people and planet

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that the last step was reporting and presenting the data
collected (Erdogan and Ok, 2011).
Improving on current assessments
Recent initiatives seek to improve monitoring
mechanisms for target 4.7 regarding adolescents,
mainly in secondary education. In 2016, UNESCO
and the International Association for the Evaluation
of Educational Achievement (IEA) officially began
collaborating on measuring global citizenship and
sustainable development knowledge. The IEA’s 2016
ICCS will ask students to rate the seriousness of threats
including poverty; declines in living standards, economic
well-being and environmental health; and attacks
on human dignity. The ratings will indicate student
awareness of global issues (Schulz et al., 2016). ICCS
2019 will build on the main cycle of ICCS 2016, extending
country and thematic coverage. Critically, it will include
indicators of knowledge, understanding, skills, beliefs,
attitudes and behaviours relating to GCED and ESD.
A major limitation of ICCS is the country coverage. More
are needed for this instrument to be used effectively to
provide global estimates. Another limitation is the age
of those assessed. Ages 13 and 14 could be considered
appropriate in countries where compulsory education
ends at 14, but marked differences between young
people on political engagement start to appear at
age 15 to 16. These differences need to be recognized
(Hoskins, 2016).
A challenge for measuring outcomes related to
target 4.7 has to do with tension between national values
and the commitment to a global agenda. Hence, there
is a need to develop comparative student assessments
that are more attuned
to local conditions. One
promising example
There is a need to
is the Southeast Asia
develop comparative Primary Learning
student assessments Metrics, focusing on
literacy, numeracy and
that are more attuned
global citizenship in
to local conditions grade 5. In 2016–2017,
at least six countries in
the region will pilot the
assessment tools. By 2020, all countries of the Southeast
Asian Ministers of Education Organization and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to
join (SEAMEO and UNICEF, 2015).
Another recent development is the OECD decision to
include global competence as a field for testing in PISA
2018 (see Box 16.3).
Data sources on adult global knowledge and understanding
are even more limited
Existing data on knowledge and skills related to global
citizenship and sustainable development tend to be
limited to children and adolescents. Yet, it is equally
important to evaluate similar knowledge and skills in the
adult population. There have been very few cognitive
assessments, however.
One example was an early survey of global understanding
in the United States that included measures of cognitive
dimensions of global awareness and was not limited to
knowledge of a particular culture or area. This nationally
representative survey of some 3,000 undergraduates
featured 101 items testing knowledge in 13 areas,
including environment, international monetary and trade
arrangements, human rights, and race and ethnicity.
Only 31% of students identified crop cultivation as the
human activity that has contributed most directly to
environmental alteration of the greatest area of earth’s
surface (Barrows et al., 1981).
A more recent assessment of sustainability knowledge
is the UN Sustainability Literacy Test (SULITEST). It is
administered by higher education institutions to assess
and verify sustainability literacy upon graduation.
This online multiple-choice test measures the level of
knowledge on social, environmental and economic issues
and a basic understanding of the earth system. Of the
50 questions, two-thirds are related to international
issues such as global warming, the rest being on national
and regional issues such as legislation and culture.
Between January and October 2014, almost 20,000
students in higher education took the SULITEST; the
average score was 54% (Sustainability Literacy
Test, 2014). 4
Building on the idea that broad, integrated geographic
knowledge is critical to becoming a global citizen, the
National Geographic–Roper 2002 Global Geographic
Literacy Survey assessed the geographic knowledge
of 3,250 people aged 18 to 24 in nine countries. 5 The
survey contained multiple-choice questions on country
identification from maps and on factual knowledge of
world issues and current events, including population,
natural resources, religion, politics and nuclear weapons.
Results showed young adults were uninformed about
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CHAPTER 16 | TARGET 4.7 – SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP