Four Support Systems and the Ideas ofWiden School
Masahisa Sato*
The discussion was focused on the how to support formal education for the development of environmentaleducation. Discussion was conducted based on the series of presentation and the discussion of/among resource
persons who attended to the International Symposium on Environmental Education. At the summary session,some approaches and principles are pointed out for the effective development of environmental education,and then support systems were categorized into four. Finally, ideas of “widen school and learning community”
were shared among the participants as a result of the series of discussion.

1. Lessons learnt from the session.
Participants pointed out that somelearning approaches and principles
are needed when doing environmental
education in formal education. The
followings are the list of approaches
and principles discussed among theparticipants.

Enquiry Based
Based on Participation and PracticeCommunity Based
Be Collaborative
Respect for Heterophily as well as Homophily (Culture & Practices)
Think Globally, Act Locally
Be Holistic and about Connections
Involve Everyone
Integration
Learn from Community
Sense of Wonder & Exploration
Socially / Ecologically RelevantLife-LongPartnership and Network* LEAD Japan Program, Academic Coordinator, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, JAPAN－100 －Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

Reorienting Education for Sustainability

2. Four Support Systems
Based on the some learning approaches
and principles as pointed out by theparticipants, four support systems areraised by the chair of summary session.
They are; (1) resources and opportunities
support system; (2) support system forimplementation; (3) support system forcapacity development; and (4) social
support system. The chair pointed outthat 4 support systems are strongly linkedtogether.

2-1. Resource and Opportunities Support System“Resources and Opportunities Support System” includes (1) access to communities; (2) access to eventsand projects; (3) access to information; (4) access to regional and global communities; (5) access to naturalareas; and (6) daily access to nature area and agricultural areas. Particularly, daily access to natural area/
agricultural field and local communities are important for students to realize the local resources and values.

2-2. Support for Implementation“Support for implementation” implies that it is important to develop contents for environmental educationwith three aspects; (1) education in/ from/ trough the Environment which uses students’ experiences in theenvironment as a medium for education; (2) education about the environment, which emphasis knowledge
about natural and social systems and processes; and (3) education for the environment, which has an overt
agenda of values education and social change.

2.3. Support for Capacity Development“Support for Capacity Development” includes not only individual capacity development i.e. teacher
training, but also institutional capacity development. Setting school policy and rules, developing curriculum,
making decision on the educational policy, managing resources, are needed for the effective development ofenvironmental education at the school level. Inter-institutional capacity development is also important for theconduction of environmental education, such as joint implementation of environmental education, and joint
research on environmental education, which can be done in cooperation with the other schools or the otherstakeholders.

2.4 Social Support System
It is pointed out that “Social Support System” is also important for community development and the－101 －conduction of environmental education at the local level. This system enables community and school to bevery much involved, they are; (1) shared vision, slogan and norm; (2) shared opportunities and resources; (3)funding support system; (4) shared power and decision making, and open communication structure; (5) setting
rules, mandates, action plan, agenda at the local level; and (6) managing resources and opportunities.

3. Widen School and Learning Community
Lastly, the idea “widen school and learning community” is raised by the participants. By linking withlocal resources (human resources, natural resources, financial resources, cultural resources), school itself isgoing to be widen as a center of community. For the further development of communication between school
and community, Rogers (1995) suggested that “Change Agents” should provide a communication link between
a resource system of some kind and a client system. Also, he mentioned that the communication relationshipbetween the agent and client is important and that a good deal of two-way information exchange should takeplace. It may be expected that the function of the Change Agent has a role in making a bridge between school
education and local communities. NGOs, professional educational organizations, school teachers may have arole to play in this process.

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