Environmental Education and Inclusion

By Laura Sims and Marie-Élaine Desmarais

It might seem daunting to integrate environmental and sustainability education (ESE) approaches into one’s teaching practice, particularly in contexts that include learners with a broad range of diverse needs. This article focusses on exploring the idea of inclusive place-based environmental education. The purpose is to develop educators’ abilities to plan inclusive experiences while using experiential, environmental, and community-based approaches to facilitate learning. What follows is an exploration of practical considerations that both formal and non-formal educators can take into account during the planning process to overcome potential challenges.

When planning for all learners within the context of an ESE approach, there is a need to think creatively through your options when faced with different situations. In what follows, we explore some of the situations that have presented themselves as we have attempted to put into practice a community-focussed pedagogy. We do not pretend this to be an exhaustive exploration of ideas, but we hope the proposed ideas will be helpful to you in overcoming the challenges you face.

Ensuring well-being: Being mindful of our basic human needs and planning accordingly help to ensure participants’ well-being. For example, when planning an outing, identify where bathrooms are located and have time allotted for students to access them. Make sure students are made aware of this information to avoid any potential stress or embarrassment. In preparation for an activity, discuss with students how they might best prepare (e.g., using appropriate clothing, sunscreen, hats, ski pants, etc.) according to climatic conditions and cultural context. Depending on the length of the activity, schedule in potential rest spots. For those who might feel hungry or experience low blood-sugar levels and for the sake of being mindful of potential food-related intolerances, bring along a few snacks and water to stay hydrated.

Communication: To facilitate communication, consider using a microphone and visual communication aids (e.g., a pointing stick, a digital tablet) to accommodate climatic conditions like windy weather, specific students’ needs like potential hearing impairments, or your own needs, such as avoiding voice strain. These could make it easier for everyone to hear, especially in open spaces with larger groups. Visual communication aids could clarify and enrich the focus of the discussion. As well, having a portable foot stool to stand on when explaining concepts could make more visible the person who is communicating. This is particularly important if using sign language or with learners who read lips.

In multilingual settings,¹ integrating community into your teaching can be challenging because many speakers and organisations use the language of the majority at their events. Bridges can be built among the languages, and communication can be facilitated by providing an overview of key messages prior to an event/speaker (if possible). Similarly, try to ensure that the main ideas from a speaker/event are summarised at the end in the target language. Moreover, online translation tools like Microsoft translator, Grammarly, or DeepL might also prove helpful.

Safe physical passage and movement during community-based activities: To accommodate safe physical passage and participation during community-based activities, educators should be mindful of obstacles caused by climatic conditions, like snow not having been adequately cleared. Similarly, one needs to check for human-made obstacles like traffic, stairs, or varied terrain. Be mindful as well of the specific needs and abilities of students. When doing these kinds of activities, we try to ensure that everyone can walk safely no matter the climatic conditions. Although it is not always possible prior to an outing, try to ensure that paths have been adequately cleared of snow. Indeed, intentionally integrating the concept of building relationships and taking care of one another are helpful when ensuring the safe participation of all. If additional supports are required, consider using human resources to support alternative transportation to target sites, like having a shuttle in place to drive those who might need assistance getting to a site. If needed, technological supports like video conferencing (e.g., Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp) could support virtual participation.

Providing multiple means of representation outside a conventional classroom: The use of technology like a digital tablet (e.g., iPad) or laptop could help provide multiple means of representation while outside a conventional classroom. Notes on what was discussed could be sent to students after the activity to make sure that everyone had the information needed. Providing multiple means of representation places emphasis on both the learning material and its delivery, aiding learners in identifying patterns and cues, thereby enhancing their comprehension.

Laura Sims and Marie-Élaine Desmarais teach in the faculty of education at the Université de Saint-Boniface, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Laura’s research specializes in education-for-sustainability and learning in formal (i.e., faculties of education) and non-formal learning contexts (i.e., small-scale farmers in Latin America). Marie-Élaine’s research focusses on the inclusion of all students guided by the universal design for learning. 

This is an augmented portion of an article previously published in the International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability (Sims & Desmarais, 2020, pp. 11–12).

End Notes

¹ For example, as identified in Sims (2019) when working in a French minority context.

References

Sims, L. (2019). Inspirée face aux défis: l’expérience d’une professeure non autochtone en lien à l’intégration des perspectives autochtones dans la formation des enseignants en contexte minoritaire francophone manitobain. Cahiers franco-canadiens de l’ouest, 31(1), 89–108.

Sims, L., & Desmarais, M.-É. (2020). Planning to overcome perceived barriers: Environmental and sustainability education, inclusion, and accessibility. International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability, 3(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJHES.2020.108611 (p. 11-12)