TORONTO, March 15, 2001 -- Charles Hopkins, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair at York University, will assess the progress and the challenges inherent in reshaping teacher education around the world according to environmental sustainable development principles during a lecture at York University, Monday, March 19, 12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.

"Education, public awareness and training can play important roles in moving humanity towards a more sustainable future," says Hopkins. "It is interesting to point out that while world leaders and ministers of portfolios such as environment, natural resources, and health look to education as a solution, the education field as a sector does not recognize this responsibility."

As UNESCO Chair, Hopkins is responsible for developing an international network of teacher preparation institutions collaboratively working on the reorientation of teacher education to address sustainable development. He is also a senior advisor to UNESCO's transdisciplinary project, Educating for a Sustainable Future, and the chair of the Education for Sustainable Development Working Group of the UNESCO Canada's Man and the Biosphere Committee (MAB). He is the executive director of the John Dearness Environmental Society and an advisor to Environment Canada’s Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN).

Previously, Hopkins was superintendent of curriculum with the Toronto Board of Education, and before that, regional superintendent as well as founder and principal of Canada’s largest environmental field study centre -The Boyne River Natural Science School. Hopkins was also the founder and principal of the Toronto Urban Studies Centre, North America’s only school-board-owned urban study centre.

Hopkins’ lecture is organized by the Faculty of Environmental Studies and the York Centre for Applied Sustainability on behalf of the President’s Task Force on Sustainability. The Sustainability Speaker Series intends to provide public forums for discussion of sustainability issues in general, and in particular their relation to York University and the work of the Task Force in recommending measures that will achieve sustainability on campus.

Hopkins’ lecture will take place in the Senate Chamber, (N940 Ross Building), York University Campus, 4700 Keele Street.

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For further information, please contact:

Dianne Zecchino
External Relations, Faculty of Environmental Studies
York University
(416) 736-5285
diannez@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
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