Issues and trends in education for sustainable …

UNESCO Publishing

United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development

EDUCATION ON THE MOVE

UNESCO Publishing

United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development

A. Leicht, J. Heiss and W. J. Byun (eds)

UNESCO Education Sector

Education is UNESCO's top priority because it is a basic human right and the foundation on which to build peace and drive sustainable development. UNESCO is the United Nations' specialized agency for education and the Education Sector provides global and regional leadership in education, strengthens national education systems and responds to contemporary global challenges through education with a special focus on gender equality and Africa.

The Global Education 2030 Agenda

UNESCO, as the United Nations' specialized agency for education, is entrusted to lead and coordinate the Education 2030 Agenda, which is part of a global movement to eradicate poverty through 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Education, essential to achieve all of these goals, has its own dedicated Goal 4, which aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." The Education 2030 Framework for Action provides guidance for the implementation of this ambitious goal and commitments.

Published in 2018 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France ? UNESCO 2018 ISBN 978-92-3-100244-1

This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http:// licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Cover design: Corinne Hayworth Cover credit: ? Peter Jurik / Panther Media / GraphicObsession Design and printing: UNESCO Printed in France with the generous support of the Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT)

CLD 2933.17

Foreword

Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development is the fifth in UNESCO's Education on the Move series, which reviews trends in education today and challenges for tomorrow. The series is aimed at providing policymakers, educators and other stakeholders with state-of-the-art analyses of topical issues. As the world's leading agency on education, UNESCO seeks to promote and stimulate this key intellectual debate on the future of education.

The present volume addresses Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. ESD promotes holistic and transformational education. This type of education addresses learning content and outcomes, innovative pedagogy and `learning by doing', and uses a whole-school approach to engage communities in achieving sustainable change.

This publication comes at a time of heightened global interest in efforts to address sustainability challenges through education. ESD is placed at the centre of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and has been widely recognized as a key enabler of sustainable development and an integral element of quality education. It forms part of Target 4.7 of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which by 2030, seeks to `ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles...' as well as cutting across all the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNESCO is the lead agency on ESD, as recognized in the 2015 UN General Assembly Resolution 70/209. The resolution invites the Organization to continue to provide coordination for the implementation of the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD in cooperation with partners, advocate for adequate resources for ESD; support Member States in building capacity, promote the sharing of knowledge and best practices; and assess progress towards the achievement of ESD.

As the lead for the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), the Organization has laid the foundations for ESD

implementation around the world. The extensive partnerships and networks and strong political commitments built throughout the Decade have created a broad consensus that quality education in the twenty-first century means learning how to live and work sustainably. This leadership role was also recognized in the declaration adopted in 2014 at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

The Global Action Programme (GAP), the follow up to the Decade, aims to generate and scale-up ESD actions at all levels and in all areas of education, training and learning. There is also growing interest in inter-SDG collaboration with ESD. Through this publication, UNESCO aims to contribute to accelerating the reorientation of education towards achieving a sustainable and resilient world.

This publication presents an overview of ESD and highlights key issues related to ESD policy and practice. Topics include key ESD competencies and themes, policy, changes in the learning environment, teacher training, youth as lead actors, scaling-up action, and the monitoring of progress towards Target 4.7.

UNESCO is very grateful to the authors who contributed to this important volume. We also extend our sincere appreciation to the following peer reviewers for their kind efforts in providing invaluable insights and ideas: Daniel Abreu, Bianca Bilgram, Matthew Cocks, Brid Conneely, Bernard Combes, Sabine Detzel, Robert Didham, Zinaida Fadeeva, Charles Hopkins, Deepika Joon, Alexa Joyce, Livleen Kahlon, Kate Keough, Miki Konishi, Ragini Kumar, Taru Mehta, Martin Mickelsson, Yoko Mochizuki, Prithi Nambiar, Juan Carlos A. Sandoval Rivera, Bedoshruti Sadhukhan, Julie Saito, Daniel Schaffer, Pramod Sharma, Cara Smith, Shepherd Urenje, Wilma Van Staden, Arjen Wals, Jonathan Yee and Daniela Zallocco.

I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Japanese Government for providing generous financial support for this publication through the Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT) to UNESCO.

