Is Well-being Key to Designing Sustainable Schools?

Andrea S. Wheeler, B.A. (Hons.), Dip. Arch. M.Phil., PhD, RCUK/ESRC Early Careers Interdisciplinary Fellow

The University of Nottingham, School of the Built Environment/ School of Education, The Dearing Building, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham. NG8 1BB, email: [email protected]

Abstract

This research is part of an interdisciplinary post doctoral project:

How Can We Design Schools As Better Learning Spaces and To Encourage Sustainable Behaviour? Co-Design Methodologies and Sustainable Communities

. The aim is to explore how new school building programmes can provide better learning environments and encourage sustainable behaviour. This research examines how issues of well-being and sustainability are understood, both within policy and amongst young people from some of the most disadvantaged communities in Nottingham. It focuses on young people's attitudes to sustainable lifestyles explored through interview, carried out with groups of young people, all 16-19 years old in Further Education and living in the North Nottingham parliamentary constituency. The interviews were conducted to investigate poor participation rates in further education within this community. At the same time, however, young people were asked how they understood sustainable communities, the Building Schools for the Future programme, new Academies and the importance of sustainable schools. In this way, some of the most immediate needs of young people from these communities could be identified and their understanding of the importance of more long term thinking explored. 1

1. Introduction

In the SDRN Report

Well Being Concepts and Challenges,

Fiona McAllister describes well-being as life satisfaction that cannot be explained or fully influenced by economic growth. In this literature review, she proposes that to understand the relationship between sustainable development and well-being we need to examine how to negotiate between well-being now and well-being later, this she also argues as a problem of intergenerational conflict. Secondly, she suggests that there are trade-offs to be made between the well-being needs of the individual and the social, described as between individualism and relative deprivation. There is a third conflict, one of finding a balance between human, economic and ecological well-being [1]. This final conflict is complicated by a tension between the media driven call for consensus and the many different current versions of the climate change story influencing young people, as demonstrated in reports such as

Warm Words: How are we telling the climate story and can we tell it better?

[2]

This research is part of a RCUK/ ESRC Early Career Interdisciplinary Fellowship Grant. How Can We Design Schools As Better Learning Spaces and To Encourage Sustainable Behaviour? Co-Design Methodologies and Sustainable Communities.

The DfES publication

Design of Sustainable Schools

, cites Alan Johnson: “Schools are here to give children the knowledge and skills they need to become active members of society. Many children are rightly worried about climate change, global poverty and the impact of our lifestyles. Schools can demonstrate ways of living that are models of good practice for children and their communities. They can build sustainable development into the learning experience of every child” [3]. The DfES publication,

Schools for the Future: Design of Sustainable Schools

, gives examples of how the fabric of a building and its embedded technologies can be used in teaching. Notely Green Primary School is cited for its use of recycled materials and viewing panels that allow pupils to see the recycled newspaper insulation used in the building. In Kingsmead Primary School a Perspex drainpipe running through the centre of the school demonstrates rainwater recovery. St. Francis of Assisi Academy, Liverpool (see Figures 1-6), also has a monitoring system to demonstrate both water and solar energy collection and reuse, devises that are argued as providing real-time data for mathematics and other subjects. However, teaching young people about building technology and energy efficiency, does not teach them all the skills they will need to respond to the environmental and social challenges of a rapidly changing world. Each school will have its own set of problems to address, in addition to policy objectives. Just as the social and environmental aspects of sustainable development are not separate issues; neither are improved learning and sustainability, the aims of current schools building programmes, those to be addressed independently and attached at a later date. Each school will require a unique context-based solution to both the learning environment and the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainable development, as the Department for Children, Schools and Families (formally the DfES) publication, already cited, states: “Sustainability in schools is highly context-dependent: what works for one school with a particular set of requirements and constraints may not be so successful elsewhere”[4]. So are there more important, more immediate issues for the young people of North Nottingham, for example? Are the problems of sustainable development, as understood by young people through media and teaching, in conflict with their needs, and the needs of their communities?

