Education for sustainable development: in what European context?
The goal of the United Nations decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014, DESD), for which UNESCO is the lead agency, is to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development in all aspects of education and learning. This educational effort will encourage changes in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations.
This can be done through four objectives:
– Facilitating the creation of networks, exchange and interaction between the active supporters of ESD
– Promoting a rise in the quality of teaching and learning in ESD
– Helping countries to progressively reach the millenium’s objectives in development
– Giving countries new ways to incorporate ESD in their reform policies
Mechanisms – other than legislation and financial instruments – are becoming more and more integrated in the framework of national sustainable development policies. Education for sustainable development (ESD) is one of these mechanisms. ESD is considered as a tool for governments to improve their sustainability.
Since the Rio Declaration, education for the environment, as much in the formal as the informal sector, has tended towards ESD. In a few European countries, such as the United Kingdom, it seems that ESD is the starting point, whereas for other countries, such as the Netherlands and Hungary, education for the environment orientates itself towards ESD. Though there are many different points of view and approaches, the emerging tendency in Europe is to see ESD as a large process in teaching society.
It is useful to see ESD as a lesson in sustainability. This type of learning is provided not only by the sector of education, but also by other sections of society. Governments and international organisations are coming together with knowledge management, support and the simulation of stimulating pyramid activities with an eye to teaching about sustainability. Alternative, non-traditional ways of treating education are promoted.
Here are different dimensions of management and the ways in which it could be applied to the question of learning about sustainability.
- Marketing: Managing the perceptions of targeted groups in order to persuade them to change their behaviour so that it becomes compatible with sustainable development based on an individual calculation of costs and profit. The use of marketing techniques to promote the diverse aspects of sustainability is quite recent. However, it is through the permanent communication of messages that influence consumers and the general public’s perception that the most informal learning has taken place.
- Dialogue: Exploring the common understanding between investors, that can drive towards a pyramid policy of development and towards co-management of its implementation. Civil society must play a role in decision-making and enforcing policies. The Institute for the Commission of Ecological Communication (CEC) for Education and Communication is developing a training program in five countries in central Europe. This program aims to manage communication in order to reach the objectives through dialogue rather than through a directive approach.
- Education: Gathering knowledge, techniques, attitudes and values that will permit students to put in place sustainability practices, to take initiatives and to act as citizens. The educational world is opening up more and more to the outside world, and in this way adopts new methods of teaching. At the same time actors of the outside world (business, authorities, consumers) put new learning processes in place that are directly connected to sustainable development.
- Higher Education and Professional Training: Acquiring knowledge, techniques, attitudes and values that will permit (future) professionals to put in place sustainable practices and to be active in their professional environment. This leads to changes in higher education and professional training programs. For example, in the architectural or engineering world, ‘sustainable’ design is a current trend. In economic science faculties, sustainability has become a new focal point for research and learning.
- Teaching institutions: Changing the way businesses, institutions and local communities are managed to use more sustainable practices, by formulating new objectives, defining new gauges, planning actions as well as monitoring and evaluating. This infers that changes in the programs and methods of teaching are not sufficient. Just like the corporations that are trying to integrate the notion of sustainable development into their objectives, we must succeed in changing business culture, as well as its organisational patterns and its practices. Schools too must change their culture and organisation. This reasoning should apply to local communities that are working towards the integration of sustainability in learning.
- Knowledge management (KM): Managing data and information as well as knowledge systems that support and stimulate lessons in sustainability. A new generation of people with knowledge about training in sustainability could give birth to creative and innovative paths. Codification is also an important element of knowledge management. The Internet can be used as a tool to convey information, but it can also be used to make contacts, enabling communication between experts. Integrating the knowledge we have about lessons in sustainability into other disciplines and policies could be used in order to convey the lessons we have learnt to increase our chances to learn.
These last few years, new initiatives for lessons in sustainability are emerging. The moment has come to close the gap between knowledge management and consumer orientated philosophy. Strategies that focus on the quality rather than quantity of information will prove to be the most effective. Using ‘pyramid’ procedures, market force, the creativity of teaching institutions and ICT can attain good results.
With the growing acknowledgement of the link between modes of consumption and the sustainability of the environment, a certain number of European governments and several consumer bodies are aiming to extend the policies and consumer protection programs to incorporate the problems regarding the protection of the environment and other problems regarding sustainable consumption. UNESCO works in collaboration with the PNUE and other partners, such as consumer bodies to try to educate and promote ways of life and consumption behaviour that is more respectful of the environment.
Sources:
- UNESCO
- www.decennie-france.fr
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