What is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)?
Answer
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a vision of education that seeks to empower people to assume responsibility for creating a sustainable future. Central to ESD is the concept of culture as an essential underlying theme. It has been acknowledged that there is no “single route” to sustainable development. Further, it is clear that understandings of, and visions for, sustainability will be different for each of us and that we will need to work together to negotiate the process of achieving sustainability. There are many different stakeholders in sustainable development (i.e., governments, businesses, educational institutions, media, youth, etc). Each of these sectors has a different vision of sustainable development and how it can contribute. Some are interested in environmental preservation and protection, some have economic development interests while others may be more interested in social development. In addition, how each nation, cultural group and individual views sustainable development will depend on its own values. The values held in a society help define how personal decisions are made and how national legislation is written (UNESCO (2005). International Implementation Scheme for the DESD).
The challenge is to bring these different stakeholders together so that they may collaborate in partnerships to find a balance between their interests and priorities. Various approaches to ESD encourage people to understand the complexities of, and synergies between, the issues threatening planetary sustainability and understand and assess their own values and those of the society in which they live in the context of sustainability.
Core characteristics of ESD
If ESD is to be an effective tool for engaging people in negotiating a sustainable future, making decisions and acting on them, it must first address the way we think about sustainable development and about education in general. Essential to ESD are the following skills (Adapted from Tilbury, D. and Wortman, D (2004), Engaging People in Sustainability):
- Envisioning – being able to imagine a better future. The premise is that if we know where we want to go, we will be better able to work out how to get there.
- Critical thinking and reflection – learning to question our current belief systems and to recognize the assumptions underlying our knowledge, perspective and opinions. Critical thinking skills help people learn to examine economic, environmental, social and cultural structures in the context of sustainable development.
- Systemic thinking – acknowledging complexities and looking for links and synergies when trying to find solutions to problems.
- Building partnerships – promoting dialogue and negotiation, learning to work together. Participation in decision-making – empowering people.
These skills should be learnt and applied according to the cultural contexts of different groups and stakeholders.