Presentation and Panel Discussion “Environmental Education: Pedagogy of the Earth” at UN Headquarters in New York

On Thursday February 6, 2014, GFDD and FUNGLODE hosted a presentation and panel discussion on Environmental Education entitled Pedagogy of the Earth at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The event, which was organized by the Propa-Gas Foundation in partnership with GFDD, FUNGLODE and the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations, took place within the framework of the Eighth Meeting of the
Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are running at UN Headquarters from February 3rd to 7th 2014.

Participants included H.E. Juan Avila, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic Mission to the UN, Ms. Yamile
Eusebio, Director of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, Mrs. Rosa Margarita Bonetti de Santana, President of Propa-Gas Foundation, Ms. Claudia Catrain, Director of Propa-Gas Foundation,  and Ms. Vibeke Jensen, Director of UNESCO New York Office, Ambassador Avila opened the panel discussion by welcoming guests and thanking GFDD and
Propa-Gas Foundation for organizing the event. Mr. Avila went on to stress the importance of environmental protection education and commended the Propa-Gas Foundation on their research report.

Ms. Yamile Eusebio,Director of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development then took the floor as the moderator of the Panel Discussion, thanking Ambassador Avila for his opening contribution.

Ms. Eusebio stressed the importance for GFDD and FUNGLODE of
linking the issue of environmental protection with education, explaining that several initiative of the foundations were centered around environmental education, be it GFDD’s Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival , its Recrearte  program or its EcoHuertos program. She explained that GFDD and FUNGLODE supports the
diffusion of this important project so the Dominican Society and the international community could take advantage of this investigation.

Ms. Eusebio then introduced the next speaker of the session, Mrs. Rosa Margarita Bonetti de Santana, President of Propagas Foundation.

Mrs. Santana provided the audiences with an overview of the work of the Propa-Gas Foundation founded in 2007, explaining
that the foundation implements a variety of environmental  education programs, such as Recycled City, Healthy Readers, Young
Scientists and the Natural Literature Competition. Mrs. Santana then handed the microphone to Ms. Catrain Director of Propa-Gas Foundation, who presented the foundation’s research report on environmental education entitled Pedagogy of the Earth.

Ms. Catrain emphasized that environmental education begins at primary school. For this reason, and in an effort to promote solidarity amongst education (natural sciences), schools and communities Ms. Catrain explained that Propa-Gas Founation in collaboration with the Center for Reflection, Gathering, and Solidarity: One Respe decided to carry out the research Pedagogy on the Earth research. She explained that the study reaffirms the relevance of the use of textbooks as privileged object to be considered in the study of school culture and the school curriculum and that it analyses the implications textbooks may have on the formation of environmental awareness among the students of the first cycle of elementary education. She explained that the report considered whether school contributes to forming a deep, liberating, critical ecological awareness among its students, which in turn could promote harmony and respect for life.  Explaining that the use of textbooks is a big part of school
culture and that Propa-Gas  Foundation sees the concept of environmental education in textbooks as forming part of a deep ecological understanding and solidarity of all forms of life, Ms. Catrain stressed that the voice of community must be heard and then expressed in the educational process through textbooks. Unfortunately, she noted that textbooks do not examine environmental issues rather that they decontextualize them, and place students outside the environmental field. She stressed that there therefore should be a connection between natural and social sciences.  Ms. Catrain concluded that the key to doing this would be by establishing a bond between children and nature through their textbooks and therefore giving priority to nature in textbooks.

Ms. Vibeke Jensen, Director of UNESCO New York Office, was the final speaker to take the floor, and provided information on UNESCO’s latest initiatives in the field of environmental education. She stated that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is the priority on the UN agenda. She explained that after the 1992Earth Summit in Rio  it was noted that the environment should be a powerful motto in Sustainable Development. She noted that sustainable development (SD) required a change of values, lifestyles, policies and systems, and therefore everyone must participate to effect that change. Highlighting that SD highlighted an interdependence of social, economic and political issues in SD at both global and local level, ESD is therefore about values, their preservation for the benefit of the next generation and the environment. Ms. Jensen stressed that “UNESCO considers teachers and educators as key agents of change”. Ms. Jensen noted that UNESCO works to include ESD in all educational systems; cooperating with civil society to communicate the key messages of ESD with a larger community. Stressing that “ESD is good as long as teachers are good”, Ms. Jensen explained that there are today 72 million teachers worldwide today. Highlighting that an additional 1.6 million primary school teachers are needed to be trained about SD, to meet the 2015 Millenium Development Goal on education she commented that this represented a huge task (particularly so as she estimated that 60 countries would not make this goal by 2015and 30 countries would not event make it by 2030). Ms. Jensen concluded that the post 2015 development agenda “need broad educational goals” that need to be cross cutting across a variety of sectors, with this in mind UNESCO’s a Global Action Programme on ESD will be presented  and launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD  on 10-12 November 2014 in
Japan.

Ms. Eusebio concluded the session by thanking participants for their contributions and by thanking guests for attending the event.

About Propa-Gas Foundation
Founded in 2007 with the aim of educating the public, and in particular children and young people, through tools that serve both educators and parents in an effort to conserve nature. http://www.fundpropagas.com.