Balancing the tensions and meeting the conceptual challenges of education for sustainable development and climate change

This paper addresses one of the key challenges for work on education, sustainable development and climate change: the overall conceptualisation of central ideas such as Environmental Education (EE), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change Education (CCE). What do these concepts mean in diverse contexts and amongst diverse actors? The paper draws on evidence from Denmark, Singapore, Canada and the UK to highlight both the similarities and differences found within national discussions around these essentially contested concepts and their relationships to policy and practice. It further argues that such debates about how EE, ESD and CCE are conceptualised remain highly relevant, not just to academic work itself, but also to wider international discussions regarding both the current and potential relationships between conceptual understanding, policy and practice.     

When does a nation-level analysis make sense? ESD and educational governance in Brazil,South Africa,and the USA

International policy analysis tends to simplify the nation state, portraying countries as coherent units that can be described by one statistic or placed into one category. As scholars from Brazil, South Africa, and the USA, we find the nation-centric research perspective particularly challenging. In each of our home countries, the effective influence of the national government on education is quite limited, particularly in fringe and emerging areas of education such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change Education (CCE). This essay explores how nation-level comparisons are and are not useful for international research on ESD and CCE. We consider several layers of decentralized governance, but ultimately come to the conclusion that ESD governance in our respective countries is polycentric rather than decentralized. We discuss the implications of this idea for cross-national policy research on ESD and CCE.     

Environmental education policy research – challenges and ways research might cope with them

This essay examines the relationship between research and policy and, more specifically, how researchers might relate to policy work. Given the current international policy focus on climate change, green growth and sustainability in general, it argues for strengthening and widening policy research in the areas of Environmental Education (EE), Education for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Education. It especially makes a case for two kinds of research on EE policy: (1) a multi-sited approach to empirical documentation and theory development which explores the relationships between international policy agreements and local practice, and (2) an interactive policy-engaged approach to research.     

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.     

Consider the unexpected: scaling ESD as a matter of learning

This article aims to introduce a view of scaling as a learning process. In the article we discuss the concept of ‘scaling up’ or ‘scaling’ of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) activities on the basis of how ‘scaling up’ ESD is highlighted in the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD. Drawing on a Deweyan theory of learning as processes of transactional encounters, the article presents a conceptual framework of scaling-ESD-activities-as-learning. This conceptual framework is intended to have implications for ESD policy and ESE research. The theoretical specifications and practical implications presented are results of data collected using a participatory research approach (Re-Solve) and an abductive analysis. In this article, we argue that viewing scaling as a learning process enables a nuanced notion of scaling ESD-activities. This should be seen in relation to (a) complex sustainability challenges, (b) ethical aspects, (c) a more attentive and strict approach to scaling in ESD policy and (d) addressing questions of significant importance to scaling research.     

Discerning Hope: Intra-Actions of a Philosophy for Children Workshop and the Eco-Socially Just Potential of Practising Hope

This article is an extended discussion from the recent opening presentation for the Annual Winchester Advanced ‘Philosophy for Children’ Seminar in Climate Change Education, Hope and Philosophy for Children. The presentation and text originate from Rosamonde Birch's (2019) Masters’ dissertation research discerning hope through an Education for Sustainable Development Philosophy for Children workshop.     

Knowledge about Education for Sustainable Development: four case studies of student teachers in English secondary schools

Considerable activity has occurred in the recent past regarding policy‐making around Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the school curriculum. Teaching about sustainable development involves complex and contested ethical and political issues. This case study research investigates how four student teachers taking part in a one‐year teacher education programme in a university in England (Post Graduate Certificate in Education or PGCE) translate their knowledge, experiences and beliefs about ESD into classroom practice in the context of the Geography National Curriculum and ESD policies in secondary schools. The researchers critically analyse curriculum materials used by three student teachers to explore the potential for ethical and political engagement with ESD knowledge. The research reveals some of the ethical and political dilemmas faced by student teachers who, as committed environmentalists, struggle to resolve the tensions between the constraints of policy, school culture, school teaching materials and their own values and enthusiasms.     

“联合国可持续发展教育十年＂在日本的实施：政府表现与学校实践

近年来,日本在响应联合国教科文组织的号召,推进可持续发展教育事业方面做出了积极的贡献。日本中央政府初期通过出台一系列教育政策来普及可持续发展教育事业,而随着教育事业全面转向学校实践之后,中央政府与地方政府通过为学校、教师间搭建交流平台来支持可持续发展教育事业的全面开展。在学校实践层面,可持续发展教育实践主题多样,内容丰富,教育形式以课外活动为主,并具有以下两个特点：分阶段教学,配合学生的心智发展是其一个重要特点;将地域文化引入实践,因地制宜,充分发挥地区优势是其另一个重要特点。     

