Green School New Zealand is a private-international school that sits picturesquely at the foot of Maunga Taranaki in Ōakura, New Zealand. Education for sustainability, environmental stewardship and Global Citizenship Education are cornerstones of the Green School education.
In this photovoice project with Year 1-4 learners, aged 5-9 years old, we talked about caring for our environment in our everyday lives. Learners used iPads at school, and their family members’ mobile devices, to capture their everyday actions and imaginations that represented their environmental care and stewardship. Using pseudonyms that they chose for themselves, they selected one photograph from the many they took, captioned it and along with a short description, they uploaded it to this site privately. I reviewed the photo submissions for appropriateness, and organised a debrief session with the learners where we talked about values, emotions, motivations, imaginations and actions around environmental care and stewardship. We discussed global citizenship issues on how our everyday actions can affect not only us but others near and far, and also our precious earth and beyond. It emerged that many of the learners’ imaginations were inspired and influenced by the school’s curriculum, their parents and their peers. We concluded with a commitment to everyday actions to care for and protect our environment, and also to be a positive influence and role-model to others.
This project was facilitated by Whaea Kelly Ridgway (teacher of the Children of the Earth) and Matua Nick Rowe (teacher of the Guardians of the Earth, Co-Head of Primary School & Sustainability and Global Citizenship Lead) at Green School New Zealand.
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imaginations 