ESD for Tomorrow: Bridging Gaps in Sustainability Learning
P1: Sustainability Problem Communication
One of the tools to achieve sustainable development is education. Given the increasing environmental challenges of our time, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is one of the solutions that aims to increase public awareness and knowledge to ensure that individuals use natural resources more responsibly. Only by improving individual capabilities or understanding can we effectively respond to such large-scale changes. ESD promotes sustainable development by developing critical thinking, a holistic view of social-economic-environmental interactions (Boeve-de Pauw et al., 2015). The work of ESD is closely related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - Goal 4 is "quality education". By 2030, learners should have the necessary knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development (Chien and Knoble, 2024). The effectiveness of implementation can be a driving force to achieve this goal. ESD is considered essential for sustainable development, but there are still huge gaps in what to implement, how to implement it and with which resources (Glavič, 2020). Recognizing, understanding and addressing these gaps is essential for ESD to achieve its aspirations, thereby promoting smart and sustainable actions for all of society.
The ambiguity of objectives and the divergence in the definition of relevant competencies are core challenges facing ESD. In fact, ESD sometimes suffers from a human-centered bias (Kopnina and Meijers 2014), which prioritizes human issues over broader ecological concerns. This human-centered perspective pervades the mainstream sustainable development narrative and often marginalizes deeper ecological values, making environmental protection a means of resource production or, at best, just for human benefit. This will make it difficult for ESD to make the greatest progress possible in terms of environmental ethics and social justice. Moreover, it is difficult to develop competency-based models in ESD. This has led to fragmented and inconsistent approaches to ESD competencies at different educational levels across institutions (Mochizuki and Fadeeva, 2010). This is partly because these concepts are often associated with narrow vocational training and skill acquisition, rather than what most educators believe to be the “real” purpose of education, such as the development of the whole person or the formation of disciplines. It is therefore necessary to test the adequacy of competency-based models as a means to achieve the transformation of education and society towards sustainable development.
In summary, ESD is crucial to SDG 4, especially 4.7. SDG4.7 emphasizes that education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to enable students to become informed global citizens who can contribute to the broader SDGs (Griffiths, 2021). However, the two main gaps identified in this paper (lack of clarity in goals and insufficient educational capacity) affect the alignment of education programs with the SDGs, hinder the transformative potential of ESD in promoting truly sustainable practices, and thus limit its effectiveness in achieving its goals. To this end, policymakers and educators and related institutions should take action to fill the gaps in the effectiveness of ESD by creating a more coherent and feasible ESD framework. In addition, improving the level of teacher training is essential to ensure that educators can provide comprehensive and engaging sustainable development content.
References
Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., Olsson, D. and Berglund, T., 2015. The effectiveness of education for sustainable development. Sustainability. [Online]. 7(11), pp.1. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/su71115693
Chien, S.C. and Knoble, C., 2024. Research of Education for Sustainable Development: Understanding New Emerging Trends and Issues after SDG 4. Journal of Sustainability Research. [Online]. 6(1). Available from: https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20240006
Glavič, P., 2020. Identifying key issues of education for sustainable development. Sustainability. [Online]. 12(16), p.6500. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166500
Griffiths, T.G., 2021. Education to transform the world: Limits and possibilities in and against the SDGs and ESD. International Studies in Sociology of Education. [Online]. 30(1-2), pp.73-92. Available from: https://oda.oslomet.no/oda-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2774979/ISSE%20Special%20Issue%20Revision.pdf?sequence=5 [Accessed 31 October 2024].
Kopnina, H. and Meijers, F., 2014. Education for sustainable development (ESD) exploring theoretical and practical challenges. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. [Online]. 15(2), pp.188-207. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2012-0059
Mochizuki, Y. and Fadeeva, Z., 2010. Competences for sustainable development and sustainability: Significance and challenges for ESD. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. [Online]. 11(4), pp.391-403. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/14676371011077603