Shawn Alimohammadi graduated from the Stellenbosch University Centre for Sustainability Transitions with his Master’s degree in sustainable development, management and planning. The focus of his thesis was on urban agriculture and how to improve food security in Cape Town. He recently stated convening a module called ‘Sustainability Sciences’ for primary and high school students at a Montessori school called Newberry House.
Shawn says that what drew him to being an educator at Newberry House, having not studied to be a teacher, was the fact that the school emphasises on experiential learning, or, learning by doing.
This is something he stresses as a matter of utmost importance, as for Shawn, knowledge without experience can be dangerous, especially in an ecological sense.
“A lot of the problems we have today are created by people who get paid a lot of money, but they don’t have any experience with nature. They lack understanding of nature.” Therefore, teaching sustainability at a grassroots level is something that Shawn is passionate about.
Shawn says that people have become eco-illiterate. He provided some insight into the origin of the word ‘ecology’, which comes from the Greek word meaning ‘home’. He says that just as we have our residential homes, we also have our planetary home, however, political-economic decisions frequently lack consideration of what the word fully encompasses.
Shawn also feels strongly about an urgent need for the education system to be updated in order to usher in a green future and sustainable revolution.
There are sustainable transitions happening all around us, in the energy sector, in agriculture, in waste management and Shawn believes that the education system also needs to evolve. Schools should equip our future leaders with the intellectual, emotional and creative capacity to deal with sustainable development.
It’s a welcomed advancement to have subjects including Agricultural Sciences become apart of the South African schools’ curriculum. However, there is still room for so much more. Think about the possibilities that renewable energy, marine biology, and food security, for example, could present for future eco warriors.
Also read: These are the 19 new subjects that will be implemented in South African schools
Shawn is experimenting with different ideas surrounding sustainable transitions at Newberry House, including a major focus on farming and growing your own food. “We need a lot of creativity and unconventional solutions because we are living in an unconventional time where the same solutions can’t be applied because they simply don’t work.”
Shawn sees our relationship with food as a way to reconnect with nature, as food is the oldest connection to nature that we have with the planet as human beings. The students at Newberry House have successfully designed, built and operate a greenhouse on the school premises.
Shawn’s syllabus also encourages social entrepreneurship, and the students have formed a fresh produce business, providing parents and local community members with permaculture reared and seasonal vegetables. Some students have also started a woodwork studio to promote a recycling and repairing mentality.
But for Shawn, sustainability does not start and end in the veggie garden. There are many different interpretations of what sustainability means and he suggests that the word itself is vague. Shawn believes that sustainability is not just about the environment and ecosystems, but that central to it, is a social dimension. He prefers the word ‘regeneration’ as he believes there is not much about the current social-ecological state of things that we should endeavour to sustain. We really need to give back more to one another and to the planet.
The United Nations broadly views sustainability as meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future, but for Shawn, sustainability is about making sure that everyone is equal first. He suggests that every single human, no matter their age, gender, race or demographic has a role to play in maintaining the sacred circle of life. Everyone should be involved.
“It’s all about thinking about the future we want to live in”, says Shawn. A future which involves a symbiotic relationship between ecology and sociology.
With all the exciting technological developments going on in transport, construction, waste management and renewable energy, Shawn suggests an environmentally just transition is possible, but asks whether we want to live in a green world that is still plagued by social inequalities. He envisions a peaceful society that is socially cohesive and ecologically regenerative: “I think it’s possible to do both, and that’s what sustainable transitions mean for me.”
Shawn also works as a project development officer for a company based in the Netherlands called the Energy Endeavour Foundation. This initiative is in charge of perpetuating the Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE). The SDE has been dubbed the Olympics of sustainable building and is an international university event that challenges postgraduate student teams to design, build and operate resource-responsible houses using the latest technologies.
Recently, he has channelled his energy into a South African-based company called Reflective Learning. Their extremely innovative programme addresses the challenges of learning backlogs, particularly focusing on improving Maths and Science outcomes. The enterprise currently serves over 200 schools and 70 000 students across the country. Shawn is excited about the prospects of making quality education more accessible and is exploring the possibilities of introducing a sustainability syllabus.
Shawn has been amazed by the creativity and imagination that has come from his students, whose minds have not yet been dulled by ‘business as usual’.
It’s exciting to know that our future thinkers and revolutionaries are in good hands, and we hope that more schools around the country will take note of what is possible. The future is peaceful. The future is regenerative!
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Pictures: Shawn Alimohammadi
