Going By the Book

By Simone Peinke and Remy Raitt

Resource books produced for schools by Professor Rob O’Donoghue and Helen Fox from the Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit aim to promote sustainable living. The books will address two of the main problems in education: low literacy rates and lack of knowledge.

“We need to re-imagine the way we are living,” said Fox, “Students need to be literate, and they need to learn. The resource books are really directed toward underprivileged schools where most learners are second language English speakers. Environmental education can’t only be about action.”

The resource books will provide teachers with authentic stories for change-orientated learning. These stories will clarify misunderstandings surrounding the environmental sciences. “We need to make knowledge more transparent,” said O’Donoghue, “The public is often left in a confused space due to the complexity and contestation surrounding environmental sciences.”

The national curriculum now requires that all subjects include environmental education. These resource books will aid teachers on how to do this. The material will be pilot tested next year in Grahamstown.