Project goals and the role of schools
Sustainable development has become a topic “everyone” is talking about and something children and youth hear about across different platforms. At the same time, the sustainability concept can often seem too abstract and far away from our everyday lives to fully grasp. Against this backdrop, Hva nå? Endringslaben aims to
- Help children and youth gain a better understanding of how they fit into the larger story about sustainability. This is done by using products and industries that children and youth are familiar with, such as clothes and mobile phones, as a starting point for exploring sustainability.
- Strengthen notions among younger generations that it is possible to contribute to positive change. This is done by highlighting real-world examples of the work being done by projects, businesses and organisations to further sustainability, and showing children and youth how they can be a part of the solutions.
- Inspire long-term attitude and behavioural changes in more sustainable directions, and contribute to making children and youth empowered, equipped, and motivated to shape a more sustainable future for our environment and society. This is done by making students more aware of how decisions we make in our everyday lives impact the world around us, and by strengthening younger generations’ view of themselves as part of the solutions.
Schools are becoming an increasingly important arena for children and youth’s learning about sustainability and climate and environment issues, with these topics being integrated into school curricula in a range of countries. In Norway, sustainable development has been introduced as one of three cross-cutting topics in the national curriculum. Using this as a starting point, Hva nå? Endringslaben aims to add something new to Norwegian schools’ ongoing work on the topic of sustainability, and to give teachers practical tools to help them meet the requirements in the national curriculum for teaching on this topic.
