A Practical Guide to Leading Green Schools

Partnering with Nature to Create Vibrant, Flourishing, Sustainable Schools

Cynthia L. Uline, Lisa A. W. Kensler

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000391190
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This practical guide for educational leaders explores how you can transform your school or district into a vibrant center of learning and socio-ecological responsibility with only three manageable actions: taking students outside, bringing nature inside, and cultivating a mindset of awareness, responsibility, and empathy. This book is rich in practical, attainable approaches and stories of real actions taken by leaders, teachers, parents, and community partners to design, lead, and manage a vibrant, flourishing, sustainable learning community. Authors Uline and Kensler take you on an inspirational journey through nine key leadership strategies for you to begin or expand your work towards whole school sustainability.

ACTION
1
Bring Nature Inside

Nature, as we are using it here, is broadly defined as all the biological and physical elements of the world that are not human or created by humans. Humans experience nature either by spending time outside the built environment or by bringing nature into the built environment. Nature is increasingly incorporated into the built environment through expansive windows that flood the interiors with natural light and views of nature and through including living plants, fish tanks, water fountains, etc. into working and learning spaces. As we work to green existing school facilities and apply green principles to the design and construction of new schools, we articulate and advance sustainability goals and purposes. Likewise, when we utilize these sustainable schools as teaching tools, we extend our capacity to model socio-ecologically aware norms and practices. Beyond conserving energy, decreasing stress on natural resources, preserving surrounding habitats, and reducing waste, we improve the ecological literacy of our students, teachers, administrators, and community members.

STRATEGY
1
Lead
Cultivate Living Systems-Minded Leadership

Most of us have grown up experiencing organizational structures and routines designed according to industrial models of operation. Our schooling is no exception. Industrial models have long been applied to schools and school districts, resulting in a mismatch between structure and function. Schools and school districts seek to advance learning (a living system) as a primary aim; at the same time, they treat learning more like a mechanical system (Senge, Cambron-McCabe, Lucas, Smith, & Dutton, 2012). This fundamental contradiction results in undesirable and unacceptable outcomes when it comes to student learning, graduation rates, teacher retention rates, and more. Adults and children may withdraw, disengage, and even leave school altogether, to avoid the dysfunctional structures and routines that, too often, deny them any sense of individual agency (see Kensler & Uline (2017, 2019) for more in depth discussion). As Murphy noted, “Schooling for students is profoundly voluntary. Children have to ‘go to school.’ The decision to ‘do schooling’ is substantially their own” (2015, p. 725).

Mental models, conceptions or images of how the world works, develop throughout our lifetimes. Frequently operating unconsciously, these mental models guide our thoughts, judgments, and behaviors. Shifting one’s mental models, and eventually one’s leadership, from ineffective industrial models to more effective living systems models, requires intentional effort that counters forces and trends toward less connection with nature (Soga & Gaston, 2016). Living systems-minded school leaders uproot unconscious, industrial models of learning and leading and replace them with more vibrant, life-sustaining models. This strategy outlines various steps living systems-minded leaders take as they actually bring nature into their leadership practice as they (1) connect with nature, (2) examine their mental models, and (3) apply lessons from nature to their work.

Connect With Nature

Our use of the term nature aligns with a general definition of nature or the natural world, as that which is not specifically human or built from non-living material by humans. Of course, humans design, build, and manage living landscapes through activities such as gardening, farming, and restoration of degraded ecosystems. We include these natural spaces, influenced by human activity, in our conception of nature. Nature’s ecosystems illustrate an awe-inspiring capacity for vitality, creativity, adaptation, and resilience—all properties we seek to cultivate in our schools. An Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) principal described how she learned this fundamental truth about the natural world when attending a recent conference on green schools.

The presenter reminded us that humans have been on the Earth for such a short period of time. She explained that the Earth really knows, on its own, how to take care of itself. If we listen to what nature does to solve problems, there lies our answer.

If leaders wish to transform schools into more vibrant places of learning, they can learn much by connecting with nature themselves, welcoming nature into their development as healthy humans and leaders. In this section, first, we summarize the benefits enjoyed by individuals who connect with, and spend time in, nature. Next, we note opportunities for learning that emerge from this greater awareness of, and closer relationship with, nature.

Well-Being

School leaders experience significant levels of stress in their work, a trend that appears to be increasing (Wang, Pollock, & Hauseman, 2018). The daily demands of the job necessitate outlets for developing resilience and managing stress (Carpenter, 2020). Nature offers educational leaders a readily available antidote. Researchers report a long list of associated benefits for individuals when they connect with, and spend time in, nature, including many attributes of health and well-being, as well as cognitive ability and pro-environmental behaviors (Capaldi, Passmore, Nisbet, Zelenski, & Dopko, 2015; Keniger, Gaston, Irvine, & Fuller, 2013; Louv, 2008, 2011). Capaldi et al. (2015) noted the mutually reinforcing relationship between spending time in nature, referred to as nature contact, and nature connectedness, “a subjective sense of connection with the natural world” (p. 2). Spending time in nature fuels our connectedness with nature, at the same time a deep connection with nature correlates with spending more time in nature. Research also demonstrates benefits associated with children spending time in and connecting with nature. We will explore these benefits further in Strategies 5 and 6. For now, we remain focused on adults, particularly educational leaders.

