Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement
I can explain how Wangari Maathai's worldview inspired her environmental activism.
Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement
I can explain how Wangari Maathai's worldview inspired her environmental activism.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental activist who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt Movement to plant trees in Kenya and fight for women's rights.
- Wangari Maathai’s worldview blended her indigenous Kikuyu beliefs with Catholic Christianity.
- She argued that the land was sacred and was exploited by colonialism and ideas of dominion from the Bible.
- She emphasised re-reading the Bible alongside indigenous beliefs to argue against the exploitation of land.
Keywords
Kikuyu - one of Kenya’s largest ethnic groups or micro-nations
Activist - a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change
Colonialism - taking control of a country and exploiting the resources and people
Dominion - the idea that God gave humans control over nature
Stewardship - the idea that humanity should look after the world God has created
Common misconception
Environmental activism and protest is primarily a European concern.
Wangari Maathai blended her Catholic and Kikuyu beliefs to argue for environmental justice in Kenya. She framed this through a distinctively African theological lens.
To help you plan your year 9 religious education lesson on: Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 9 religious education lesson on: Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 religious education lessons from the Christianity: how have the experiences of the Global South shaped it? unit, dive into the full secondary religious education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
