Education For Sustainable Development Programmes Research Articles

Should We Use Wood for Energy? An Education for Sustainable Development Case Study

Local issues that combine economic, environmental, and equity impacts make excellent contexts for interdisciplinary teaching. An instructional unit, Should We Use Wood for Energy? A High School Education Program, was developed by the University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation to engage high school students in examining the possibility of using wood for energy in their community. This program incorporates the concept of sustainability into activities and engages students in applying critical and systems thinking skills. This case study provides an overview of the program, summarizes the pilot test results, and offers recommendations for future education for sustainable development programs.

Engaging Youth in Education for Sustainable Development: Strategies and Interventions

Although youth are often thought of as targets for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes, they are also active partners in creating a more sustainable world and effective ESD programmes. Today, more than ever, young women and men are change-makers, building new realities for themselves and their communities. All over the world, youth are driving social change and innovation, claiming respect for their fundamental human rights and freedoms, and seeking new opportunities to learn and work together for a better future. The education sector is generally seen as the most appropriate forum for involving children and youth in sustainable development, and initiatives to this end have been adopted in many countries. The present paper puts forth such initiatives, interventions and strategies that can be undertaken to engage youth in education for sustainable development at the global as well as the local level.

From Attitude Change to Behaviour Change: Institutional Mediators of Education for Sustainable Development Effectiveness

In this paper, we explore the way in which institutional contexts mediate values-focused behaviour change, with potential design implications. We use concepts taken from training research, where “learning transfer” refers to the translation into practice of the learning acquired during training: it is considered necessary to generalize it for the job context and for it to be maintained over a period of time on the job. In this paper, we analyse the example of one education for sustainable development (ESD) intervention that is already established as pedagogically effective when it is deployed in diverse institutional environments worldwide—the Youth as Agents of Behaviour Change program of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This allows an opportunity to consider variations in learning transfer due to distinctive moderating institutional features, which can now be understood in terms of varying transfer climates, levels of leadership support and opportunities to practice. Additional barriers of tokenistic consultation, lack of role clarity and perverse effects of increased distance between trainees and their colleagues on return were also seen. ESD programs intending to bridge the values-action gap could benefit from not focusing only on the training content, but pre-planning organisational support for returning trainees and including in the training ways for them to assess and plan to overcome such difficulties.

Leading sustainable schools: exploring the role of primary school principals

The purpose of the paper is to identify the kinds of leadership that are likely to support implementing and sustaining education for sustainable development (ESD) effectively in a primary school. The paper identifies links between ESD and principal leadership literature and constructs a conceptual model of the leadership practices needed for reorienting a school to ESD/education for sustainability. Aspects of the model are explored through Cypriot principals' views on leadership and reported leadership practices. Data were obtained by a nationally administered questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Outcomes indicated some enabling factors for ESD implementation such as encouraging teachers to engage in ESD programmes, collaborate with others and other ways of support which nevertheless reflect what is generally expected of school administrators without seeking deep change. Constraining factors included principals' reported lack of confidence in administrative skills for sustainable schools, limited willingness to challenge the status quo, limited engagement in actions important for supporting ESD activities and features of the national educational policy. Constraining factors pointed towards principals' limited commitment to ESD. The practical significance of the findings is that they identify specific areas of needed professional development for principals such as empowering staff, encouraging critique of current approaches and exploring alternative possibilities for curriculum, pedagogy and policy.

Creating a Learning Environment to Promote Food Sustainability Issues in Primary Schools? Staff Perceptions of Implementing the Food for Life Partnership Programme

There is increasing interest in the role that schools can play in promoting education for sustainable development (ESD), and evidence is emerging that schools can be influential in the emerging agenda around the ecological, ethical and social aspects of food, diet and nutrition. With regard to such food sustainability issues, this paper analyses the role of the Food for Life Partnership national programme in supporting garden and farm-based learning activities in 55 primary schools in England, UK. Using a mixed methods approach, the study examined the programme’s implementation through staff perceptions and a range of school change indicators. The study found that the programme delivery was associated with widespread institutional reforms. According to staff, implementation of the programme provided a range of opportunities for pupils to learn about food production and sustainability, but addressing these issues was challenging for teachers and raised a number of questions concerned with effective, equitable and on-going implementation. At a pedagogical level, teachers also reflected on conceptually challenging aspects of food sustainability as a topic for primary school education. The study identified ways that ESD programmes could support schools to think about and implement learning opportunities as well as identifying significant barriers related to resourcing such programmes.

