Creating Pedagogy to Integrate Sustainability and the Arts (original) (raw)

A Conversation on the Possibilities for Arts and Sustainability Education

Education, Arts and Sustainability

How to open a book? We have spent much time thinking and rethinking about how we might begin a book that blends the ideas, passions, critiques, and voices of four authors from diverse backgrounds and scholarly traditions, as well as those of the many more educators and young people who have engaged in the creative projects we document here. It has been a daunting, enjoyable, and at times confronting process to stay open to wild thinking and sometimes uncomfortable critique. Central to our collective effort was a commitment to a spirit of inquiry and dialogue-a spirit made all the more necessary when, in the closing stages of the manuscript's preparation, there was an arresting change in the dynamic of the world's political leadership; a change with as yet unknown impacts that reach to the very heart of this text. The twenty-first century has been characterised by rapid change and everincreasing global uncertainty. The trauma associated with human migration of such a large scale, the shifts in our understandings of what it means to be human in a more-than-human world, and the rise of economic systems that seek to divide and conquer cultural and social distinctiveness and respect for difference, unsettles many of us committed to the principles of sustainability. So to open a book-as a writer or a reader at this time-especially a book that intentionally invites an engagement with processes of change towards sustainable futures, has become an intensified task. One-size-fits-all recipes or narratives with grandiose claims of change are neither attractive nor useful to those of us grappling with the educational complexities of meeting the individual and collective needs of learners and communities in such a context. Yet the grand narratives of economic progress, individualism, and dissociation from our planet's fragile future are what dominate. We face heightened challenges with the world's new political environment, yet as authors we remain hopeful about the transformational possibilities of integrating arts and sustainability pedagogies for initiating change that matters. We are cautious of promoting this integration as a panacea for troubled times, but here we describe

Making the case for "Arts for Sustainability": A study of educators views of Education for Sustainability

2013

The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) is entering its closing stages and still the field of Education for Sustainability has not achieved the paradigm-shift required to progress beyond its present stasis in the realm of environmental education. In seeking to conceptualise new ways of effecting transformative EfS, this qualitative research explores teachers’ perspectives of sustainability education and their perceptions of connections between arts education and Education for Sustainability. A study of teachers’ perspectives was undertaken involving semi-structured interviews conducted with a purposive sample of five teachers following their participation in two EfS professional learning (PL) events during 2012. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s (2002) model of teacher professional growth provided the framework for analysing the teachers’ reports of change in their personal domain (knowledge and values) and their domain of practice resulting from their participation...

Arts-based education for an enchanting, embodied and transdisciplinary sustainability

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal: Vol. 2 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. , 2017

The article argues that much of the prevailing thinking on the theme of sustainability is situated in the narrative of disenchantment, which has its roots in the enlightenment ideal of freeing ourselves from nature. As an alternative, the proposes an enchanting narrative which would be embodied, transdisciplinary and acknowledges complexity. In the new storyline of enchanting sustainability the exploring of a new connectivity and intimacy with the more-than-human world would be central. We would be encouraged to listen to multiple voices creating polyphony, acknowledging the existence of more than one truth, and be invited to work in spaces of imagination and experimentation. Ultimately, the article moves beyond the two ideal-types sketched, and makes a forceful plea for hybridization. The challenge, he argues, is to work with what Nicolescu calls transdisciplinary hermeneutics, as a way of knowing across various levels of reality. Transdisciplinary hermeneutics is like artful doing, a dialogue with the reality we work with, allowing for new forms and insights to emerge during the process. We are part of the process, but we do not control it entirely, thus allowing the process to go in unforeseen and unplanned directions. This really stimulates intrigue, surprise and wonder and therefore: enchants. Arts-based education holds a new meaning in at least two different ways. It plays a role as a sluice, preparing people for the new way of looking at sustainability. It is also a key component of creating sustainability, which in itself could be conceived of as an incomplete and abstract work of art.

Education, Arts and Sustainability: Emerging Practice for a Changing World, by Mary Ann Hunter, Arnold Aprill, Allen Hill Sherridan Emery

The Canadian Review of Art Education

Book Response: Education, Arts and Sustainability: Emerging Practice for a Changing World, by Mary Ann Hunter, Arnold Aprill, Allen Hill & Sherridan Emery. Springer Singapore, Springer, 2018, 120 pp., ISBN: 9811077096 Keywords: Australia; Arts; Critical Thinking; Education; Partnership; Sustainability. Réaction à un ouvrage : Education, Arts and Sustainability: Emerging Practice for a Changing World, par Mary Ann Hunter, Arnold Aprill, Allen Hill et Sherridan Emery. Springer Singapore, Springer, 2018, 120 pp., ISBN: 9811077096 Mots-clés : Australie, arts, raisonnement critique, éducation, partenariat, pérennité.