论环境教育与可持续发展教育

环境教育和可持续发展教育究竟有怎样的关系?国内外学者看法各异。归纳起来,主要有五种:第一,环境教育与可持续发展教育是等同的;第二,可持续发展教育是环境教育的一部分;第三,环境教育是可持续发展教育的一部分;第四,可持续发展教育与环境教育互不包含,但有共同的部分;第五,可持续发展教育是环境教育发展过程中的一个高级阶段。根据相关文献分析,我们认为,环境教育是可持续发展教育的一部分,两者关系是互动的,环境教育需要面向可持续发展重新定向,可持续发展教育有着环境教育无法实现的功能。     

ESD Pedagogy: A Guide for the Perplexed

This article addresses issues regarding implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within formal education systems. In particular, it seeks to identify the basic essential components of ESD pedagogy. The authors present a theoretical pedagogical framework based on accumulated theory and experience in the field. The framework aspires to encompass the majority of prevailing pedagogies within a simple set of four basic principles. It will be argued that the four principal pedagogies are basic and indispensable prerequisites for achieving the goals of ESD, and the lack of one is sufficient to undermine the ESD's pedagogical construct.     

How education for sustainable development is implemented in Germany: Looking through the lens of educational governance theory

The United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aimed to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning around the world. The authors of this article address the implementation process of ESD in Germany during the UN Decade (2005–2014). By undertaking a meta-analysis of the findings of four related sub-studies they carried out during a three-year project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the authors contribute to the understanding of the process of transferring the concept of ESD within a multi-level education system. They investigated this process at two levels – the federal state (a sub-national entity in Germany) and the communal level. Drawing on educational governance theory, the authors unveil principles, norms, rules and procedures in the coordination of action within constellations of heterogeneous actors contributing to the implementation of ESD in their social entities. The outcome of the meta-analysis describes an emerging governance regime in ESD, taking into consideration the following features impacting the coordination of action being carried out by the actors involved: (1) the understanding of the normative concept of ESD as content of negotiation; (2) the perceived opportunity for actors to gain and increase appreciation within the field of ESD as an incentive for and driver of engagement; and (3) the dynamic quality of the set-up, rules and principles of the coordination of action, which renders these subject to situative changes. In the final part of the paper, the findings are discussed from the perspectives of the theory of transfer and the current empirical basis of ESD policy and governance.     

Education for Sustainable Development in South Africa: A Model Case Scenario

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an educational approach that, by being a catalyst of social change, promotes sustainability. Although South African education policy and practice appear to be oriented towards ESD, the concept is contested, and ragged with ambiguity and vagueness. Because the transformation of South African education is primarily aimed at social change, such vagueness and ambiguity could prevent the achievement of the vision of an education system that contributes to social change and sustainable development. In this article, we construct a model case scenario to assist in clarifying the concept of ESD. A model case scenario, we contend, might not only lead to an advanced understanding of the concept, but could also serve as an informative tool with which to comment on the extent to which an education system has responded to the call to promote sustainable development. A model case scenario could therefore assist the promotion of the appropriate and unambiguous use of the concept ESD and the alignment of education policy and practice to achieve the transformational goals of the South African Constitution, and of South African education.     

Chemistry Teaching for the Future: A model for secondary chemistry education for sustainable development

For more than 40 years, the international community has acknowledged the role education might play in environmental awareness and conservation. The last major initiative came when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). In the final year of the decade, teachers still struggle to realise education for sustainable development (ESD). One of the challenges teachers face with respect to ESD is the inclusion of even more content into an already overloaded curriculum. In response, it has been suggested that ESD should be introduced as an integrated perspective across the content of all existing subjects. This paper offers a model for how ESD can be realised in chemistry education. The model has been developed to support chemistry teachers in their educational planning and consists of 5 categories: chemical content knowledge, chemistry in context, the distinctiveness and methodological character of chemistry, ESD competences and lived ESD. The ESD model is illustrated through 5 ellipses, visualising the hierarchy of the categories, as they exist in different levels. All 5 ESD categories need to be considered in a holistic ESD approach.     

Implementing Education for Sustainable Development in schools: learning from teachers’ reflections

In recent years, in the UK, there has been a significant focus on research in Education for Sustainable Development/Global Citizenship Education (ESD/GCE) in initial teacher education and on projects and initiatives used with pupils in schools. However, there has been less specific focus on the ‘voices’ of teachers who have undertaken such projects: the documentation of their perceptions of effective pedagogy for the development of their pupils’ learning and, importantly, the development of their own concepts and values in relation to sustainability education as a result of implementing ESD/GCE-related topics. This paper aims to provide data from this relatively under-reported area. It examines what the teachers learned about effective pedagogy from undertaking a systematic study of their own practice in ESD/GCE-based topics, and it highlights the development of their own understanding of, and values about the place of ESD/GCE in the curriculum. The paper presents an analysis of the reflective journals kept by 10 teachers during the planning and implementation of ESD/GCE projects within their own classrooms. Findings emerging from the study were that critical reflection on their work gave the teachers the confidence to adopt the more learner-centred pedagogy of ESD/GCE, and that teachers, too, were able to benefit from the participation in ESD/GCE activities.     

