Education for Sustainable Development

From Competendo - Digital Toolbox
Jump to: navigation, search
Activists, interest groups, politicians, or companies – each makes a contribution or has the potential to contribute to societal development. Sustainable Development is a vision, which is promoted through individuals. Education for Sustainable Development is empowerment for sustainable change. Learning and education builds a bridge between the content of sustainability and the initiative of the people.
Esdlo.png

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Empowers learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to take informed decisions and make responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society. UNESCO.

A detailed description of Education for Sustainable Development's learning objectives can be found in the brochure: ESD Learning Objectives

The subject of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is defined by the term "sustainability", coined by the United Nations Commision "Our Common Future". Although environmental issues are central to this approach to education, this definition shows that they are not the sole core. Sustainability here is related to the environment, the social, the economic. In addition, "development" refers to the fact that ESD is a transformative approach to education - towards a more sustainable world.

This also shows how strongly ESD is linked to active citizenship education, the commitment to a democratic and sustainable society.

Sustainable Development: Definition

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (United Nations Commission Our Common Future)

"Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy, and sustainable human development.” Kofi Annan

Video: What is Education for Sustainable Development?

GreenComp - EU Competence Framework

Greencomp.jpg

The European sustainability competence framework, created in 2022 by the European Commission/Joint Research Centre.

GreenComp identifies a set of sustainability competences to feed into education programmes to help learners develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that promote ways to think, plan and act with empathy, responsibility, and care for our planet and for public health Download.


1. Embodying sustainability values

  • 1.1 Valuing sustainability. To reflect on personal values; identify and explain how values vary among people and over time, while critically evaluating how they align with sustainability values.
  • 1.2 Supporting fairness. To support equity and justice for current and future generations and learn from previous generations for sustainability.
  • 1.3 Promoting nature. To acknowledge that humans are part of nature; and to respect the needs and rights of other species and of nature itself in order to restore and regenerate healthy and resilient ecosystems.

2.1 Systems thinking

  • 2.1 Embracing complexity in sustainability. To approach a sustainability problem from all sides; to consider time, space and context in order to understand how elements interact within and between systems.
  • 2.2 Critical thinking. To assess information and arguments, identify assumptions, challenge the status quo, and reflect on how personal, social and cultural backgrounds influence thinking and conclusions.
  • 2.3 Problem framing. To formulate current or potential challenges as a sustainability problem in terms of difficulty, people involved, time and geographical scope, in order to identify suitable approaches to anticipating and preventing problems, and to mitigating and adapting to already existing problems.

3. Envisioning sustainable futures

  • 3.1 Futures literacy. To envision alternative sustainable futures by imagining and developing alternative scenarios and identifying the steps needed to achieve a preferred sustainable future.
  • 3.2 Adaptability. To manage transitions and challenges in complex sustainability situations and make decisions related to the future in the face of uncertainty, ambiguity and risk.
  • 3.3 Exploratory thinking. To adopt a relational way of thinking by exploring and linking different disciplines, using creativity and experimentation with novel ideas or methods.

4. Acting for sustainability

  • 4.1 Political agency. To navigate the political system, identify political responsibility and accountability for unsustainable behaviour, and demand effective policies for sustainability.
  • 4.2 Collective action. To act for change in collaboration with others.
  • 4.3 Individual initiative. To identify own potential for sustainability and to actively contribute to improving prospects for the community and the planet.

Articles, Checklists and Methods

Education for Sustainable Development: Background
Sustainable Development: Background
Digitalisation and the Environment
The Potential of Low-Tech
Sustainable Development and Me
Sustainable Code of Conduct
A Pair of Jeans
Make Vegetarian Food the Norm
Scarcity vs. Abundance
Campaign: Alternatives to Plastic Bags
The Forest Game
Checklist for greater sustainability and fairness at your event

 

Materials: Education for Sustainable Development/ Global Learning

  • GreenComp
    The European sustainability competence framework
    PDF

  • How to Engage Citizens with the Sustainable Development Goals
    Inspiration, tools and cases by Finnish Development NGOs Fingo
    PDF

  • Sustainability and Bildung
    Created in European Association for the Education of Adult's Bildung project
    PDF

  • Ten Steps to Systems Thinking
    Education for Sustainable Development online manual for teachers, educators, and facilitators by Centre for Environmental Education
    Web

  • Handbook: Sustainable Entrepreneurship
    Non-formal education methods collected in the project Growing Green by Fora Copenhagen.
    PDF

  • Global Citizenship Education
    Wintersteiner, Grobbauer, Diendorfer, Reitmair-Juárez
    Citizenship Education for Globalizing Societies
    Download

  • Six Steps to Global Citizenship
    A Guide for Youth Workers, Youth Leaders and Trainers
    PDF

  • Global Youth Work
    Allen, Dwyer
    Activities for Global Citizenship
    Download

  • The Everyday Beyond
    European, international and global dimensions of learning processes.
    Download

  • Sherpa Tools
    Polish-German Youth office's online tools for Education for Sustainable Development in German and Polish
    Web

  • Global citizenship education in a digital age: teacher guidelines
    UNESCO, 2024
    PDF

  • Environment and Civil Involvement
    How Can We Connect Education for Sustainable Development and Active Citizenship Empowerment? Download

  • ESD Toolbox
    UNESCO's ESD Toolbox Web

  • Youth Xchange towards sustainable lifestyles
    UNEP and UNESCO Toolbox Web

  • Global Education Guidelines
    Concepts and methodologies on global education for educators and policy makers of the Council of Europe Download

  • Global Citizenship Education
    Topics and Learning Objective by UNESCO
    PDF

  • Education for Sustainable Development Learning Goals
    UNESCO's learning goals on ESDPDF

  • PISA Global Competence Framework
    OECD's Global Competence Model PDF

  • T-KIT 13 - Sustainability and youth work
    E. Keen, J. Pinkeviciute, A. Hayes, A. Berecz, B. Akyüz for CoE/EUC PDF



During

All Methods:

Standard Building Blocks:

Educational Fields:

Download: Banner

Teaser-competendo-big.png

Retrieved from "http://competendo.net/en/index.php?title=Education_for_Sustainable_Development&oldid=27456"