3. Results

The responses of young people from the communities of North Nottingham constituency suggested that they did understand the need for concern and they had been taught about these issues in geography lessons. Recycling they thought would be something they would in general get used to, although it was time consuming and a little confusing at present. The need for energy efficiency in terms of insulation and double glazing was an idea they had been exposed to, and generally thought, without dispute, a good one. They were unsure however, whether some of the other technologies worked well in the UK, for example solar panels. Responding to the problem of global warming in the context of school building they thought important for the future and for their own children, however this was with some reservation as it was not as important as schools providing good education and good teachers. Moreover, the idea that teaching children to care more about their environments would lead to better places to live with less antisocial behaviour would only work, in their opinion, if parents and families were also involved with this sort of idea and if it were consistent. New schools and new designs would not be enough.

2 3 4

2. Methods

Interviews, in focus group settings, where carried out with young people, all 16-19 years old in Further Education and living in the North Nottingham parliamentary constituency. This constituency has high levels of both economic and educational deprivation [5]. All interviewed were attending further education on courses that ranged from AS and A levels, to vocational Childcare and Construction courses. These interviews were conducted to investigate poor participation rates in further education of young people within this community. At the same time, however, young people were asked how they understood sustainable communities, the Building Schools for the Future programme the new Academies and the importance of sustainable schools. In this way some of the most immediate needs of young people from these communities could be identified and their understanding of the importance of long term thinking explored. Questions asked of the young people included, amongst others: What do you think about recycling, why do you think it is, or is not important? Do you think it will become more important in the future, so it's just what people do or think about naturally? What do you know and think about energy efficient buildings, or buildings that have their own technologies in them to provide their own electricity (wind turbines, heat pumps, solar voltaic cells)? Do you think we will have more and more of them in the future? Do you think people should learn to care more about those sorts of things? Do you think in the future that people will care more? Do you think that training courses will teach more, or should teach you more, about these technologies in building? Or teach other people to care? What do you think should be made available for young people living in this community for there lives, for getting on, for becoming wealthy or educated or just living well?

All illustrations 1- 6 are of energy efficient and ecological design features of St. Francis of Assisi Academy, Liverpool.

5 6

4. Discussion

By July 2007 over 47 new Academies had been built throughout the country (the Government plans to build 400).With the new Academies and Building Schools for the Future programmes considerable investment is being targeted on schools [6]. In questions in Parliament on 16th July 2007, Jim Knight the School's Minister stated that to date 4 BSF schools have been completed. Of these, 3 are newly built and one refurbished (none procured under PFI arrangements). In addition, he stated, that currently 51 BSF schools are in construction. Of these, 30 are new build projects and 21 are refurbishment projects. Of the 30 new build schools, 23 are being procured as part of PFI schemes. Nevertheless, critics state that it is difficult to assess the fate of the BSF programme as '…no mainstream BSF school is yet open' [7]. They argue that the two schools that have opened in Solihull in June 2006 are Special Schools, and the first school to open under the BSF programme, the Speedwell School, Bristol, will open in September this year. Nevertheless, whilst the drives towards building new schools are in their early stages and difficult to assess, there is time to reflect on whether the scope and aims of the programme are appropriate and whether the current methods being adopted to carry out these aims are suitable. There is time to ask whether the policy objectives of sustainable schools are being rated highly enough and whether enough direction is being offered as to what this means in relation to learning. Participation in design programmes could begin to do this, to could teach young people the social skills and democratic decision making needed to address the global energy crisis, encourage sustainable behaviour and build sustainable communities.

References

[1] SDRN (2005)

Well-being Concepts and Challenges Discussion Paper.

Sustainable Development Research Network. (available for download at http://www.sd.research.org..uk

).

[2] Ereaut, G and Nat Segnit (2006)

Warm Words: How are we telling the climate story and can we tell it better?

The Institute for Public Policy Research, 30-32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA (available for download at www.ippr.org

).

[3] Johnson, Alan (2006) In the “Foreward” to

Schools for the Future: Design of Sustainable Schools

, 2 [4] DfES (2006)

Schools for the Future: Design of Sustainable Schools – Case Studies.

DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Nottingham. NG15 0DJ, 6 (available for download at: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/10675/SustainCS.pdf) [5] Gates, P., Tina Byrom and Andrea Wheeler (2007)

Location of Further Education and Young People's Participation in Nottingham North

. CREDE The School of Education, The University of Nottingham.

[6] DfES (2007)

400 Academies

. DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Nottingham. NG15 0DJ (available for download at www.dfes.gov.uk

) May 2007.

[7] House of Commons, Education and Skills Committee (2007) “Sustainable Schools: Are we building schools for the future?” 9th August 2007, London: Stationary Office Limited, 12