Making sense of education ‘responsibly’: findings from a study of student teachers' understanding(s) of education,sustainable development and Education for Sustainable Development

This article discusses findings from a tri‐country study of student teachers' understandings of the purposes of education, their conceptions of sustainable development and the task of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). At its heart are case studies of 30 student teachers from Initial Teacher Education Programmes in England, Denmark and Germany (10 from each country). While they are diverse in their personal, professional and subject disciplinary backgrounds, and they work in a variety of school subject areas, all the students share the objective of becoming members of the teaching profession in the primary or lower secondary schools of their countries, and thus each one currently faces the additional challenge of understanding and responding to national, cross‐cutting policy initiatives on sustainable development and ESD. As interpretative research, the study catalogued and mapped similarities and differences in student teacher understandings, and identified those notions, thoughts and ideas that were meaningful to a beginning teacher's interpretations and sense‐making of key ESD concepts and tasks. The findings highlight the widespread importance of ‘taking responsibility’ and ‘having responsibility’ as key notions in interpreting their professional role and student learning in relation to ESD. An explorative framework developed during the data analysis suggests that in making sense of ESD, student teachers have recourse to one or more of at least four identifiable rationalities for ascribing responsibility to oneself or others, where each rationality articulates a different set of responses to questions about the prioritized locus of agency and the nature of the decision‐making process. The framework offers a critical and generative tool for stimulating debate in the field about policy and professional preparation and development and, in particular, the nature, processes and qualities of learning that are understood to ‘generate a sense of responsibility’, within the broader—and in the case of ESD—related quests of education and sustainable development.     

Investigating effective teaching and learning for sustainable development and global citizenship: Implications from a systematic review of the literature

Education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship education (GCEd) have drawn ample attention, particularly following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. This study aims to investigate the individual and institutional-level factors associated with the desired learning outcomes in these areas. The systematic review included 14 studies that documented statistically significant positive outcomes related to ESD and GCEd. The results highlight several factors that may enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning in these areas. It revealed the need for future studies to address variables related to learners’ characteristics and organizational/school contexts in the implementation of the curriculum.     

Starting the pluralistic tradition of teaching? Effects of education for sustainable development (ESD) on pre-service teachers’ views on teaching about sustainable development

There is currently a well-established belief among politicians, scholars and university representatives that educational systems can produce positive attitudes towards sustainable development (SD) among citizens. This article investigates whether Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in teacher education has effects on pre-service teachers’ perceptions of how to teach pupils about SD. The results from a panel study on the effects of a course on SD held at the University of Gothenburg (n = 323) is presented. The surveys consisted of questions about pre-service teachers’ approach to teaching about SD. The study included a control group (n = 97). The results indicate a short-term effect among the pre-service teachers towards actively getting pupils to discuss issues concerning the environment but without influencing their opinions about it. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the results for the idea of ESD in teacher training programmes.     

Uncovering influence through Social Network Analysis: the role of schools in Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

This paper examines the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Germany and explores the possibilities of Social Network Analysis (SNA) for uncovering influential actors in educational policy innovation processes. From the theoretical perspective, an actor’s influence is inferred from its relative position within issue-specific information flows and the trust placed in its capacities and expertise, instead of relying on an actor’s openly expressed role and policy preferences. Drawing on techniques from quantitative SNA enables to analyse the social interactions as well as the frequency and type of information exchange amongst actors in a particular issue area. Empirically, I focus my attention on the educational innovation of ESD, which has been initiated at the global level, but is mainly put into practice at the national or regional level. Data for the study come from mixed mode interviews with a standardised questionnaire. The interviews were conducted and analysed using egocentric and complete SNA. I find, amongst others results, that NGOs and governmental actors occupy significantly more central, prestigious and influential network positions than schools in the course of implementing ESD in Germany. Furthermore, school representatives exhibit few and weak relations, and mostly share links with other formal education actors.     

Towards using transformative education as a benchmark for clarifying differences and similarities between Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) charges educators with a key role in developing and ‘securing sustainable life chances, aspirations and futures for young people’. Environmental Education (EE) and ESD share a vision of quality education and a society that lives in balance with Earth’s carrying capacity, even as they differ in terms of expectations of how that vision is realized, and what might need to be balanced. Rather than treat EE and ESD as sparing partners or fellow travellers towards the same destination, this paper analyses EE and ESD from the perspective of transformative educational goals. Using these goals as a benchmark transcends immediate problems with either form of education, while also helps to clarify policies and practise formations, appropriate to a diversity of educational contexts.     

Higher education for sustainability: can education affect moral perceptions?

A considerable literature looks at universities’ approaches to integrating sustainable development into teaching and learning, but less is known about how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) affects student attitudes, values and norms. To our knowledge, only a few studies have quantified such effects of changes in curricula. This study contributes to this literature by quantifying and measuring the effect of a compulsory sustainability activity on students’ ethical and moral perceptions. Our results show that ESD can indeed affect moral perceptions of what constitutes socially appropriate behaviour, but not in a homogenous way. Instead, the effect varies with background characteristics of the students.