Much of what Sustainability Frontiers advocates can be described as whole-person/whole planet education. By this we mean learning that addresses at one and the same time personal, cognitive, socio-emotional, aesthetic and numinous dimensions of learning. It is learning that restores nature connection and intimacy to the point of deep entanglement with the natural world.
It confronts values and opens windows through role-play, drama and other forms of interactive, dialogic, imaginal and embodied learning. It is learning that explores personal through global futures and builds mindfulness of how present decisions and actions – and often their lack – shape the future. It confronts despair and anguish at the worsening global condition and critically looks at what realistic hope means when we are confronted with a dystopian future. What can we change and how do we engage with the process of change, personally and in tandem with others? We hold that realistic hope for the future is tied to engaging learners in action-oriented learning out in the community and in the local biome in which learners participate in restorative and change initiatives alongside adult members of the community, honing their skills and dispositions for change agency and change advocacy. Sustainability Frontiers thus places emphasis on sustainability learning that takes place across three overlapping zones and that, on a regular basis, spills out of the classroom into the wider school and community context
Sustainability Frontiers brings such a varied and multi-dimensional pedagogy to all its projects, consultancies and other initiatives, and is fully committed to fostering innovative and participative learning approaches that address complex and controversial issues in affirmative, engaging and enabling ways. Such learning diversity, we believe, has deep transformative potential. Also informing our approach is an appreciation of the pedagogical implications of the Convention of the Rights of the Child with its emphasis on children’s participatory rights (giving children a voice in all matters that concern them) and development rights (calling for the cultivation of the richly diverse potentials within each child).
Projects/Consultancies
Key Publications
- David Selby, Fumiyo Kagawa & Rowan Oberman. (2020). Along the Cays and Bays: Climate Change Learning in a Small Island Developing State, Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, 30, 31-56.
- David Selby & Fumiyo Kagawa. (2018). Teetering on the Brink: Subversive and Restorative Learning in Times of Climate Turmoil and Disaster, Journal of Transformative Education, 16 (4), 302-322.
- David Selby. (2017). Education for Sustainable Development, Nature and Vernacular Learning, Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, vol. 7 (1), 9-27.
- David Selby & Fumiyo Kagawa. (2014). Disaster Risk Reduction Education Toolkit. CDEMA. St. Michael
