The Role of Education in the Pursuit of a Sustainable Future

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The Role of Education in the Pursuit of a
Sustainable Future LSF AGM
Charles Hopkins
UNESCO and UNU Chairs, York University
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What is Sustainable Development

• Global Change (environment)
• Globalization (economic)
• Human Development (social/culture)
• Sustainable Development
• Plus concepts of
• intergenerational responsibility
• Need verses greed / equity
• Social justice, etc.

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Many Questions

• Sustaining what?
• For whom?

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Northern Issues

• Sustainable production and consumption
• 0.5 trillion in advertising
• 50 targeted at USA
• Working with others
• Developing global citizenship
• Redistribution of wealth and power
• Improving democracy

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The Power of SD Remains DormantLocked in
Isolated Issues
CleanAir
AIDSPrevention
Equity
ClimateChange
Sustainable Development
Peace
SustainableConsumption
Poverty Eradication
Bio-diversity
PopulationGrowth
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Many Paths to SD

• Good legislation/governance
• Economic incentives
• Overcoming corruption
• Environmental protection
• Human rights/security
• Infrastructure (roads to banking)
• 40 issues identified in Agenda 21

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Education is a key and vital element in moving
sustainability forwardReport of the UN Sec.
General

• Agenda 21(Rio)
• Millennium Goals
• Earth Charter
• UN Commission for Sustainable
• Development (CSD)
• WSSD (Johannesburg)

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2. Facilitating Development Through Improving
Quality Education

• 100 million children ages 6 to 11 never attend
  school in the developing countries
• 90 of school aged are in developing/emerging
  nations
• Millions more are under- educated in both the
  South and the North

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Northern Problem As Well

• Hard to serve students suffer
• Preferred learning style other than reading
• Poverty related issues
• Irrelevant curricula
• Home/family related issues
• Student/school conflict

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The 4 Major Thrusts of ESD

• 1 Public awareness and understanding
• 2 Access to quality basic education
• 3 Reorienting existing education
• 4 Training programs for all sectors
• Agenda 21 -92, UNESCO-96, UNCSD -98, JPOI-2002

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Reorienting formal ed. includes addressing

• Values
• Principles
• Perspectives
• Knowledge
• Skills

• Buildings
• Program
• Practices and Actions
• What we value and evaluate

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UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development 2005 to 2014

• UN General Council Resolution Dec 2002
• UNESCO is the lead UN Agency
• Mainly a coordinating role
• Integrate with other Decades and programs
• Mainly up to each country / state
• Organization / institution / private sector etc.

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Strengths Model A Starting Point

• No single discipline/group/teacher can do it all
• Every discipline/group/teacher can contribute
  something
• Some can take lead roles in reorientation

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Reorienting Informal and Non Formal Ed

• What can you contribute that could help the UN
  DESD?

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2 Key Websites

• www.esdtoolkit.org
• www.earthcharter.org
• www.unesco.org/education/tlsf

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Regional Centres of Expertisein Education for
Sustainable Development

• A contribution by the United Nations University
  to the
• UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

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RCE Objectives

• To help implement the education, public awareness
  and training components of Agenda 21, and the
  Millennium Dev. Goals
• To research and develop ESD
• To contribute to the success of the UN DESD
• To assist national sustainability plans

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UNU Regional Centre of ESD Expertise

• Methodology
• Engage the esd messengers (current and potential)
  within a community
• Work together to identify and address community
  needs, relevant issues
• Focus on improving pedagogy
• Focus on integrating delivery mechanisms

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Regional Centre of ESD Expertise

• Methodology 2
• Engage the sources of locally relevant
  sustainabilty information
• Infuse local issues data, information and
  programmes
• Identify emerging issues
• Collaborate with the messengers

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UNU Regional Centre of ESD Expertise

• Outcomes
• Improved academic outcomes
• More knowledgeable/supportive citizenry
• More sustainably oriented production and
  consumption
• Perhaps a shift in behaviour as learning is
  relevant and in scale etc.
• Process is crucial

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Why do we teach what we teach ?

• To preserve culture _____
• To prepare/train for work _____
• To care for environment _____
• To live a full, meaningful life _____
• To contribute to society _____
• To be creative and resourceful _____
• To live a religious life _____
• To live together in peace _____
• To be self-sufficient _____
• What is the vision for our schools ?