Implementing the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD): achievements, open questions and strategies for the way forward

This paper looks at the implementation of the DESD from a global perspective. It takes the position that quality education is fundamental for learning how to live sustainably, and that the DESD needs to be better positioned in the education landscape and conceived as a global social movement that must be fostered and nurtured for the well-being of humankind. It suggests that, while there has been progress, much remains to be achieved. Several key challenges are identified. With regard to overcoming these obstacles, it focuses on macro-level strategies that would allow the development of environments in which actions can take root and grow so that the work of the DESD endures beyond the decade itself. Finally, it suggests that there are some opportunities that can be seized to make the task ahead easier to accomplish.     

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: business as usual in the end

An analysis of the literature supporting the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and a sample of its key products suggests that it failed to acknowledge or challenge neoliberalism as a hegemonic force blocking transitions towards genuine sustainability. The authors argue that the rationale for the Decade was idealistic and that global education for sustainability citizenship provides a more realistic focus for such an initiative. They anchor such education in appropriate social theory, outline its four dimensions and use these to review four key products from the Decade, before suggesting remedial measures to render ESD a more effective vehicle for promoting democratic global governance and sustainability.     

Taking stock of the UN Decade of education for sustainable development: the policy-making process in Flanders

In this paper, we address the implementation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Flanders, a sub-national entity of Belgium. Our analysis shows how the policy-making process in Flanders is inextricably intertwined with three developments in environmental and educational policy: the increasing impact of ESD policy and discourse on environmental education, the framing of social and political problems as learning problems, and ecological modernisation. These trends give shape to a post-ecologist and post-political policy regime and, thus, affect what is possible and acceptable within Flemish ESD policy. However, this case study also revealed that these developments do not completely determine ESD policy-making in Flanders. Our examination thus allowed us to understand how the actual policy translation in a particular local setting brings about powers that legitimise and maintain as well as counteract the bounds of the policy regime that emerged in the context of the UN Decade.     

Literacy,speech and shame: the cultural politics of literacy and language in Brazil

This article examines the relationship between shame, literacy and social relations by analyzing shame narratives told to the author by youth and adult literacy students during a 24‐month ethnographic research project conducted in two Brazilian cities. Employing Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and literature from the anthropology of emotions, the article asks: What is accomplished through the micropolitics of shaming? What can it teach us about theories of literacy, language and power more broadly? The article shows how speech shaming in Brazil contributed to the cultural production of inequality by individualizing, psychologizing and embodying responsibility or blame for illiteracy. It argues that sociocultural theories of literacy, language and power need to account for the influence of emotions in communicative interactions.     

Literacy practices in Schome Park: a virtual literacy ethnography

In this paper I deploy a synthesis of methods I term virtual literacy ethnography to investigate the diverse literacy practices of the project Schome Park. Participants have been engaging over a 15‐month period in an innovative out‐of‐school project centred on use of the (Teen) Second Life three‐dimensional virtual world. Some ethical aspects of working with children in virtual worlds are briefly discussed. I analyse evidence from the three main communicative domains of the project: chat logs, wiki and forum, demonstrating the complexity and creativity of student literacy practices. I include in my data selection exemplars that draw on persistently valued literacy texts and demonstrate that attentive examination to literacy practices may be more fruitful than maintaining overly dichotomised boundaries between new literacies and those more established.     

评估科学素养 培育关键能力——OECD／PISA科学素养之构想、设计与评估

科学素养被认为是21世纪公民生活和工作所必须具备的关键能力的核心,而培养学生的科学素养就成了教育的重要使命之一,如何测评学生的科学素养也因此成了研究的重点。本文试图通过介绍欧洲经济合作与发展组织的“国际学生评价项目”对科学素养的界定和评估框架,为评价学生的综合能力提供借鉴。     

Literacy and development: what works for whom? or,how relevant is the social practices view of literacy for literacy education in developing countries?

This paper is concerned with the implications of a social view of literacy for the policy and practice of adult literacy. Taking the example of a recent literacy project in South Africa and comparing this with the author's own ethnographic research among learners from the National Literacy Programme in Namibia, the paper discusses the possible difficulties to be experienced when designing a literacy project based on the concept of literacy as a social practice. The main argument put forward is that these difficulties are likely to be grounded in the difference between potential learners’ uses of literacy in everyday life and their understandings of literacy and how this orients them towards particular forms of literacy education.     

