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Environmental Educators’ Initiative

Environmental Educators’ Initiative:
Providing hands-on learning approaches for 200 million Chinese schoolchildren

Overview

The Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI) is the 'centerpiece' education project currently being undertaken by the WWF China Program Office. A national teacher training initiative, EEI’s primary goal is to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in all schools across China. As a result of EEI, hands-on, interactive approaches to environmental and sustainable development issues are becoming an integral part of the formal education curriculum for 200 million Chinese schoolchildren.

Over the course of EEI, great strides have been made in terms of influencing national policy; establishing a comprehensive network of specialized Education Centres and pilot schools; curriculum development; and the publication of numerous teaching books and manuals to further ESD understanding in China.

Such achievements have led to environmental educators enhancing their skills and knowledge in promoting ESD in schools. In so doing, Chinese schoolchildren can receive structured and focused ESD classes from trained and experienced teachers. Such an approach is intended to have lasting influences and impacts not only on future ESD programs in China, but also on the future of China’s overall education development.

EEI has only been made possible through the unique collaborative partnership between a governmental body (the Chinese Ministry of Education), an international non-profit organization (WWF), and an international corporation (BP). This is the first time in China three such organizations have worked together on a single project.

EEI Phase I: 1997-2000
Establishing ESD roots in China

EEI began as a teacher-training program for environmental educators. Three of the country’s leading teacher-training universities, along with the largest education publishing company, were brought together to establish future environmental workshops in China. The four institutions were:

Beijing Normal University
Southwest Normal University (Chongqing)
East China Normal University (Shanghai)
People’s Education Press

Together with WWF, representatives from these institutions held workshops for 300 teachers in November 1998 and subsequently published EEI’s first teacher training manual for Education for Sustainable Development (Mar 99)

EEI Phase II: 2000-2004
Expanding EEI’s scope

Phase II of the EEI Project developed and expanded the ESD profession in China. Nine more universities joined the initiative:

South China Normal University
Fujian Normal University
Central China Normal University
Shaanxi Normal University
Northeast Normal University
Hunan Normal University
Northwest Normal University
Tibet University
Nanjing Normal University

To realize the full extent of this new nationwide educational network, the nine universities of Phase II each participated in the training of teacher-advisors from each province. These teacher-advisors, whose jobs include teaching and developing ESD resources with pilot schools, had grown to over 3000 in number across the country by the end of 2003.

EEI’s national policy influence –
the National Environmental Education Guidelines

Another cornerstone of Phase II occurred in November 2003, when the Ministry of Education approved the National Environmental Education Guidelines, a 46-page book explaining ESD integration into the required curriculum of schools across China. This national government policy ensured the effective integration and sustainability of ESD into the national curriculum, affecting 200 million schoolchildren. The Guidelines were jointly developed by curriculum reform experts from the Ministry of Education, representatives from the EEI Education Centres and members of WWF’s Education team. In recognition of the importance of the Guidelines, the Ministry of Education received a “Gift to the Earth” award, WWF’s highest accolade.

Advanced Professional Degrees
Another important facet of EEI Phase II was to provide opportunities for advanced professional development in ESD within China’s educational system. In 2002, Beijing Normal University began to offer an ESD Master’s Degree Program. Eleven students took part in the inaugural program. Shortly after, an ESD certificate course at Shanghai’s East China Normal University (ECNU) was implemented.

EEI Phase III 2005-2007
Institutionalizing EEI: From headmasters’ inbox to classroom teaching

One of Phase III’s objectives is to institutionalise the National Environmental Education Guidelines in Primary and Middle Schools nationwide. A great deal of work still needs to be done to ensure that teachers throughout the country understand how the Guidelines will help them deliver a better teaching experience. Local Education bureaus will play a key role in delivering an action plan and training programme to primary and middle schools. They will be given support from the Education Centres (which have increased in number to 21). EEI is also developing innovative resource materials for the teachers, such as an interactive website providing resource materials and help on lesson planning using ESD.

Achieving long-term sustainability for EEI
After the Guidelines are implemented within the mainstream education system, this last phase of the EEI needs to ensure the project’s sustainability after 2007. To achieve this, ESD will be implemented into the training of China’s future educators, particularly within the “Education Theory” course, a compulsory element for all of China’s student teachers. Separate ESD courses, minor ESD programmes and small grant projects will also be developed.

Another important element for EEI sustainability will be the establishment of a Chinese NGO: Education for a Sustainable China (ESC). This organisation will act in the future as a conduit for ESD theory development in China, linking research undertaken by the Education Centres with national and local level government policy work. It will also serve as a portal for the exchange of ESD ideas between China and the rest of the world.

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