Class Group: General (Semester)

Course Code: BHUM107L

Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIETY

MODULE 2: EDUCATION (PART – 2)
Dr. Sreya Sen
Assistant Professor
School of Social Sciences and Languages
Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT),
Tamil Nadu – 632014
Email: sreya.sen@vit.ac.in

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

Education and Media for Sustainable Societies

• Media can be considered as partners to disseminating education for sustainable development.
• It can address issues that are being discussed on the social, economic and environmental
fronts.
• It does not pretend to know all the answers, but draws on existing experience and
recommends resources for further inquiry and research.
• It encourages the media to engage in public participation and to debate improvements that
can lead to sustainable development.
• Newspapers and magazines are very important source of information to the public, they have
a significant role to play in fulfilling the goals of sustainable development by educating,
informing, sensitizing and conscientizing the public relating to various aspects of
sustainable development.
• Unlike the Newspaper, radio gets through to an illiterate population. Compared to television
or film, radio is relatively cheap and portable, so radio broadcasts can be localized to each
community, thus appealing to local people.

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

• Television plays an important role in sustainable development by providing

forum for discussion of issues, through exchange of knowledge, teach ideas,
skills for a better life and create a base of harmony for stability of the state.
• Computers and internet have become an active tool in the run to development
communication.
• Social media has been taking an increasingly expansive, invasive, and persuasive
role in shaping the individuals’ – and hence – the families’ and society’s behavior,
actions, habits, consumption, and production patterns.
• Though social media tools are in fashion since last decade but the usage of social
media to educate students about environmental sustainability is in nascent stage.
• Social media channels have the ability to become more credible and source of
green marketing because social media channels use electronic word of mouth
communication.
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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

Education for Climate Action*

• UNESCO pointed out that education, especially when focused on children and
young people, is a key factor in helping to curb climate change.
• “Education... encourages changes in young people's attitudes and behaviour and
helps them to adapt to climate change-related trends“.
• Environmental literacy is a key term in this regard. Educating citizens across
different age-groups, especially children, and raising their awareness regarding
the causes and consequences of climate change is a need of the hour.
• UN pointed out that “it is just as important to make progress in areas such as
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and formulating effective government policies
as it is to provide education and training to raise awareness in as wide an audience
as possible”.

*Climate Action is activities to tackle climate change and its impacts, usually by reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

• Considering climate change as a compulsory subject in school and encouraging

related activities will make a difference.
• Attainment of SDG 4 will raise the educational level across the globe and in turn
help in reducing the population growth.
• Furthermore, education will help people to adapt to climate change, because it
improves their ability to assimilate information, calculate risks, prepare for
climate crises and recover from their effects.
• Training in STEM will enable the youth to better understand the physical changes
in their environment and provide them with the tools with which to combat
climate change.
• At the same time, climate change education should be interdisciplinary and
embedded in all subjects within curricula.

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

An Educational Program to Fight Climate Change – World Bank

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Key takeaway from this discussion: Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

• Systems thinking gives students a lens to look at the world in all its complexity, messiness and
uncertainty. For example, when studying energy production from a system’s perspective, then students
would identify things like the system’s actors, dynamics, leverage points, thresholds or feedback loops.
• Anticipatory thinking enables learners to think creatively and critically about the future. How will the
environment be impacted when current consumption trends continue? How would a sustainable world
look like? What are the unintended consequences of sustainability policies?
• Normative competence means students learn to define for themselves how the world ought to be and
what sustainability means to them. To achieve this, students learn about topics including climate justice,
ethics, multi-criteria assessment or inter-generational equity. This enables them to, among others, argue
to what extent products, companies, goals or systems contribute to sustainability or not.
• Strategic competence means sustainability education teaches students how to ‘get things done’. This is
why they need to learn how to, among others: Design sustainability projects, policies, and campaigns;
Navigate the complexities of multi-stakeholder processes; Overcome resistance and deal with criticism;
or continue to reflect on and monitor change processes.
• Interpersonal competence means change only happens through groups, teams or communities that are
mobilized around a common cause. To become sustainability leaders, students need to inspire followers,
negotiate with opponents, build alliances and communicate across cultures. Therefore, they need to learn
about topics like team-work, partnerships, leadership, democracy or participation.
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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

We all have to familiarize ourselves with certain vocabulary:

 Global warming  Biodegradable
 Greenhouse gases  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
 Renewable Energy  Fair Trade
 Blue Economy
 Carbon Footprint
 Microplastics
 Deforestation
 Zero waste
 Recycling  Social Enterprise
 Green Jobs  E-waste
 Green Taxes  Electric Vehicle
 Water Footprint  Biofuel
 Single-use
 Sustainable food
 Green Marketing

Refer: https://sustainable.org.nz/learn/tools-resources/glossary-of-sustainability/ 8