How can Schools Help Healthy Cities

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How can Schools Help Healthy Cities?

• Experience from Denmark
• about
• the Development of Students
• Action Competence

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Presented by

• Soren Breiting
• Research Program for Environmental and Health
  Education
• Danish University of Education
• Copenhagen

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Danish students are encouraged

• To be participants
• To be involved
• To be responsible
• To let their voice be heard
• To know about the issue
• To be critical
• To make a difference

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When are we participating ?

• When we see a movie we are participating but on
  a very low level, with no influence
• If you are a chef manager, you are also
  participating, but on a very high level , because
  you have a lot of influence
• The higher level of participation, the higher
  level of ownership will you generate to the aims
  and changes

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Health promotion and Health Education

• has a lot to do with
• Investing in short term concern and efforts
• to gain
• Long-term benefits

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We have two options

• To build on campaigns, persuation and
  incentives/punishment
• Or
• To help develop childrens and youngsters
• action competence

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Comparing the health effect of campaigns etc.
with building the action competence
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Concerning learning development for Thai students

• What is the most important thing to change in
  Thai basic education?
• Students need to be developed in order that they
  would no longer study in through rote memory and
  perform tasks given by adults without knowing the
  reasons.
• (Q5. Samme Konkaen, Male, age 40, Teacher, 14
  years experiences in this position, function as a
  resource teacher / secondary school local
  supervisor)

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Comparing the health effect of campaigns etc.
with building the action competence
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How can we support health promotion?

• Top-down approaches ?

• Bottom-up approaches ?

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We need a third way

• Top-down frames

• For bottom-up participation with real influence

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We can all learn from each other!
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Learn to think- Many Thais told me We have
never learned to think for ourselves!
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Students own investigations based on own ideas

• Investigating health hazards in the home and
  reporting back at school
• Engagement to the issue
• Ownership

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Research results from MUVIN-DK

• Students real actions related to real health
  problems they have identified themselves are of
  immense importance
• They develop a higher level of interest in health
  problems
• They develop more belief in own influence

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A healthy city is a very complex issue to work
with
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Big difference between the homes
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Students and young peoplecant solve all problems

• But if we only deal with individual problems
  related to health we miss the most important
  perspectives
• The students need to get experience with
  influencing some real problems they have
  identified
• And to try to solve problems together

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• Sustainable development is essential about
• That actions and activities are influencing our
  future and
• How other people's living conditions are now and
  in the future
• But we have alternatives and choices
• daily and political

Different futures
Now
The Past
Which future do we want ?
Sustainable development needs democratic
participation So does Education for Sustainable
Development
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Class work Investigating the use of a local
natural resource
Preparation in class Focus on a natural
resource e.g. WATER prep for group work
Outdoor in the community
1. Groups interview older people in the
community about how the resource was used in
older days and their feelings
2. Interview active people in the community
about the same resource How is it used
today? Which problems are there etc.
3. Ask all for their expectations for the
future related to this resource What do people
expect to happened? What would they LIKE to see
happen?
Back in class
Back in class Groups elaborate on their
findings Summarizing their interviews
Groups elaborate on their own observations Summa
rizing their own impressions
Each student group prepares 4 big drawings /
Posters
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Back in class Drawing the community concerning
the selected resource through time
Future 1 We fear
Pictures showing
Which future?
The use of this resource in the community in old
days
The use and problems with the resource today
Development
Before
Now
Future 2 We expect
Development
Development
Development
Future 3 We hope (and might act for)
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Advantages with this approach. 1

• We are not telling students what to think, but
  how to dig into problems related to development
  and use of resources
• We help students to see the complexity of
  development issues
• We help build students
• ACTION COMPETENCE

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Advantages with this approach. 2

• The students will get a lot of personal
  experienced information from the people (old and
  younger) they meet supporting their episodic
  memory
• They will be able to link short-term and
  long-term effects of change (essential dealing
  with sustainable development)
• The results from their investigation is
  visualized in such a way to make it easy for
  linking the concrete content to conceptual
  development

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Advantages with this approach. 3

• It generates plenty of possibilities for being in
  interaction with local people of different
  background and with different interests related
  to the natural resource in focus.
• It is a good background for learning to be
  influential related to own ideas
• - supporting their action competence

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School ? Local community ? School

• Students and teachers cooperate with the local
  community
• The school is a ressource for the local community
• The local community is a ressource for the
  teaching in the school
• Respecting each other

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Results from EE development in Hungary

• When students work without being behaviour
  modified they become
• More optimistic
• More concerned about their own possibilities
• More participatory
• From Breiting Csobod

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Quality Criteria for ESD schools

• Inspiration for schools that want to take
  sustainable development seriously
• Helping to avoid serious mistakes forgetting real
  participation
• Making a focus on ESD as a way to develop the
  whole school

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Useful websites

• ActionCompetence.com
• EducationForSustainableDevelopment.com
• EnvironmentalEducation.net
• Search quality criteria for ESD schools