Singapore is a low-lying tropical city-state with a high population density and limited land area, making it vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise, flooding, and heat stress. As a more developed country in Southeast Asia, Singapore also has a responsibility to its region and to the international community to transform its society – shifting from a culture of consumption and growth to one of sustainability and stewardship. This lecture evaluates the role of education in this transformation by situating it within larger state-sanctioned plans for adapting to and mitigating climate challenges, particularly the Singapore Green Plan and the Eco-Stewardship Porogramme. It assesses the structure and goals of the national curriculum and its recommended pedagogies for meeting these goals and further examines the potential of other developments in the informal education space (including the role of experiential galleries and programmes) to support and address current gaps in the system.
Dr. Tricia Seow is a geography educator and geography education researcher. Her research interests include sustainability and environmental education where she has actively focused on place-based and inquiry-based learning to motivate interest in and care for the environment. She also extends her research expertise to develop experiential and transformational learning programmes with partner organisations to support awareness of sustainability issues and to trigger behavioural change. Dr. Seow currently serves as an Assistant Head of the Humanities and Social Studies Academic Group (HSSE) and is co-chair of the Sustainability Learning Lab at NIE. She is also Programme Leader for HSSE’s Professional Development programmes.