On a journey towards Education for Sustainable Development in the foreign language curriculum

Abstract

Abstract With Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) gathering momentum in Irish universities and elsewhere, this paper provides insights into a language curriculum re-designed around the Sustainable Development Goals, thus responding to the urgency of the global challenges encapsulated in Agenda 2030 (UNESCO. 2016. Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N15/291/89/PDF/N1529189.pdf?OpenElement (accessed 13 March 2022); UNESCO. 2021. Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education. Report from the International Commission on the Futures of Education. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/reimagining-our-futures-together-new-social-contract-education (accessed 13 March 2022)). The revisited language curriculum that used ESD as a driving principle, is a final year undergraduate module entitled Current Affairs in France and francophone countries. The outcome of the review is a strong integration of content and assessments following the sustainability agenda, as well as a broader coverage, contextualization and understanding of the sustainability agenda for students of this module than before. The paper details some of the new content and assessment methods. It also reports on the lecturer’s observations and a small-scale student survey that shows an overwhelming support for the initiative. Overall, this paper aims to encourage practitioners to re-think their curriculum in light of the SDGs as a means of enhancing relevance and depth to students’ learning while also bringing new perspectives to lecturers’ practice.