Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Urban planning departments and schools in Gulf universitieswere established under the umbrella of engineering colleges. Moreparadoxically, schools of architecture were never independent andwere seen as entities within civil engineering. This is still the caseat University of Bahrain and Sultan Qabous University, the officialgovernment university in Oman. Qatar recently established anew department of architecture and urban planning to replace thetraditional one, which was dominated by civil engineers. KuwaitUniversity, pressured by the American accreditation agencies,is changing the identity of its school of architecture from architecturalengineering to architecture supported by urban design.United Arab Emirates is also an interesting case. The State hastwo of the most accelerated centers of urban growth in the MiddleEast: Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Teaching of planning and architecturewas previously limited to UAE University in Al Ain. Later threemore schools were added at Sharjah and Ajman. 4 (In addition, theAmerican University in Sharjah (AUS), the University of Sharjahand Ajman University opened departments of design and architecture.)Architecture is the principal focus of the four programmes atUAE University. Courses related to planning or sustainable developmentare limited or in some cases non-existent.Oman is considered a unique case within the Gulf States developmentrace during the last decade. The development strategy ofOman is based on environmental tourism in addition to oil profits.The country is blessed with a variety of natural treasures, which thecountry’s rulers and their advisors were clever enough to acknowledgeas a driving force for the country’s prosperity. The only school ofarchitecture is again contained within the civil engineering department.Three years ago, Qabous University decided to apply forAmerican accreditation. As was the case at UAE University, they haveselected the accreditation body responsible for engineering programs(ABET). The result is a drift away from architecture and planning anda move towards engineering programmes. Planning, urban design andsustainability courses do not exist in the current programmes.Sustainability awarenessThe United Nations Decade for Education for SustainableDevelopment (DESD) is characterized as a political initiative thatcould strengthen international cooperation towards the developmentand sharing of innovative ESD activities and policies.The overall goal of the DESD is the integration of the principles,values and practices of sustainable development (SD) into all aspectsof education and learning to encourage changes in behavior. Itemphasizes the importance of partnerships in the eventual successof the DESD and outlines how these might contribute at all levels –community, national, regional, international, continental and global.The DESD at the national level tends to provide an opportunity forrefining and promoting the vision of and transition to SD, throughall forms of education, public awareness and training. The implementationof SD is important for all formal, non-formal and informalactivities, also in higher education.Many higher education institutions in the region have not yet fullyresponded to this major challenge of our time by making sustainabilitycentral to the critical dimensions of university life: curriculum;research and scholarship; operations; community outreach, partnershipsand service; student opportunities; and institutional missionand structure.There is a notable presence of ESD in national policy documents ofthe GCC countries. The majority of them address broadening participationin ESD and its integration in curricula. ESD ismainly integrated in national educational policies andcurricula, especially in primary and secondary educationbut also in sustainable development and environmentalstrategies.However, most countries do not yet have specificnational ESD policies or strategies. Specific policies thatsupport informal and non-formal learning in the contextof SD are not reported (which is not to say that they donot exist in countries and regions that stress the importanceof community participation and multi-stakeholdersocial learning).ESD teaching and research in Gulf universities is notvery well developed. The vast majority of the countrieslack programmes in ESD and do not report support forESD innovation and capacity-building. ESD-relatedresearch that takes place is mostly focused on teachingand research in topics related to ESD.As ESD practice is on the rise, there is an increasedneed for ESD quality assessment. Many of the existingESD quality assessment schemes (e.g. the developmentof ESD indicators) are supported by internationalbodies rather than by national governments, and innovationsin teaching and learning are still in their earlystages. Curriculum development activities should be atthe forefront of research and development of these newforms of teaching and learning and the kinds of curricula,learning environments and school-communityrelationships that will allow such learning to flourish.At the same time, educational policies and supportmechanisms that allow for more integrated forms ofteaching and learning are lacking.Moving towards changeWhile sustainability is becoming popular in both institutionaland professional realms in the Gulf, the case isdifferent in schools of planning and architecture. ESDis almost absent in Gulf States universities. This putspressure on education authorities in the Gulf to redirectboth undergraduate and postgraduate programmes toconsider ESD and its impact on pedagogical strategies.ESD is based on the idea that communities and educationalsystems within communities need to dovetail theirsustainability efforts. Gulf States have made great stridesin their efforts to develop their societies. These includecreating a modern economic infrastructure and upgradingtheir educational systems. This ‘revolution’ in thequantitative levels of education, however, suffers fromqualitative deficiencies. The types of academic learningand technical training are not geared toward the requirementsof sustainable society. These states need to developsustainability goals, and their educational systems shouldmove towards modifying existing curricula to reinforcethose goals. The experience of the Gulf universitiesshows that many institutions have not developed sustainabilitygoals or action plans on which to base educationalchange. An important priority for these states is thedevelopment of sustainability goals, and the modificationof existing educational curricula to reinforce those goals.[ 165 ]