Toward a Theory of the Arts and Sustainability

Journal of Management for Global Sustainability, 2017

To make real progress on what can only be classified as environmental emergencies, we need a wide base of public consensus for action given that public motivation and involvement is a prerequisite for policymakers to implement what our scientists urge us to do. In this light, crucial thresholds of public motivation and involvement can be created by reaching into the hearts of individuals, an area of competitive advantage for the arts. Efforts to enhance understanding in this arena, however, must incorporate sufficient complexity given highly complex and interrelated challenges in sustainability. This article thus presents a theoretical framework for the arts and sustainability based on the variables of artistic complexity and public engagement. The arts, when allowed sufficient scope and freedom, can assist society in marshalling and galvanizing people across the globe to take essential steps toward a sustainable planet.

Education for sustainable development in art, science, technology, and the environment: Is there a methodological proposal for school and higher education

Sustainable Social Development, 2024

This article aims to examine the relationship between art, science, technology, and the environment to transform the vitality of developing methodological strategies through education for sustainable development. The main goal is to generate a greater importance of a new demand through the selective didactic proposal in different educational systems, both for school education and for higher education. The new methodological foundations for rethinking and reviewing the knowledge of educational research through documentary study and sustainability in the general educational system. This model of sustainable development in education-schooling and higher education-involves actions and activities based on the concept of sustainable development. There is a new search for different modalities and educational subjects for sustainable development. The new methodological orientation in both educational systems makes it possible to create teaching tools that address sustainability, tolerance, and self-care responsibility towards the future of climate change.

Artistic actions for sustainability : potential of art in education for sustainability

2017

This thesis is created with a support from my main supervisors, Timo Jokela a dean of art and art education from University of Lapland and Allyson Macdonald from University of Iceland. Timo introduced me to the arts in the Arctic and invited me to join networks connected to art education. Allyson started this journey with me and through the process she has developed into a friend and colleague. Through Allyson I found a place where scholars from different fields of sustainability work collectively. I want to thank all of those who supported me through the process of organising and researching different artistic actions for sustainability both in teacher education at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, and through art exhibitions. Laura Colucci-Gray and Glen Coutts joined my doctoral committee during the final study year and I was privileged to benefit from their expertise. Their critique, guidance and encouragement was very valuable and helped me to finish this process. Inga Jónsdóttir the museum director at Arnes Art Museum deserves a special tribute for her foresight in deciding that the concept of sustainability would be appropriate for the museum. Her trust when asking me to curate the exhibition Challenge in the museum was crucial in the process of developing my action efficacy. Feedback from examiners was useful, and I would like to thank Rita Irwin and Jeppe Laessøe for their well considered comments. This research would not have been possible without the student teachers at Iceland Academy of the Arts for without them I would not have done this research. In diverse ways they have participated in this study and have shaped me as both teacher and researcher. To all those students who attended my classes for the past eight years, you have touched me forever and I am expecting great things from you in the field of art education. I also thank the audiences of the various conference and seminar papers that I gave during the research process, as the feedback was very important. I would also like to thank my colleagues and my critical friends for their contributions. Their interpersonal skills including dialogue, listening and feedback were crucial for me. I would specially like to thank Ellen Gunnarsdóttir and Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir, who have always been willing to give me their time, energy, and expertise, and I am richer for it. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my husband, Harald Aspelund who encouraged me, supported me and put up with me through the long process of writing this review.

Realising potentials for arts-based sustainability science

Sustainability Science

In recent years, a profusion of methods, practices, and experiences has emerged in the interface between arts and sustainability science. Drawing from two strong currents within sustainability science, namely, the emphasis on transdisciplinary approaches and the need to move towards societal transformations, such hybrid approaches seemingly contribute with unique methods to sustainability research. Despite repeated claims from sustainability scientists about art’s role in sustainability transformations, joint analyses with artists and practitioners are still rare. We conveyed a collaborative and exploratory workshop with scientists, artists, and practitioners from the fields of education, public engagement, and activism to identify the potentials for arts-based sustainability research. Participants were invited to facilitate and trial various artistic practices from disciplines of performative, literary, narrative, audio-visual and plastic arts. In this paper, we present five key ar...

Towards ecological sustainability: observations on the role of the arts

S a P I En S Surveys and Perspectives Integrating Environment and Society, 2014

This paper describes how the arts shape environmental behaviour of individuals and society and is a synthesis arising from a program of previous publication. The literature suggests that the arts may have a role in shaping environmental behaviour but it is not clear how or in what circumstances this might occur. Hence we set out to describe ways in which the arts shape environmental behaviour at the individual level and, through the accumulated actions of individuals, at the societal level. Through this examination we aim to explain the role of the arts in moving society towards ecological sustainability. Our research drew on interviews with 96 key informants working in the arts and in the natural resource management sectors, combined with a mix of empirical, experimental and post hoc studies of eight community-based art and environment events. On the basis of this research, a model was developed to describe how the arts can shape environmental behaviour. Three pathways are proposed: communicating information in an engaging form; creating empathy towards the natural environment; and embedding the arts in ecologically sustainable development.