Qian Tang, Ph.D. Assistant Director-General for Education

UNESCO

Table of contents

Introduction..................................................................................................................................................7 Alexander Leicht, Julia Heiss, Won Jung Byun Notes on contributors.........................................................................................................................17

Part I: Understanding ESD Chapter 1 From Agenda 21 to Target 4.7: the development of ESD Alexander Leicht, Bernard Combes, Won Jung Byun, Adesuwa Vanessa Agbedahin .......................................................................................................25 Chapter 2 Learning to transform the world: key competencies in ESD Marco Rieckman..................................................................................................................................39 Chapter 3 Key themes in education for sustainable development Marco Rieckman..................................................................................................................................61

Part II: Implementing ESD Chapter 4 Advancing policy to achieve quality education for sustainable development Robert J. Didham and Paul Ofei-Manu......................................................................................87 Chapter 5 How are learning and training environments transforming with ESD? Rob O'Donoghue, Jim Taylor and Vivo Venter...................................................................... 111 Chapter 6 Building capacities of educators and trainers Ahmad Qablan.................................................................................................................................. 133 Chapter 7 Youth on the move: intentions and tensions Priya Vallabh....................................................................................................................................... 157 Chapter 8 Accelerating sustainable solutions at the local level Victor Tichaona Pesanayi and Chisala Lupele...................................................................... 177 Chapter 9 Scaling ESD Felix Spira and Sirkka Tshiningayamwe.................................................................................. 197 Chapter 10 Monitoring ESD: lessons learned and ways forward Ashley Stepanek Lockhart............................................................................................................. 215

Acronyms.................................................................................................................................................. 233 References................................................................................................................................................ 235

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Introduction

Alexander Leicht, Julia Heiss, Won Jung Byun

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is commonly understood as education that encourages changes in knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to enable a more sustainable and just society for all. ESD aims to empower and equip current and future generations to meet their needs using a balanced and integrated approach to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

The concept of ESD was born from the need for education to address the growing environmental challenges facing the planet. In order to do this, education must change to provide the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that empower learners to contribute to sustainable development. At the same time, education must be strengthened in all agendas, programmes and activities that promote sustainable development. In short, sustainable development must be integrated into education and education must be integrated into sustainable development. ESD is holistic and transformational education and concerns learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment (UNESCO, 2014).

With regards to learning content such as curricula, the complex sustainability challenges facing societies cut across boundaries and multiple thematic areas. Education must therefore address key issues such as climate change, poverty and sustainable production. ESD promotes the integration of these critical sustainability issues in local and global contexts into the curriculum to prepare learners to understand and respond to the changing world. ESD aims to produce learning outcomes that include core competencies such as critical and systemic thinking, collaborative decision-making, and taking responsibility for present and future generations.

In order to deliver such diverse and evolving issues, ESD uses innovative pedagogy, encouraging teaching and learning in an interactive, learnercentred way that enables exploratory, action-oriented and transformative learning. Learners are enabled to think critically and systematically develop values and attitudes for a sustainable future.

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Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development

Since traditional single-directional delivery of knowledge is no longer sufficient to inspire learners to take action as responsible citizens, ESD entails rethinking the learning environment, physical and virtual. ESD is not confined to schools but applies to all levels of formal, non-formal and informal education as an integral part of lifelong learning. The learning environment itself must adapt and apply a whole-institution approach to embed the philosophy of sustainable development. Building the capacity of educators and policy support at international, regional, national and local levels will help drive these changes in learning institutions. Empowered youth and local communities interacting with education institutions become key actors in advancing sustainable development.

The launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) triggered a global movement to reorient education to address the challenges of sustainable development. Building on the achievement of the Decade, stated in the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on ESD, UNESCO endorsed the Global Action Programme on ESD (GAP) in the 37th session of its General Conference. Acknowledged by UN General Assembly Resolution A/ RES/69/211 and launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD in 2014, the GAP aims to scale-up actions and good practices. As the lead agency for the UN Decade and the GAP, UNESCO has a major role, along with its partners, in bringing about key achievements to ensure the principles of ESD are promoted through formal, non-formal and informal education.

International recognition of ESD as the key enabler for sustainable development is growing steadily. The role of ESD was recognized in three major UN summits on sustainable development: the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa; and the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro. Other key global agreements such as the Paris Agreement (Article 12) also recognize the importance of ESD.

Today, ESD is arguably at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015). The SDGs recognize that all countries must stimulate action in the following key areas - people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership - in order to tackle the global challenges that are crucial for the survival of humanity. Achieving these goals requires a profound transformation in the way we think and act.

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