Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Contributing to sustainable developmentSuzanne Benn and Jessica North, The Australian Research Institute in Education for SustainabilityEducation has always been vital to equipping people forchange. Over countless generations we have learned tofind food, to build shelter, to use tools and to expressour creativity in myriad ways. Indeed, our education has beenso successful that now we need to learn something new: how tomeet the needs of the present without compromising the abilityof future generations to meet their own needs. 1The Ahmedabad Declaration 2 states: “We must reconsider our tools,methods and approaches, our politics and economics, our relationshipsand partnerships, and the very foundations and purpose ofeducation and how it relates to the lives we lead.” To address thischallenge, our entire education system needs to have at its corethe sustainability principles of both intergenerational and intragenerationalequity. In addition, the skills associated with changefor sustainability, such as envisioning a better future, critical andsystems thinking, participation and collaboration also need to bemainstreamed. These skills are helpful in the following ways:• Envisioning a better future creates a mental and emotional linkbetween our immediate actions and our long-term goals• Critical thinking challenges us to question the symptoms ofunsustainable practiceStudents are encouraged to develop their understanding of ESDImage: Katy Tomkins• Systems thinking allows us to appreciate thatthe whole is greater than the sum of its parts andprovides a way of understanding complex situations• Participation involves us in joint analysis andplanning, and puts the decision-making and responsibilityfor outcomes in the hands of the participants• Participation and collaboration help to build a sharedvision amongst a diverse range of stakeholders, and tostrengthen ownership and commitment to action.“We need a shared commitment to education thatempowers people for change. Such education should beof a quality that provides the values, knowledge, skillsand competencies for sustainable living and participationin society.” The Bonn Declaration 3As a contribution to the United Nations Decade ofEducation for Sustainable Development (DESD), theAustralian Government produced a National ActionPlan for Education for Sustainability, 4 a key theme ofwhich is to foster sustainability across community, businessand government, as well as across the traditionaleducation system. The Australian Research Institute inEducation for Sustainability (ARIES) 5 has been implementingthe following innovative ideas to foster andsupport education for sustainable development acrossthis range of sectors in Australia.Teaching teachersSupported by national and state education policies andprofessional development programmes such as theAustralian Sustainable Schools Initiative, 6 Australiais taking a whole-of-school, system-wide approachto embed sustainability in educational policies,programmes, procedures and systems. As part of thisapproach, ARIES has focused on that most fundamentaleducation: the teaching of teachers. Through the mainstreamingof education for sustainable development(ESD) in pre-service teacher education, future teachersare enabled to provide their future students withthe knowledge and skills to respond to the complexsustainability issues they will encounter throughouttheir lives.In Stage 1 of this programme, 7 effective models ofchange were compared. A whole-systems approachcombined with action research was identified as theapproach most likely to deliver the required levelsof change. In Stage 2 the model was piloted and keyagents of change within the education system were[ 151 ]