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Chapters from the paperback
- Introduction
- Ecocriticism
- Optimisation
- Grounded Economic Awareness
- Advertising Awareness
- Transition Skills
- Commons Thinking
- Effortless Action
- Permaculture Design
- Community Gardening
- Ecological Intelligence
- Systems Thinking
- Gaia Awareness
- Futures Thinking
- Values Reflection and the Earth Charter
- Social Conscience
- New Media Literacy
- Cultural Literacy
- Carbon Capability
- Greening Business
- Materials Awareness
- Appropriate Technology and Appropriate Design
- Technology Appraisal
- Complexity, Systems Thinking and Practice
- Coping with Complexity
- Emotional Wellbeing
- Finding Meaning Without Consuming
- Being in the World
- Beauty as a Way of Knowing
- Citizen Engagement
- Re-Educating the Person
- Institutional Transformation
- A Learning Society
- Additional chapters
- Interviews
Home » The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy » Chapters from the paperback » Values Reflection and the Earth Charter
Values Reflection and the Earth Charter
Values Reflection and the Earth Charter: the ability to critique the values of an unsustainable society and consider alternatives. Jeffrey Newman, Director: Earth Charter UK
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Educators are now teaching learners whose prospects seem to be darkening year on year. Presently jobs are scarce, the economic outlook is poor and the timescale for recovery uncertain. In the background looms the shadow of an environmental crisis that threatens to degrade or even destroy the life-supporting and life-enhancing systems of the Earth. This calls for a response at a deep level of values, a rethinking and reorganization of what is valuable, important, and worth sustaining in an uncertain future. Educators are, however, faced with a double edge sword. If values are explicitly incorporated in the curriculum they could be accused of imposing ideologies on learners. But if all mention of values is expunged from education then this leaves little choice but for learners to draw their values from the unsustainable society around them, or from the values latent in the ‘hidden curriculum’ of their educational institution.
