THe SUSTAINABILITY map

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is a conceptual tool for  understanding sustainability in relation to any issues, product or topic. 

The Environmental Imagination Map is called the 'Sustainability Map' because it provides an easy framework to apply the dimensions of sustainability into any discipline or topic. I like to call it The Environmental Imagination Map because everything outside the inner circle is beyond our experience, and can be best imagined to be understood. 
​This Map is a conceptual framework that came out of years working with schools and my research that lead to my PhD.
It is simply two lines and a circle. The simplicity  is useful to demystify the complexities of environmental knowledge.
The Map is a useful framework for working with sustainability concepts and identifying the sustainability dimensions of any issue, product or topic.

sustainability is relevant to all learning

The Environmental Imagination Map is a simple diagram that can demystify the complexities of sustainability issues. The map is the only student-centered framework we have in Environmental Education.

The Environmental Imagination Map is a thinking tool and also a teaching and learning tool designed for classroom use in any topic. Using the map make it clear how sustainability is relevant to everything, as a dimension of everything.

CENTRE:
My self and my experience is centre. Everything I see, hear, taste and feel is here and now.


PAST: The past is conceptualised as behind me. It tells the story of where things came from.

MACRO: The bigger picture is above me like the sky, these are global perspectives, other people and other places.

MICRO: These are the little pictures; the invisible worlds of nutrition, bacteria, energy and molecules. This might also be underground.

Students use this map to self-asses what they know and what they don't know, or, what is blurry or undefined, by marking their 'worldview' around the centre: how far into the past and future can you imagine about this topic? What perspectives do I have? What would I like to know? What is missing and where are the gaps in my knowing?

The Environmental Imagination map orients learning as a relationship between ourselves and the world. The student is in the centre, not the topic. The transparent sphere represents our worldview. The goal of learning therefore is the expansion of worldview, not the acquisition of knowledge. Mapping this sphere along the horizontal axis of time and the vertical axis of space can map an object, a unit of work, an experience or learning. Using the EI Map engages students in their own thinking in order to enhance reflection, set learning goals and identify gaps in knowledge.

FUTURE: The future begins immediately after my nowness; it is the reality of consequences, and the impact of choices and actions. It is a scale from tomorrow to infinity and can locate the temporal dimensions of biodegradability, energy, waste etc.

Teachers use this map to orient the topic and locate the concepts in relation to self and each other.

The map is used as a curriculum concept and planning tool to integrate sustainability across disciplines.