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Education for sustainable development: The case of traditional life skills among the Nama people, Namibia. Jørgen Klein
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- Examining chosen attitudes of consumers during the 4th year of the decade for sustainable development in poland
- THE CONSUMER ABILITIES AND THE THEMES OF CONSUMER EDUCATION - 2009
Education for sustainable development: The case of traditional life skills among the Nama people, Namibia. Jørgen KleinHedmark University College Abstract: According to UNESCO indigenous knowledge systems represent an invaluable and irreplaceable resource and a critical component of sustainable development. Yet, despite their important contribution to the world cultural diversity and to the sustainable development of our planet, many of them live on the fringes of society and are deprived of basic human rights. This presentation considers a development project in Southern Namibia that seeks to include the traditional life skills of the indigenous Nama people in the formal school system. In the Traditional Life Skills Project (TLSP) parents and grandparents are teaching children some of the life skills and knowledge of the Nama people in the schools during the afternoons. Building on local resources the project aims at creating opportunities for rural people facing the challenges of limited employment opportunities, pressure from urbanization and a growing gap between generations. It is the aim that communities through the project will find pride in their own background and thereby keep the culture alive. In addition to this the project seeks to promote a creative and an entrepreneurial attitude among the learners and equip them with practical knowledge and skills as well as serving as a bridge between the formal school system and the community. The presentation will critically review the project and point at achievements and challenges the project is facing in order for it to become sustainable in the future. Examining chosen attitudes of consumers during the 4th year of the decade for sustainable development in polandJoanna Kostecka and Barbara MazurJoanna Kostecka, University of Rzeszow, Faculty of Biology and Agriculture, The Chair of Natural Theories of Agriculture and Environmental Education, 35-601 Rzeszów, ul. Cwiklinskiej 2 e-mail: jkosteck @univ.rzeszow. pl Barbara Mazur, University of Finance and Management, Faculty of Management, the Chair of International Management, ul. Ciepła 40, 15-472 Białystok e-mail: bmazur@pb.edu.pl
In 2007, differences in understanding of Sustainable Development by different social groups in order to build bridges for educational activities were recognized1. In 2008, the research problem was connected with evaluation of the presence of the decade of education for sustainable development in awareness of agriculture and economy students in Poland 2. This year, in the context of the Sixth CCN Conference: ‘Making a difference: putting consumer citizenship into action’ examining of chosen attitudes of consumers was undertaken. The questions the respondents were asked are, among others: Do you buy only those products that you really need? Do you find yourself influenced by advertisements and promotions too lightly? Do you thoroughly analyse the label of a product (the country of origin, the contents, the manufacturer)? Do you choose local stores and producers to save petrol and support local economy? Do you avoid purchasing goods from countries known for violent breaking of civil rights? Do you seek goods with Fair Trade stamps to fight slavery and exploitation in impoverished countries? Do you buy animal-tested products? Do you buy fresh, unprocessed, ecological food products? Do you choose ecological detergents to save the environment and allow environment-friendly manufacturers to prosper and invest further in clean and healthy production technologies? Do you buy products with no wrapping or with ecological wrapping? When purchasing audio-video or computer equipment, do you demant the seller to take your old one for recycling? The picture received is a ground for diagnosing the situation of Polish consumers in the fourth year of the Decade for Sustainable Development. Kostecka J., Mazur B., Recognizing differences in understanding of Sustainable Development by different social groups in order to build bridges for educational activities, The fourth CCN international conference: Building bridges. Stakeholder involvement & Transdisciplinary cooperation. 10-11 May 2007 Sofia University, Bulgaria Kostecka J., Mazur B., Evaluation of the presence of the decade of education for sustainable development in awareness of agriculture and economy students in Poland. The fifth CCN international conference: Assessing information as consumer citizens, 5-6 May 2008, Tallinn University, Estonia Key words: questionnaire studies, Poland, sustainable consumption THE CONSUMER ABILITIES AND THE THEMES OF CONSUMER EDUCATION - 2009Eija Kuoppa-aho, Malin Lindquist SkogarEija Kuoppa-aho Consult Nordic-Estonian working group eijakuoppaaho@gmail.com Malin Lindquist Skogar Swedish Consumer Agency Box 48 651 02 Karlstad malin.lindquistskogar@konsumentverket.se NORDIC CONSUMER EDUCATION CO-OPERATION The Nordic consumer government agencies and organisations have collaborated on educational issues since the 1960s. In year 2000 the Nordic Council of Ministers (Consumer Sector) published the policy document “Consumer Education in the Nordic Countries. Proposal of objectives for and content of consumer education in the compulsory school and at upper secondary school level in the Nordic countries “. The updated policy document has been funded by Norway and Finland, with expert input from Estonia, Sweden, and Denmark. Themes and objectives for consumer education are changed as follows:
