By Galina Vakhromova, with contributions from Ian Shanahan

The concept of sustainability is complex and layered. While it is typically associated with environmental responsibility, there is so much more to unpack. For we environmental educators, it behooves us to occasionally step back and examine one of our work’s foundational concepts to ensure that we are embracing education for sustainability as comprehensively as possible. In this article, we examine how art and culture can be entry points into sustainability education before introducing a lesson outline for language learners that could be easily adapted by educators in various settings who teach young teens (those in ~Grades 9/10).

Sustainability and culture intersect

Scholars and practitioners alike have long been examining the various ways that art and culture inform and intersect with sustainable mindsets and practices. Here are but a select few examples.

Scholar David Brocchi suggests that to transform a person’s worldview, both education and different media — namely literature and other forms of art — are necessary.1 French scholars Bettina Laville and Jacques Leenhardt write about the potential of art to transform our relationships with the environment and to create aesthetic experiences.5 One of the most well-known German artists in the 1970s and 1980s — Joseph Beuys, who coined the term “social sculpture” — has inspired many artists to take part in the process of social and ecological change. Suzi Gablik argues that it is not enough for educators and artists to express an idea — they must create experiences.4

These concepts are also being explored on a practical level. For instance, the Austria Kindermuseum installations are comprised of discarded items like coins and buttons. As part of the Wochenklausur recycling system for waste materials, children can lay water pipes; send water in circles; or learn how to bend, shape, and engrave different metals, thereby learning how seemingly valueless objects can become valuable in new ways.

Using art and culture as a prism through which to explore education for sustainability opens up many exciting possibilities across age groups and subject areas. What follows stems from my experience teaching English-language learners in Grade 9–10 settings, but much, if not all, of this is adaptable in other educational contexts.

Lesson overview

This lesson combines the ‘artful knowing’ and the ‘artful doing.’3 In it, students use historical information about the roots of sustainability in Europe through learning about prominent Romantic-Era poet Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg, well-known in Germany and worldwide as ‘Novalis.’ He is often referred to as a “star” of German Romantic poetry, as he had a huge cultural impact there and elsewhere. Novalis’s innovative philosophical ideas remain relevant today.

Part 1: Engagement

Students are introduced to Schubert’s song “Hymns to the Night,”7 which combines Novalis’s poetry with music. This serves as a memorable introduction to Novalis’s words and ideas.

Part 2: Text analysis

Students read quotations from Novalis’s book Heinrich von Ofterdingen.6

Prepare word cards with definitions of the following words and phrases from the texts:

  • The exclusive possession
  • An evil poison
  • To possess wealth lust
  • Tranquillity
  • To ruin-ruinously
  • Wild passions
  • To cave
  • To bury somebody
  • Proclivity to belong to somebody
  • Dazzling glamour
  • Origin and habitat
  • Strongholds of the earth
  • Strive after
  • Deluding
  • Deceitful arts
  • Hand out the cards to the students, who work in groups and exchange their cards with fellow students.

Next, give to each group one of following paragraphs to read:

Passage 1

Nature desires not to be exclusive possession of a single individual. As property, nature changes into an evil poison which arrives away tranquility and makes those who possess wealth lust ruinously after power over all things, entailing a train of endless cares and wild passions thus nature secretly undermines the ground of the possessor, causing it soon to cave and bury him, so that she may pass from hand to hand and thus gradually satisfy her proclivity to belong to everyone. (“Heinrich von Ofterdingen”)

Passage 2

The minor is born poor and he dies poor. He is content to know where the metal powers are found (…) but their dazzling glamour has no power over his pure heart. (…) he takes more delight in their peculiar structures and their strange origin and habitat, that in their possession which promises so much. They have no charm for him and more once they are turned into commercial articles, and he had rather look for them within the strongholds of the earth (…) than to follow their call into the world and to strive after them up on the surface by means of deluding, deceitful arts. (“Heinrich von Ofterdingen”)

Within their groups, students take turns reading aloud, one sentence each. Encourage your learners to assist each other with pronunciation and meaning, as needed.

Lead a discussion where students share their thoughts on embedded concepts, like a non-exploitive approach of nature, mining as a noble art, and the wisdom miners have gleaned from nature.

Part 3: Biography writing

Instruct your students to research background information about Novalis in preparation for writing a biography of the German poet, philosopher, and mining engineer. Using biography as a research method helps learners understand how the person in question’s ideas were shaped, establishing a foundation for further discussion.

Part 4: Discussion

Lead a discussion about Novalis, using these questions as prompts:

Where did he study?

How did his education influence his work?

Which three directions did Novalis take after his training at the Mining Academy?

What did Novalis write about “Nachhaltigkeit” (German for “sustainability”)?

What do you know about the roots of sustainability and forest management in Germany?

Which poetry of Novalis do you know?

How did Novalis express in his novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen his connection with nature?

How did he embed his environmental concerns into his literary work?

Part 5: Reflection

Students write an essay to demonstrate their knowledge of the poet and reflect on their experience during the lesson.

Final thoughts

Over the course of this lesson, students demonstrate their ability to find new information, engage emotionally with Novalis’s work and ideas, and reflect on how it all relates to their own lives. A lesson such as this can serve as a tool for creative inquiry, and might even encourage new practices of living responsibly and in relationship with nature.

Galina Vakhromova is an internationally trained teacher of German Literature, German, and English. She is a BCATML and LSF/ESD member who has written for the German-Canadian newspaper “Das Journal” for more than 10 years.
Ian Shanahan is a passionate naturalist and environmental educator. He just completed a five-year term as Green’s Teacher’s General Editor.

Endnotes

Additional References

Brocchi, D. (2008). Die Umweltkrise-eine Krise der Kultur. In Altner, G. Jahrbuch der

Oekologie. Muenchen: C.H. Beck.

Brocchi, D. (2008). The Cultural Dimensions of Sustainability. In Sacha Kagan and Volker

Kirchberg, Eds., Sustainability: a New Frontier for the Arts and Cultures. Waldkirchen: VAS Verlag fuer akademische Schriften, 2008.

Dieleman, H. (2007). The Competencies of Artful Doing and Artful Knowing in Higher

Education for Sustainability.The Second Conference on Higher Education for Sustainable

Development.

Gablik, S. (1991). The Reenchantment of Art. London. Thames and Hudson.

Laville, B.& Leenhardt, J. (1996) Vilette-Amazone: Manifeste pour l’ Environment au XXI

Siecle. Arles: Actes Sud.

Novalis. (1990). Heinrich von Ofterdingen. Trans. Palmer Hilty (pp.69–70). Long Grove.

Novalis. (1998). Hymns to the Night. Trans. Dick Higgins. New York: McPherson&

Company, Print.