people and planet

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negative statements about gender equality, with girls
expressing more support for gender equality than boys
(Schulz et al., 2010).
fairly willing to pay much higher prices to protect the
environment in 2000 and 2010, down by six percentage
points from 1993 (Franzen and Vogl, 2013).
Regional ICCS modules reflect local, national and regional
differences. The 2009 Latin American questionnaire
included items measuring acceptance and respect of social
minority groups as neighbours. While most students in the
participating countries (Chile, Colombia, the Dominican
Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Paraguay) were tolerant
of people of a different nationality, from other regions
of the country or with a different skin colour, fewer
approved of people with a different sexual orientation or
with HIV (Schulz et al., 2011).
The European Social Survey, conducted every two
years, consists of a core questionnaire and rotating
questions. In 2014, the rotating questions were related
to immigration. An active willingness to seek out and
take up opportunities to engage with people from other
cultures can be measured by, for instance, having close
friends of another cultural group. In France, Sweden
and Switzerland, 35% of respondents reported not
having close friends of a different race or ethnic group
(ESS, 2014).
In the 2010 Australian National Assessment, student
attitudes on indigenous cultures were measured in
grades 6 and 10. In both grades, 9 out of 10 students
agreed that Australia should support cultural traditions
and languages of Indigenous Australians. A similar
proportion agreed on the importance of recognizing
traditional land ownership and giving everyone the
chance to learn about promoting reconciliation between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Australian
Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2011).
The annual International Social Survey Programme
(ISSP) is a cross-national collaborative project on
attitudes concerning social issues, conducted in
multiyear modules. 6 Its third module on environment,
in 2010, mainly dealt with attitudes on issues such as
environmental protection, and respondents’ behaviour
and preferences regarding government measures on
environmental protection.
In 2015, the Pew Research Centre conducted a survey
in 40 countries to measure perceptions of global
challenges. The survey of representative samples of
adults over age 18 showed that climate change was
cited as the biggest challenge in 19 countries, making
it the most widespread concern. In Latin America and
sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of adults reported high concern
about climate change. Global economic instability was
the biggest concern in several countries and the second
biggest in half the countries surveyed (Pew Research
Centre, 2015).
Cross-national opinion surveys have their limits,
however. Attempts to measure and analyse self-reported
data on attitudes often confront the social desirability
problem: adults are rarely willing to admit prejudices in
relation to gender, race and religion in opinion surveys
but may be more likely to give a socially acceptable or
desirable response.
An ISSP summary index on environmental attitudes
shows Canada, Denmark and Switzerland leading the
ranks in environmental concern, with Bulgaria, the
Philippines and South
Africa at the lower
end. Longitudinal
The International
analysis of successive
Social Survey
ISSP waves shows
environmental concern
Programme shows that
decreasing in almost
environmental concern all countries over the
is decreasing in almost past two decades. In
the United States,
all countries over the
for instance, about
past two decades
46% of the population
was very willing or
Overall, target 4.7 makes explicit the need for ‘all learners
[to] acquire the knowledge and skills to promote
sustainable development’. Currently proposed indicators
refer only to school-age children and adolescents. An
appropriate monitoring framework would find ways to
better capture the target’s intent. Future data collection
efforts should strengthen the knowledge base on out-ofschool
youth and all adults.
Furthermore, coordinated efforts are needed in
developing a shared monitoring framework and
conducting assessments of learners’ knowledge and
skills. Establishing common understandings at the
regional level, such as the Southeast Asia Primary
Learning Metrics, is likely to prove more feasible in
coming years.
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CHAPTER 16 | TARGET 4.7 – SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP