PHASE 2
Q: What do I care about, and why?
This is where you ignite student interest and curiosity, prompting them to make connections within themselves, with their community (near or far), or with nature. This supports student agency as students act on their purpose, their “why?” (Talent + What the World Needs = Your Vocation)
Zoomed view of the “Care” stage in the framework model, illustrating student empathy, purpose-driven learning, and connection to community, identity, and global citizenship.
Explore the CARE resources
Step 1: Choose one of the following resources on this page. Then select an idea or concept from the social justice standards, an idea represented by one of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, or another key resource below. Use that as a “why” of your unit.
Step 2: You can then link this “why” to one of your standards, one of your learning outcomes, or adapt one of your enduring
understandings, essential questions, or inquiry questions to reflect this idea.Step 3: Remember, don't teach the resource. Use it to frame the purpose of your teaching and learning.
Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have the power to create a better world by 2030 by ending poverty, fighting inequality, and addressing the urgency of climate change. Guided by the goals, it is now up to all of us – schools, educators, governments, businesses, civil society, and the general public – to work together to build a better future for everyone.
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Social Justice & Anti-Bias
This continuum of engagement seeks to minimize conflict and generally focuses on changing the attitudes and behaviors of a dominant group. Collective action challenges inequality directly by raising consciousness and focusing on improving conditions for underrepresented groups. The standards recognize that, in today’s diverse classrooms, students need knowledge and skills related to both prejudice reduction and collective action.
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Holistic Wellness
Wellness is not merely the absence of illness or distress – it is a lifelong process of making decisions to live a more balanced and meaningful life. There are always opportunities for enhancing your wellness. A good way to start is by evaluating your current state and establishing systems to guide you towards a fuller sense of well-being. The Wellness Wheel describes the integration of seven important dimensions of wellness: emotional, environmental, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual.
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Harmony with Nature
When education is shaped by principles that maintain Harmony in nature, there is the potential to draw out themes of sustainability in learning, to support students in becoming leaders of their learning and to ensure learning has a real sense of meaning and purpose. These principles of Harmony in Nature provide a context for teaching and learning that enables students to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to live in harmony with the world and with each other.
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Considerations for Co-Curricular or Experiential Learning Circumstances
When linking to curriculum, co-curricular settings – such as advisory, student clubs, and leadership groups – may not have a defined content standards or learning outcomes to align with. However, this should not prevent you from grounding the experience in a clear purpose by developing a clear driving or inquiry question with your student group.
When working with student clubs, student leadership groups, after-school activities, or advisory programs, it can be helpful to guide students in identifying their “why.” Encourage them to use tools like mission statement builders, goal-setting prompts, or reflection protocols to clarify their purpose and vision for impact. Students often begin with broad or general issues; supporting them in breaking these down into more focused sub-issues helps clarify direction and increase engagement.
In experiential learning contexts, focus on how students can move beyond passive participation or one-off experiences. Help them connect with relevant issues or themes—such as those outlined in the CARE resources—to ground the experience in meaningful learning.
When planning experiential learning opportunities, consider how to shift from activity-based trips to purposeful, inquiry-driven experiences. For example, rather than simply organizing a field trip to a forest, guide students in exploring specific biodiversity goals under SDG 14 or SDG 15. This creates opportunities for deeper understanding, clearer intentions, and more impactful outcomes.
Additional Resources
Doughnut Economics
The Doughnut offers a vision of what it means for humanity to thrive in the 21st century, and Doughnut Economics explores the mindset and ways of thinking needed to get us there.
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Humane Technology
This future will require greater collective understanding of the root causes driving extractive systems. It will require deeper empathy for diverse experiences with persuasive technology and open-mindedness to connect the dots and develop creative solutions. And it will require all our unique contributions.
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