Although extended periods of time in wilderness settings offer potential for meaningful personal growth and team building (Superville, 2019), connecting with nature can also happen during brief moments each and every day. Passmore and Holder (2016, p. 543) found that simply “paying increased attention to everyday nature significantly increased individual well-being,” regardless of whether participants reported having a prior sense of connectedness with nature. They further explained that these positive effects did not require spending more time in nature, participants “simply noticed, and attended to, the nature they encountered in their daily routines” (p. 543). Thus, countering stress and cultivating resilience does not have to be a costly endeavor. Educational leaders can simply develop habits of noticing.

As we consider potential strategies to encourage school leaders’ self-care, and minimize their risk of burnout, connecting with nature presents a cost-effective approach, both in terms of time and money. The associated outcomes, from spending even a few minutes immersed in nature, are powerful. Connor Moriarty, founder of Reset Outdoors, presented the THRIVE model in a TEDx talk. He captured the multifaceted outcomes associated with spending time in, and connecting with, nature (Moriarty, 2020). We THRIVE with time spent outdoors and connecting with nature.

• T—Thoughts. Just looking out a window at the landscape or even simply images of nature in one’s office can restore one’s attention and focus. Taking a walk in the park is even better (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008; Stevenson, Schilhab, & Bentsen, 2018).
• H—Health. Time in nature is associated with a broad range of health and well-being benefits (Capaldi et al., 2015; Kuo, 2015)
• R—Resilience. One’s ability to bounce back after physical, emotional, mental challenges is improved with time spent in nature (Capaldi et al., 2015; Ingulli & Lindbloom, 2013)
• I—Interdependence. Interdependence speaks to our social connections, as well as our connection with nature. John Donne’s familiar line, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main”, reminds us of our interdependencies. Research tells us that our perceptions of social cohesion, social interdependence, are positively associated with time spent in nature (Shanahan et al., 2016).
• V—Vitality. Vitality is beyond just being healthy. It is that feeling you have when you’re on top of the world, when you know you can face any challenge in your path. We increase our vigor and vitality with time spent in nature (Hyvonen et al., 2018; Korpela, De Bloom, Sianoja, Pasanen, & Kinnunen, 2017).
• E—Empathy. Empathy, the capacity to feel with others and consider their perspectives, plays a critical role in leadership, organizations, and our local and global communities. In order for society to meet the challenges of climate change, members must develop empathy for nature. Research suggests that spending time in nature, with fellow humans, is associated with increased empathy for them and also for nature (Brown et al., 2019; Zhang, Piff, Iyer, Koleva, & Keltner, 2014).

Learning

Rampant industrialization, with little attention to the needs and properties of living systems, impedes the natural operation of ecological principles and degrades ecosystem functioning. When individuals spend more time in nature, they learn more about these natural systems upon which we all depend. They begin seeing more examples of ecological principles in action. Ecological principles govern healthy living systems and, since human social systems are living systems, these principles apply to the work of leading and managing learning organizations, specifically schools. The ecological principles we described in Leadership for Green Schools (Kensler & Uline, 2017), inspired by Capra (2002) and the Center for Ecoliteracy, are by no means the only principles governing healthy systems, but they are a great starting place for our observation and learning. We have limited space to discuss them here, but have done so in depth previously (Kensler, 2012; Kensler & Uline, 2017). Attentive observation and creative reflection will reveal opportunities for applying these principles to the work of transitioning from industrial models of schooling to living systems models of schooling. We may actually see opportunities for transforming our own beliefs, or mental models, about how schools ought to function.

Living systems are nested systems

Networks, partnerships, and diversity support resilience

Self-organization and creativity emerge from within the system itself

Matter cycles and energy flows through living systems

Feedback sustains dynamic balance

Examine Mental Models

Scharmer (2018) quoted a prominent CEO’s insight about organizational change, “The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener” (p. 7). Our mental models of how the world works, operating on both conscious and unconscious levels, characterize this interior condition. In the case of educational leaders as “interveners”, mental models influence how they lead changes in school structures, how they facilitate their school’s learning culture, how they design and manage their school facilities, and how they collaborate with community partners. Table 1.1 compares common mental models associated with mechanical and living systems approaches of education. One’s individual experiences, learning within schools characterized by mechanical systems, make it likely that they may embrace mental models across both categories. In the absence of careful scrutiny, mental models are unlikely to change. It takes intentional reflection and critical examination to replace mechanical systems mental models with living systems mental models. As beliefs about leading change, learning, facilities, and community evolve, living systems-minded leaders become ready to apply lessons learned from nature.

Table 1.1 Comparis...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Meet the Authors
• Introduction
• Action 1: Bring Nature Inside
• Action 2: Take Students Outside
• Action 3: Care