THE PURPOSE OF THE POLICY DOCUMENT For consumer organizations and agencies, the purpose of the documents is to contribute to clarify the substance of the cooperation with international, national and local school authorities. The guidelines can also act as a tool for teaching and consumer authority co-operation, as well as clarifying and presenting the status of consumer education in school teaching. The document can be used e.g. to prepare teaching curricula, carry out teacher basic and continuous training and develop teaching materials. This renewed version has been especially designed to assist those preparing teaching curricula, so that the core of the wide scope of consumer education is described as clearly as possible. The aim is to make the entire process clearer to grasp and to present how well consumer education contents should be included in an open teaching curriculum. At the same time, modern and activating learning methods can be described. Further more, the classification of consumer education contents can be used to carry out analyses, e.g. when comparing teaching in different countries or analyzing the implementation of consumer information teaching and the amount of consumer education in textbooks. The goals and content can also be used for material planning, in turn allowing for the main messages to be clearly defined for teaching materials or presentations. Consumer education is a part of the educational system. Its purpose is to provide everyone with the opportunity to obtain the basic skills needed to understand and cope with the market and to give guidance in how to maintain a sustainable lifestyle to protect privacy and foster critical thinking. Consumer education is based on values that are generally accepted in society. Local education sheds more light on the values that form the foundation of the education. Consumer abilities are crucial for an individual who operates in the realm of the market and public services. Everyday skills such as economic skills and media literacy can be seen as areas encompassed by the concept of consumer competence. In the core of consumer competence are the empowerment of the individual and his/her role as an active citizen who can cope with various consumer environments and situations. In part, consumer abilities are seen as an area of civic skills in our information- and technology-oriented society. Consumer abilities represent the individual's understanding of consumer rights and obligations, legislation, private economies, commercialism, and the workings of a home management as well as the role all of these things have in society and each individual's personal life. Persons with good consumer abilities possess sufficient attitudes, knowledge and skills in key areas and can apply them in practice to cope with most situations. Everyday life is the frame of reference that learners know best. To make consumer education relevant to learners, teaching methods needs to be based on learner’s personal experiences and everyday phenomena. Consumer education encompasses attitudes, knowledge and skills connected to functioning in today’s society. It is responsibility learning which contributes to the individual’s ability to manage his own life, home and participation as well as contributing to the management of the global society’s collective life. METHODOLOGY AND EVERYDAY LIFE Qualitative study focused on young consumers’ ways of consuming in three different worlds: those of the home, school and peer groups (Phelan et al. 1993). 
The Phelan model Young people find themselves in a centre of expectations concerning consumer norms, values and beliefs from their local environment. Within the common surrounding of a larger socioeconomic community, where e.g. media plays an important part, family, peers and school sometimes have different expectations of how to act as a consumer. It is from the interrelationship of these three worlds, youths both build their own meanings and understandings of how to behave as a consumer, and develop strategies to use when moving from one context to another. From the pedagogical point of view it is important to renew consumer education to be based on needs of the young consumers and special features of their consuming. Content of consumer education should have better correspondence with everyday demands. It means development of curriculum and syllabus. In developing methods of consumer education learner needs and internal/non external motivations is in focus. It is needed aims and objectives which guides from teaching bits and pieces to understanding structures and conceptual relations. Education should enhance positive motivation, foresight, systems thinking and product life-cycle consciousness. And the conception of learning should be collective in which learning is in focus. In practice educational methods should be inspired by these conflicts of the young consumer’s everyday life. Conversation, drama, storyline, roleplay, art-pedagogy, media-pedagogy and simulation are important. Project work includes the possibility of dealing with learner-initiated issues. Practical, concrete tasks help the learners to understand the significance of consumer education. They need to be involved in the design and evaluation of activities. Further education and up-to-date information must be made easily available to the learners. More open learning environments, integrative projects and better integration between different subjects may also help to link theoretical knowledge with real life experiences. Consumer education means taking the consumer point of view into account as a dimension in all the taught contents and subject matters, as well as the school practices. The themes of consumer education are included in the teaching curriculum goals and contents, but they are distributed inside several different subjects such as Ethics, Home Economics, Languages, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, Arts and Crafts, Natural Sciences, Psychology, Mathematics, Technology, and Media Sciences depending of education system. 
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTED ACTIONS Nordic-Estonian working group suggests that nationally there could be set targets according to the consumer education plan. In the plan presents actions on how to coordinate consumer education in the management, teaching and maintenance activities of educational establishments in supporting material for the educational institutions teacher training courses supporting the construction of consumer education programs 
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