Pillar of EfSD: Envisioning...

Sunrise over Earth

Envisioning is a positive, proactive approach to sustainability and a core theme to reorienting education towards sustainable development (SD) (Tilbury and Ross 2006; & Aries 2009). It is an important tool for improving quality of life and addressing otherwise daunting sustainability issues. Essentially the envisioning process allows people to dream up a better world and share their thoughts with others. Doing these types of activities allows for: Time, Alternatives, Holism, Motivation, & Choice (Tilbury and Wartman 2004; Tilbury and Ross; & Aries 2009).  (see chart below)

What Does Envisioning Enable?

On the other hand, approaching conversation about social & environmental issues from a "doom and gloom" point of view is easy, but can be extremely counterproductive. This method gives a sense of Lack of Time, Unattainable Alternatives, Helpless-ness, Limited Choices, & Stress.

"Hey lady, we gonna die if we don't do something about this gigantic problem, yeah." - Ms.Swan
How might this lady feel now???  Is she more likely to take action or to crawl into a hole and die?

The choice between a positive of negative approach becomes obvious when viewing it from this perspective. 


The Australian Research Institute for Education for Sustainability (ARIES) (ARIES 2009) further reinforces the logical decision by making an insightful and perhaps uncommon observation in saying:
"The future needs to become a more explicit element in all levels of education.  As education for sustainable development is education for a future that we cannot yet predict, it is important that education programs seek to develop skills for understanding and anticipating change and for facing the future with courage and hope."

Irargerich's The End of a Cold Night
(see photostream)

There are many types of envisioning activities that already exist and have been put into practice. Nevertheless, there are endless activity opportunities yet to be discovered. 
Tilbury & Wartman (2004) list some well known ones: 

Futures Trees - allow people to consider in depth possible future impacts of a particular change. The change is drawn as a tree trunk, the impacted groups as the main branches and the linked consequences of that change as successively smaller branches.

A history of the future - challenges learners to imagine themselves living in a more sustainable world 50 years in the future, then to construct a visual history of how this change came to be.

Timelines - with which people construct a personal, community or even national timeline of important past events up to the present, then build alternative scenarios of the future based on probable versus ideal futures.

Futures Thinking - for imagining the future, drawing it or writing about it, and sharing ideas. Then reflecting on differences between your future and others' and possibilities achieve this ideal goal.

A real life example

From Envision NGO

A national education charity, Envision, based in the UK provides 16 - 19 year olds in 130 schools and colleges  with opportunities to make a difference. Their program addresses a range of issues in the local community and facilitates grassroots improvement projects through envisioning activities and other resources. Their website provides very useful information on envisioning such as news, media, resources, and case studies, while also providing pages for educators and businesses to learn more. Hit the jump for many resources on envisioning and empowerment.

The following is a clip from their "About Us" page:
"The Envision program helps young people to design their own local community projects tackling issues ranging from street crime to climate change. Our programs seek to provide individuals with a powerful and rewarding experience of making a difference. Thereby inspired by their experience, these people will be both willing and able to continue acting as effective role models for their communities wherever they are building powerful legacies of their own (Envision 2010)."

The future... is an act of the imagination. 

- Warren Ziegler (Tilbury & Wortman 2004)

___Cite___

ARIES 2009,  Education for Sustainability - the role of education in engaging and equipping people for change, ARIES, Macquarie University,   Australian Government - Department of the Environment, Water,  Heritage, and the Arts, Australia <http://www.aries.mq.edu.au/publications/aries/efs_brochure/pdf/efs_brochure.pdf>

Envision 2010, 'Envision: Young People Making a Difference', Envision, accessed on the 8th of September, 2011, <http://www.envision.org.uk/>
Hopkins, C & McKeown, R. 2000, 'Chapter 2, Education for sustainable development: an international perspective' in Tilbury, D., Fien, J. 2000, Education and  Sustainability: Responding to the global challenge, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, Pg 13-24

Tilbury, D. and Ross, K. 2006, Living Change: Documenting good practice in Education for Sustainability in NSW. Macquarie University, Sydney, and Nature Conservation Council, NSW.

Tilbury, D. and Wortman, D. 2004, Engaging People in Sustainability, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, Gland and Cambridge