ~ each bird, each tree, each little animal, each insect, plant and
human being ~ and how all work together to create a good place to live.

You walk like a giant in this Global Community. To all the tiny members you are so big, so
powerful, even scary…

You can make or break their world. But by knowing their needs, and taking care,
you can help your whole Global Community be a good one.

Why are you important to this "Global Community"?
Why is it important to you?
What do you like about it?
What bothers you about it?
Anything need to be done?

Let each child be aware he either grows up to be a person who helps or a person who destroys.
Each child makes his own choice. He creates his own future in this way.

This may or may not inspire some sort of creative project, of what "could be" to aid this Global
Community to remain healthy.

There are many environmental projects for children to help create. For examples:

1.    A POOCH-PARK where apartment-dwelling pets can go to do all sorts of doggy things,
       unleashed; and a doggy-walk service.

2.    A SKATE-BOARD RUN that is free of pedestrians and traffic.

3.    ADOPT-A-PARK to over-see to curb bullying of small children. To act as protectors for
       birds, frogs, and other wildlife.

4.    ESCORT SERVICE to take small children safely to school and back.

5.    DE-LITTER A LOT for baseball, soccer, outdoor rink in winter. Create your own play
       field.