As teachers, we recognise that meaningful home-school communication is essential for establishing school practices and instilling positive life values that will guide our learners throughout their lives. Environmental awareness is an area of particular significance when it comes to cultivating life values, and as educators we share the responsibility of educating all of our learners to respect the environment and adopt environmentally-friendly habits for life. This article explores how to successfully introduce the concepts of sustainability and recycling into your teaching and school values.

More about parental involvement

Diverse cultural backgrounds

Coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, multilingual families may not necessarily share the same perspective or level of environmental awareness. However, as environmentally-friendly initiatives require collective effort, inclusion of all families in school-based environmental practices becomes an absolute priority if we wish for these initiatives to be successful.

Ideas for parental engagement

Let’s see how inclusion and EAL family engagement can be promoted and implemented creatively:

1. Provide multilingual, translated recycling and sustainability family guides to ensure understanding and limit the possibility of a language barrier in communication. Supporting these guides with visuals or infographics is also important and can help bridge communication gaps.
2. Organise practical sustainability workshops. During these sessions, teachers, parents, and children can participate in creative projects showcasing recycling practices, such as sorting waste, sharing ideas on how to reduce waste, and how to reuse old objects creatively. You can download an engaging sustainability activity idea for EAL children and their parents by clicking on the download button at the top and bottom of this page.
3. Assign relevant homework and encourage parents to spend time with their children working on visual or bilingual posters (for example, create a poster about recyclable and non-recyclable items using your home language).
4. Create opportunities to share environmental practices across different cultures, including visual prompts (for example, class discussions through visual aids, classroom displays, and inviting families to discuss / report on recycling practices in their country of origin).
5. Encourage students to teach their parents about recycling and sustainable practices, to reinforce learning and promote family engagement.

Summary

By using inclusive approaches and creating multiple opportunities for family engagement, schools can successfully promote recycling and sustainability practices to EAL parents and ensure their participation in environmental initiatives and long-term impact for future generations. Make sure to check out the resource accompanying this article for a great child-parent sustainability activity idea, including preparation and a step-by-step guide, by clicking on the button at the top and bottom of this page.

Author: Martha Giannakaki, EAL Specialist