Sustainable Change: Education for Sustainable Development in the Business School

This paper examines the implementation of education for sustainable development (ESD) within a business school. ESD is of growing importance for business schools, yet its implementation remains a challenge. The paper examines how barriers to ESD's implementation are met through organisational change as a sustainable process. It evaluates change brought about through ESD in a UK-based business school, through the lens of Beer and Eisenstat's three principles of effective strategy implementation and organisational adaptation, which state: 1) the change process should be systemic; 2) the change process should encourage open discussion of barriers to effective strategy implementation and adaptation; and 3) the change process should develop a partnership among all relevant stakeholders. The case incorporates, paradoxically, both elements of a top-down and an emergent strategy that resonates with elements of life-cycle, teleological and dialectic frames for process change. Insights are offered into the role of individuals as agents and actors of institutional change in business schools. In particular, the importance of academic integrity is highlighted for enabling and sustaining integration. Findings also suggest a number of implications for policy-makers who promote ESD, and for faculty and business school managers implementing, adopting and delivering ESD programmes.

Integrating ESD in Norwegian Education

This article presents and extracts lessons from experiences implementing the Norwegian national strategy for education for sustainable development (ESD) over a period of more than 15 years. After an introduction to central ideas of sustainable development and ESD, the authors discuss appropriate strategies and instruments. Key factors are collaboration to allow pupils and schools to actively contribute to positive development locally and globally, interdisciplinary approaches to complex sustainability issues, and appropriate use of the ICT and other media. ESD programmes and activities should support school development and build the capacity of schools and teachers for integration of ESD.

Education for sustainable development beyond attitude change

PurposeMany education for sustainable development (ESD) programs are designed to change attitudes and values toward the natural environment. However, psychological research indicates that several factors in addition to attitude influence behavior, including contextual support, social norms, action difficulty, and habitual behavior. Thus, if attitude change is to translate into altered behavior, education must extend beyond attitudes to assist people to act in ways consistent with their values. The purpose of this paper is to review the psychological research showing weak correlation between attitudes and behavior, the factors that mediate this relationship, and to describe the implications of these findings for university institutions and ESD programs.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is organized as a review and editorial article, describing relevant research, and outlining implications and suggested actions.FindingsThe results of the reviewed research indicate that attitude‐behavior correlations are mediated by several factors, including contextual conditions such as inconvenience and personal factors such as habits.Practical implicationsThe implications of these findings are that ESD programs should specifically address factors that mediate the attitude‐behavior relationship, including contextual changes and the development of personal management plans. Examples for each type of change are suggested.Originality/valueThe implications of these findings for ESD programs have not previously been highlighted. Specifically, to achieve sustainable development requires attention to these mediating factors as well as to knowledge generation and attitude change. Thus, the value of this paper is to encourage ESD developers to expand their programs to encourage contextual change and personal behavior management plans.

A Priority for ESD Research

Research in the disciplines of education, science education, and environmental education has a rich history. While research in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) may be related to these traditions, there is a need for ESD to carve a new niche that promotes high quality and effective ESD programmes. With an eye towards practice and applied research, this paper suggests that research in ESD focus on strategies that promote sustainable behaviours and engage adult citizens in decision making. Researchers can build on the relevant work in psychology, sociology, education, policy and communication that relates to environmental behaviour and citizen participation. ESD researchers will play important roles on teams of engineers, agriculturalists, economists and architects, for example, as they implement more sustainable technologies.

Education in Harz National Park – From Nature Experience to Education for Sustainable Development Der Nationalpark Harz als Bildungsort – Vom Naturerleben zur Bildung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung

Pedagogic interventions in national parks usually aim at fostering the appreciation of wilderness and at providing opportunities for nature experiences. In order to analyse the adequacy of these priorities for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), we investigate educational interventions offered by Harz National Park in Northern Germany. We argue that nature experiences foster competences needed for sustainable development. In particular, they provide an opportunity to develop, recognize and/or reflect upon norms and values. However, only when combined with factual knowledge and techniques to cope with the ethical and factual complexities and uncertainties of real-world decision-making, the full potential of the nature experience is realised. We develop respective recommendations for the educational practice in national parks. The suggestions account for synergies with curricular education and ESD programs offered by other, extra-curricular providers of educational services.