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Ecological Sustainability
Planning
Grid Questions
Overview
Ecological sustainability
is one of the three core groups of values that underpin the SOSE Statement.
It involves recognition of the value of the natural environment and
biological diversity and their conservation. These values contribute
to students' understanding of how ecologically sustainable development
can be achieved, how damage caused by past and present generations can
be redressed and how the inheritance of future generations can be safeguarded.
Sustainable development has
been defined in many ways. The World Commission on Environment and Development
defined it as development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Sustainable development involves
trying to resolve the problems of the interaction of people with each
other and with the natural environment in
a modern, highly productive, market-oriented society.
Understanding the interaction
of global natural systems and the interdependence of all living things
is critical to dealing with the concept
of ecologically sustainable development.
Ecological sustainability
also involves nurturing a respect for the land,
a realisation that we must live with nature and within the capabilities
of
the land which supports us. These values underpin programs such
as Landcare which promote deliberate strategies designed to heal past
damage and support ecologically sustainable practices.
The Ecological Sustainability
organiser incorporates the values of democratic process and social justice
as well as ecological sustainability and the global, gender and technology
perspectives, and allows for the educational needs of all students to
be met.
Studies involving this organiser
might use questions from the SOSE Planning Grid such as "How do people
care for places?" "How do we safeguard the inheritance of future generations?"
as a focus. These questions can serve as starting points for students
to inquire about how ecological sustainability can be achieved and how
damage caused by
past and present generations is redressed.
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The Ecological
Sustainability Organiser as depicted
on the SOSE Planning Grid
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Strand
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Ecological
Sustainability
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Time,
Continuity and Change
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Key ideas to be developed
- ways of organising
and recording time
- patterns of change
- evolution and revolution
- heritage
- the nature of change
- predicted and unpredicted
- intended and
unintended
- cause and effect
continuity, change and discontinuity
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- What global, national
and local concerns have emerged as
social and political issues in
this century?
- In what ways has
the use of technology changed over time?
- What are the underlying
tensions between heritage and development, and how have communities
worked on solutions?
- What has Australia
contributed to global understanding of ecological sustainability?
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Place
and Space
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Key ideas to be developed
- spatial patterns
- reason for location
and distribution
- interaction between
features or components of places
- valuing places
- interdependence
within
and between natural
and built spaces
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- Why do people value
natural and built environments?
- How can we safeguard
the inheritance of future generations?
- How does what people
value affect their decisions about places?
- How do people care
for places?
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| Culture |
Key ideas to be developed
- construction of
personal and group identity
- diversity within
and
between cultures
- nature and purpose
of cohesion
- development and
consequences of belief
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- In what ways do
different groups within a culture value natural and built environments?
- In what ways do
other cultures deal with sustainable land use?
- What are the issues
in transferring sustainable technologies from one culture to
another?
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| Resources |
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Key
ideas to be developed
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- In what ways do
we balance economic and environmental considerations in making
decisions about resource use?
- What characterises
economic development that is materially desirable as opposed
to that which is ethically desirable and socially worthwhile?
- What skills and
attitudes will workers need to have in an ecologically sustainable
industry?
- In what ways can
enterprise and innovation contribute to an ecologically sustainable
future?
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Systems
- Natural, Legal, Political
and Economic
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Key ideas to be developed
- human community
systems
- decision-making
and conflict resolution systems
- interrelationships
and integration of all systems
- power and authority
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- In what ways are
elements of natural systems interlinked?
- In what ways have
groups and individuals promoted ecological sustainability through
the political system?
- What are the global
universalities in promoting the value of ecological sustainability
in political systems?
- How do individuals
make
choices about issues relating
to ecologically sustainable development?
- How do governments
make
these choices?
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