Leadership for sustainability (LfS) requires a strategic mindset, a commitment to ethical practices, and the ability to inspire others towards long-term positive impact. Here are six quick things to consider.
1. LfS is different from Sustainability Leadership e.g. getting someone to lead a student Eco Council; or Sustainable Leadership i.e. making sure there is a system of succession planning for school leadership posts. These aspects of leadership are important, but they are not what we’re talking about here. 2. LfS is values led and centres upon how a school can be a microcosm of a human world that thrives culturally and economically, whilst not depleting and damaging planetary resources and putting future generations in jeopardy. It’s important that working definitions of sustainability are established with the realisation that it’s not just about the ‘Green Stuff’. It incorporates economic and social life at all levels. Social Justice is of particular importance as is human relationship with the Natural World and how sustainability is expressed through indigenous cultures. 3. LfS needs to promote stakeholder ‘buy-in’ i.e. the belief that sustainability should be at the heart of a school’s Vision and Mission. In practical terms sustainability has to permeate the whole Curriculum (not just elements of Geography and Science), determine how the Campus (school estate) runs along low carbon or even negative carbon lines and adds to biodiversity and how the school involves its immediate and wider Community in its sustainability actions. Realising the connections between these elements is vital. It also helps to have a Local to Global and back again perspective and this in itself can enrich the curriculum. 4. LfS need not fear Ofsted and other narrow measurements associated with external accountability. It can deliver ‘School Improvement’ in these terms in spades, but goes far further in terms of encouraging critical thinking (for students and staff) and cooperation and harmony. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a modus operandi encourages this approach. This counters rampant competition and individualism often associated with poor mental health and low achievement. Use of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be a starting point. 5. LfS employs and deploys Systems Thinking i.e. joined up approaches to challenges schools face (particularly ‘Wicked Problems’). This recognises the importance of basic physical and emotional needs of students and staff which determine their capacity to learn and teach e.g. healthy and hearty school meals, constant access to Nature and making sure that relationships at all levels are nurtured and not solely dependent on transactions exemplified by stringent systems of rewards and sanctions. It avoids ‘Silver Bullet Solutions’ which can be counterproductive and prone to unforeseen consequences. 6. LfS promotes the idea that we are all ‘part of the solution’ to save the planet for humans today and secure it for the distant future. It creates the conditions for a genuine and realistic sense of hope. It builds the capacity for everyone to ‘Be The Change’. It’s not about heroic headline grabbing actions, but it is about acting with integrity and without fear and enabling others to do the same. All school leaders can be part of this. They have the power if they choose to wield it! This isn’t pie in the sky as there are many case studies out there to show that it’s possible.
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An edited version of this blog was commissioned by Independent Thinking and is published here:
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Dr David Dixon and Zaria Greenhill |
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