Global Issues: Citizenship and Sustainability, Grade 12

Unit 1: Ecological Sustainability

Enduring Understandings and Take-Action pairs on ecological sustainability: the ecological footprint (EU/TA-01), the consequences of our decisions and actions (EU/TA-02), unsustainable consumerism (EU/TA-05), and the human and environmental cost of economic and technological development (EU/TA-06).

• The ecological footprint
• Living more responsibly

• Decisions and their consequences
• Acting for a sustainable, just future

• Why consumerism is unsustainable
• Ethical consumption choices

• Development, benefits, and harms
• Assessing sustainability of development

Unit 2: Media, Power, and Political Systems

Enduring Understandings and Take-Action pairs on media, power, and political systems: the power and responsibility to effect change (EU/TA-03), the non-neutral influence of media (EU/TA-04), and how political systems distribute power, privilege, and wealth (EU/TA-08).

• Power and responsibility to effect change
• Being an ethical decision-maker

• Media are not neutral
• Critically questioning media

• How systems distribute power
• Vigilant democratic citizenship

Unit 3: Human Dignity and Indigenous Knowledge

Enduring Understandings and Take-Action pairs on human dignity and Indigenous knowledge: Indigenous knowledge and world views as alternatives to prevailing assumptions (EU/TA-07), universal and inalienable human rights (EU/TA-09), and human interdependence and solidarity within the natural world (EU/TA-10).

• Indigenous knowledge as an alternative
• Exploring Indigenous perspectives

• A just society and human rights
• Committing to universal human rights

• One interdependent human family
• Building community and solidarity