Language, literacy and bilingual education: An amazon people's strategies for cultural maintenance

This paper is concerned with the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain their own languages which are seen as fundamental to the maintenance of their own cultures and for the transmission of culture from one generation to another. Taking the examples of two small neighbouring groups belonging to the Harakmbut Amazon people, it shows that even though their objectives are the same — the maintenance and strengthening of their language and culture — they have very different views about how this should be done. The paper argues that it is necessary to understand the communities' reactions to new proposals for language maintenance introduced from outside and of the importance of them developing and following their own strategies for maintaining their cultural identity in a rapidly changing world.     

Globalising assessment: an ethnography of literacy assessment,camels and fast food in the Mongolian Gobi

What happens when standardised literacy assessments travel globally? The paper presents an ethnographic account of adult literacy assessment events in rural Mongolia. It examines the dynamics of literacy assessment in terms of the movement and re-contextualisation of test items as they travel globally and are received locally by Mongolian respondents. The analysis of literacy assessment events is informed by Goodwin's ‘participation framework’ on language as embodied and situated interactive phenomena and by Actor Network Theory. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is applied to examine literacy assessment events as processes of translation shaped by an ‘assemblage’ of human and non-human actors (including the assessment texts).     

Skills assessment,PIAAC and the adult literacy agenda

This study seeks to investigate the importance of life course capital on the educational aspirations of 40 social work undergraduates who were predominantly visible ethnic minority, immigrant descendants or non-traditional students in the mainstream US. Applying the resource perspective in this context, minority students’ academic successes hinge on their ability to acquire valuable resources needed for academic success over their life course (e.g. economic capital such as parental financial investment, scholarship and financial aids; cultural capital such as educational aspirations and values; and social capital such as parents’ involvement and social networks). Overall, minority social work students in this study face a multifaceted array of challenges associated with family financial strain, poor quality of early education, work obligations and economic constraints. Despite the fact that the participants exhibited a remarkable range of educational resilience, the diversities in their journeys to social work were influenced by a number of life course resources and varied systematically by personal experience as well as age cohort.     

Teacher assessment literacy in practice: A reconceptualization

This paper aims to reconceptualize teacher assessment literacy (AL) by connecting two fields of research: educational assessment and teacher education. It begins with a scoping review of AL studies. By synthesizing and analyzing 100 studies on teacher AL, a new conceptual framework of teacher assessment literacy in practice (TALiP) is proposed. This framework is illustrated by a discussion of the various components of teacher AL and their interrelationships. This paper concludes with the theoretical contributions of the framework, a working definition of TALiP, and implications for policy and practice of assessment education.     

Directions for research and development: alternative methods of assessing scientific literacy

Educators' current enthusiasm for alternative assessment has roots in political and intellectual concerns. American science students do not do well on international comparisons or on tests of science literacy. Blame for these shortcomings is laid on multiple-choice tests and their focus on isolated facts. But if alternative assessment is to fulfill its promise, research and development need to be done in a coordinated way. This article lays out an agenda for developing assessment tools and researching their effectiveness. A series of design tasks is proposed, followed by related research questions for each task. Needed theoretical research includes studies of the effects of alternative assessment on policy and practice as well as the development of new psychometric techniques. Influences of new assessment forms on learning and motivation theory are also discussed.     

Learning about literacy: Children’s versions of the Literacy Hour

This article reports on an enquiry into the responses of a class of Year 1 children, aged 5‐6 years, to the first eight months of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS). Children were given incomplete drawings to represent the four parts of the Literacy Hour. In completing the drawings the children made their own interpretations of the Literacy Hour. They could choose to write thought or speech bubbles, draw faces and expressions, make written or dictated comments about the teacher and the children portrayed. The methodology enabled these young children to articulate detailed responses to their experience of a particular style of teaching. Each child documented a range of attitudes to and feelings about whole class teaching, group work and the plenary session. These insights, which were often challenging, put the emotional dimension of learning at the centre of their experiences of the NLS.     

National Initiatives within the UN Decade for Human Rights Education: The Implementation of Human Rights Education Policy Reforms in Schools

As the ubiquitous force of globalization further erodes the nation-state and political activity increasingly focuses on global issues, there is renewed attention to models of global education. Within this global context, human rights education emerges as a response to the demands of global education. One of the main objectives of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995--2004) is the building and strengthening of programs and capacities for human rights education at the national and local levels. In this essay, an overview of human rights education and the policy guidelines for national plans of action for human rights education developed by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) are presented. Further, the essay focuses on comprehensive national initiatives within the Decade that are being undertaken in Japan, Austria, and the United States, with particular attention to the implementation of human rights education in formal secondary school settings.