Tomorrow Today

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Literature through the lens of sustainability

Teaching and learning literature is usually informed by the subject

specifics (elements such as theme, setting, style etc.) as well as by

the subject’s core purpose (pleasure, beauty, development of the

imagination, the experiencing of the other’s world, and the develop-

ment of one’s identity). Incorporating a sustainability perspective

and focus, we find that the way we read the text changes. The text

‘opens up’ and is enlarged when read with a ‘sustainability lens’.

Implementation of ESD in the literature classroom serves to:

• Teach texts, paying attention to the specific demands of the

subject, for example, its elements (themes, characters, setting,

plot and style)

• Employ theories relevant to the study of the text, for example,

eco-criticism, which is the study of the relationship between

literature and the physical environment

• Have at the core of the teaching the knowledge/awareness of the

sustainability concept, issues, principles and actions

• Uncover the interconnections of social/cultural, economic and

environmental aspects, enabling students to read their world

with a different lens and encouraging them to take action to

change what destroys their world.

There are changes in how the text is read and how the subject is

taught. The result is a deepened classroom experience, one that

extends to the wider world and helps students engage at various

levels with their world. The knowledge, skills, values, perspectives

and action

related to the study of the literature are grounded in an

understanding of what it means to act in ways that will make for a

sustainable world.

There are, of course, tensions between balancing the specificities of

the text and the ‘sustainability’ aspects (between keeping the text bound

by the classroom and situating it in the wider environment

where it truly resides).

The basic principles for infusing ESD into literature

hold true for language: establish an ESD context, explore

sustainability issues and themes in material used for

language classes, focus on a specific theme, relate the

theme to students’ real-world experience and take some

action to address the particular issue.

A number of language education theories such as whole

language, the learning experience approach and commu-

nicative language teaching emphasize the importance

of attending to the functionality of language. Keeping

in mind, therefore, that language is basically a tool for

communication, we can approach language education as

engaging with real-world tasks, including ‘sustainability

tasks’ – for example, reflection, advocacy, disseminating

information, problem solving and critical thinking.

Teachers of language are usually required to develop

skills in reading, writing, comprehension and grammar

as a means of aiding communication. To do this effec-

tively, they will have to contend with the choice of

material, the types of language tasks and the approach

or teaching methodology.

‘ESD-embedded’ literature can provide the content

– the reading material for teaching language. This

means literature, in the widest sense of the word, that

is ‘sustainability indexed’. Here teachers identify the

environmental, social, cultural and economic realities

represented in the content. They examine the mate-

rial eco-critically, noting the interconnections of the

environmental, social, cultural and economic aspects.

Students are thus provided with material related to or

about the critical issues of our time.

Learning and community

Equally important is the teaching approach. Focusing

on one theme, teachers can engage students in

language learning by using it in a significantly mean-

ingful way. Linking learning with action projects in

the community will help to accomplish this. Imagine

using the story

Limbo Island

(mentioned earlier) to

teach both literature and language. Through exploring

the theme of sustainable tourism or eco-tourism, the

teacher can motivate students to become involved in

research and reports on sustainable tourism, surveys,

interviews and dialogue with tourist interest groups.

Students can learn to write advocacy letters, compile

stories of traditional practices and create photo stories.

Students are now attuned to the functionality of

language and by engaging in project-based learning

interface with their community to improve its quality

of life, they improve their own.

To implement education for sustainable devel-

opment in language arts is to connect deeply with

community; it is to situate oneself and one’s students

beyond the boundaries of the classroom into the wider

community and beyond the boundaries of the present

into the future. To transform one’s world is to trans-

form oneself.

Hurricane Gustav over the Caribbean, 29 August, 2008

Image: NASA