Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

interconnections, interdependence’ is likely a reflection of official attempts to
promote the country's role as an aid donor and partner for developing countries
across Asia and Africa. While 'multiculturalism/interculturalism' also receives
a very high weightage in some other Asian countries marked with high ethnic
diversity (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Thailand) (see Figure 2.7), most of them accord no weightage to transnational
interconnectedness, with the exceptions of India (moderate weightage) and
Kyrgyzstan (low weightage).
KEY INSIGHTS FOR SDG 4.7 POLICY AND
CURRICULUM MONITORING
Fully capturing the intent of 4.7 is a daunting task. Firstly, concepts embedded in
4.7 have contested definitions and many have yet to achieve widespread currency
in local languages. UNESCO (2016b) promotes ESD and GCED as two mutually
reinforcing pillars of 4.7 implementation, but they still lack internationally agreed
definitions and there is often little conceptual clarity about what qualifies as
ESD and GCED — or ‘sustainable development’ and ‘global citizenship’ for that
matter (see Chapter 1). The coding results strongly indicate that key concepts
associated with SDG 4.7 are often deployed in ways that are not in fact aligned
with pursuit of the goals of sustainable development and global citizenship.
The interpretation of the coding results here underlines the importance of
carefully examining the constituent components of concepts related to SDG 4.7
to illuminate the extent to which different countries have integrated the ideas
of peace, sustainable development and global citizenship in their policies and
curricula.
Key insight 1:
The coding data point to the need to scrutinise the constituent
components of the different key concepts associated with SDG
4.7 to assess the extent to which ESD/GCED is integrated in
education policies and curricula.
Secondly, capturing the transformative aspirations of 4.7 is not only technically
but also politically challenging, because such aspirations could contradict key
objectives of national curricula. The SDG4-Education 2030 Agenda reaffirms
the right to education for all, and recognises the role of education in achieving
goals beyond economic growth and national development. The overwhelming
emphasis on the instrumental role of education in fostering national identity and
generating ‘human resources’ for economic development (see Trend 2) points
towards the challenge of implementing SDG 4.7 in countries across Asia. The
coding data certainly reflect widespread awareness of many of the concepts
associated with SDG 4.7, but determining what this actually signifies requires
a closer examination of social and political conditions of the countries under
review.
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Chapter 2: Key Findings and Insights