Learning for a Change: Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development

Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable development (ESD). In this paper, we explore the ideas behind ESD and, building on work by Foster and by Scott and Gough, we argue that it is necessary now to think of two complementary approaches: ESD 1 and ESD 2. We see ESD 1 as the promotion of informed, skilled behaviours and ways of thinking, useful in the short-term where the need is clearly identified and agreed, and ESD 2 as building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living. We note the prevalence of ESD 1 approaches, especially from policy makers; this is a concern because people rarely change their behaviour in response to a rational call to do so, and more importantly, too much successful ESD 1 in isolation would reduce our capacity to manage change ourselves and therefore make us less sustainable. We argue that ESD 2 is a necessary complement to ESD 1, making it meaningful in a learning sense. In this way we avoid an either-or debate in favour of a yes-and approach that constantly challenges us to understand what we are communicating, how we are going about it and, crucially, why we are doing it in the first place

'Washirika': Raising awareness without mass media

How do you raise awareness of current issues that could have a huge bearing on people's welfare without the use of technology-based media sources? This paper describes a project in Tanzania that employed 'field neighbours', people that visit friends and neighbours and engage them in conversations about current issues as a way of enhancing community-based learning

Reflections on organisations from an academic’s perspective

This is a reflection on two chapters about sustainability in their organisation: "The two chapters in this section appear to be pursuing the same goal – an organisation that takes the multiple ecological crises seriously and which helps all members of society to consider their response to these. Beyond their shared goal, the chapters come from different angles. Angelina feels that we are not doing enough of one thing while Sophie’s concern is that we are doing too much of everything else. This can present a double bind; we need more education for sustainable development (ESD) while simultaneously relieving the burdens of the performative culture that characterises many of our institutions. On reflection, perhaps one chapter holds the seed of a solution for the other.

Beyond the ‘green bling’: identifying contradictions encountered in school sustainability programmes and teachers’ responses to them

As schools seek to implement frameworks of education for sustainable development it is inevitable that they will encounter contradictions between their own aspirations and external demands. To analyse these contradictions through the lens of teachers-in-context, this research uses Cultural-historical Activity Theory that views schools as activity systems and reveals contradictions within those systems. Interviews with teachers and headteachers from a sample of twelve schools (primary, middle and secondary level) in England highlight contradictions that occur at different strategic levels in the school. A perspective document, comprising contradictory statements gathered from interview transcripts, reveals the extent to which these contradictions are shared among interviewees. A striking feature of the data is that teachers do not recognise these contradictions themselves. Analysis of the data reveals how teachers respond to contradictory situations. Responses include a sense of powerlessness, varying degrees of accommodation and a reframing of contradictions through ‘expansive learning’. This paper proposes a process for identifying and assessing contradictions in schools and suggests that, by making their responses to contradictions explicit, teachers can present learners with authentic examples of contextualised learning

ECoSA: A Report on a Pan-African Environmental Education Survey

The Education and Communication for Sustainability in Africa (ECoSA) survey set out to provide an overall picture of environmental education provision in Africa in order to identify areas where European Union support could best assist the environmental education process. The survey gathered information through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews at grass roots level, country visits and a consultative workshop. A principal product of the survey was a databank with over 300 African organisations involved in environmental education. The Final Report reviews environmental education provision in different sectors as well as suggesting a number of guiding principles and proposing priority areas for European assistance

A Rounder Sense of Purpose: developing and assessing competences for educators of sustainable development

A Rounder Sense of Purpose is a three-year European Union-funded project. In its first phase has developed a concise set of educator competences for the teaching of education for sustainable development based on a more extensive framework developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in 2011. An important factor in promoting the use of such competences is having a means to assess them. The project has used an assessment approach based on the peer review of dialogue stimulated by brief presentations with follow-up question and answer sessions. Dialogue is assessed in terms of horizontal and vertical learning. This paper reports on an action research exercise based on this assessment approach involving over twenty student volunteers. Initial findings suggest that the approach may provide an efficient and effective means of assessing affective learning in relation to sustainability education.   Lo studio europeo A Rounder Sense of Purpose per sviluppare e valutare le competenze per gli educatori dello sviluppo sostenibile Il progetto di ricerca dal titolo A Rounder Sense of Purpose, della durata di tre anni, ha sviluppato, nella sua prima fase, un sintetico set di competenze educative legate all’insegnamento dei temi dello sviluppo sostenibile. Esso ha come riferimento il quadro sviluppato dalla Commissione economica per l’Europa delle Nazioni Unite nel 2011. Un mezzo per promuovere l’utilizzo di tali competenze è rappresentato dalla predisposizione di dispositivi per la loro valutazione. L’approccio utilizzato nel progetto di ricerca per la valutazione si basa sulla peer review e sul dialogo, stimolati da brevi presentazioni con sessioni di domande e risposte di follow-up. Il dialogo è valutato in termini di apprendimento orizzontale e verticale. Il presente articolo intende riportare una attività di ricerca-azione che ha inteso sperimentare questo approccio valutativo, con il coinvolgimento di oltre venti studenti volontari. I risultati preliminari suggeriscono che l’approccio adottato può fornire uno strumento efficiente ed efficace per valutare l’apprendimento affettivo in relazione all’educazione alla sostenibilità

From Practice to Theory: Participation as Learning in the Context of Sustainable Development Projects

This chapter starts with an autobiographical account of my experience of creating communication programmes within sustainable development projects in rural Africa. It charts the evolution of a participatory approach before turning to investigations into the way people learn in such settings. I then apply the resulting view of learning as a complex process of dialogue primarily relying on known and trusted sources to other rural communication programmes. Noting that accounts of these projects have largely relied on empirical evidence, the second part of the chapter represents a search for appropriate theoretical underpinning. I show that the concepts of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and legitimate peripheral participation are relevant to the project experience, while possible limitations in these approaches are tackled by the application of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). In conclusion, I note that the principles of situated learning and activity theory resonate strongly with real-world examples of education for sustainable development and suggest that although hitherto separate, they might become more closely aligned – albeit with a few words of caution

Implementing ESD in a Neoliberal Environment: Contradictions Encountered in Transition

Across Europe and globally, education is influenced by – and advances – Neoliberalism (Ball & Olmedo 2013). The power of international competition is symptomatic of this; witness the fetishistic adherence to the PISA process, which in turn reinforces atomised curricula that focus on ‘core subjects’. This is at odds with a trans-disciplinary conception of sustainable development and is indicative of a deeper mismatch of values. The author’s long-standing involvement in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) process of developing a regional strategy for education for sustainable development (ESD) (UNECE 2005), indicators for the strategy (UNECE 2009) and competences for ESD Educators (UNECE 2012), is behind the motivation to conduct this research. The aim is to explore the inherent contradictions that may arise within schools that seek transition towards deeper engagement in ESD within an overarching economic climate of Neoliberalism. The research also attempts to understand how such contradictions are navigated by schools and their staff. Earlier studies in this area have tended to focus either on the theory-practice ‘gap’ (Stephenson 1987; 2007) or the personal perspectives of teachers (Barrett 2007; Cotton 2006). This paper reports on research based on Cultural-historical Activity Theory (‘Activity Theory’) that examines activity within and across schools (Engeström 1987) (see methodology section). Activity Theory resonates with ESD; it takes a systemic view exploring simultaneously the elements of an activity system (e.g. a school), the interaction between elements and their relationship with the people in the system (Edwards et al. 2009). There are however few examples of Activity Theory being applied in ESD research to date. This enquiry also investigates inter alia the extent to which sample schools embrace both an ESD 1 and ESD 2 perspective (Vare & Scott 2007), i.e. promoting ‘positive’ behaviours and building capacity for critical thinking. Data analysis reveals a hierarchy of contradictions and dilemmas encountered in schools that seek to become more sustainable. Surprisingly, interviewees fail to recognise contradictions, even when asked directly about this. At least five explanations are given for this oversight (see Findings), including ‘expansive learning’. Engeström ’s (1999) concept of expansive learning, i.e. overcoming contradictions by expanding the object of the system, is a process that might be described as ESD 3: an emergent quality. This is a concept that requires further development. Deeper analysis of the data leads to the proposal of four positions that schools appear to adopt vis-à-vissustainability. Importantly, these positions do not necessarily suggest progression, rather they are approaches adopted by schools. Discussion leads to an empowering vision of schools – and society – as autopoietic systems, i.e. as both products and producers, suggesting that social reality is not as inevitable as it seems. By confronting contradictions, educators demonstrate the adaptive capacity required by young people if they are to engage in remodelling their world. Activity Theory helps explain the inter-related nature of ESD 1 and 2, while ESD 1, 2 and 3 can render Activity Theory intelligible to a wider research community