Reporter: Chenie G.

Dolendo
cheniedolendo22@gmail.com

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

 Sustainability education (SE), Education for Sustainability (EfS), and Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) are interchangeable terms describing the practice of teaching
for sustainability. ESD is the term most used internationally and by the United Nations.

 "Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge,
skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future.

 Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues
into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity,
poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.

 It also requires participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners
to change their behavior and take action for sustainable development.

 Education for Sustainable Development consequently promotes competencies like critical

thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way.

Participatory learning
Thinking creatively for future
(emphasis on group or peer scenarios
learning, developing dialogue,
experiential learning) using role play, real-world inquiry, futures
(

visioning, problem-based learning)

Skills in ESD

Critical thinking and reflection

Systemic thinking
Collaborative learning
(more traditional lecture, but also newer
(use of real-world case studies approaches such as reflexive accounts,
(contributions from guest speakers,
work-based learning, interdisciplinary/ and critical incidents) learning journals, and discussion groups)
multidisciplinary working)
 Education for Sustainable Development
(ESD)

an interdisciplinary approach to learning that covers the integrated

What? social, economic and environmental dimensions of the formal and
informal curriculum

The term ESD refers to the pedagogical approach of learning about

and developing skills for ‘sustainable development’.The principle of
Where? sustainable development originates from the United Nations
Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm 1972 where
the interrelated nature of human activities and the environment was
officially recognized by the international community

ESD works with a primary focus on equipping students with

How? sustainability knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes, and
as a result is very much practice-led. 

 applied successfully across many universities

Application
throughout the world, with many UK institutions
providing strong case studies of practice of varying
maturity and an excellent international reputation as
leaders in this field. 
 the UK institution with the richest heritage in ESD is
Plymouth University, where it has been applied across
teaching activities through the work of the Centre for
Sustainable Futures
 The University of Gloucestershire has engaged in ESD
across the curriculum for a number of years, and has a
range of valuable resources documenting its work
through its Sustainability Educationpages. 
 an institution working to embed sustainable
development across all activities including teaching is
the University of Bradford with their ‘Ecoversity’
programmed.