ESD and the teaching-learning process

(Cluster coordinated by Gerhard de Haan, Free University Berlin, Germany; International Advisory Group for the World Conference)

The integration of ESD into education varies among different fields of teaching and learning. Requirements, practices and opportunities of ESD vary from one education setting to the other. Moreover, when addressing the role of ESD in education, the important question of how Education for All and ESD relate to each other must be considered.

The main thrust of each workshop in this cluster was: how can ESD contribute to improving the quality of teaching-learning processes?

Workshop 18: Synergies and differences between EFA and ESD

Workshop 19: Better schools at preschool, primary and secondary levels through ESD

Workshop 20: The role of HE and research in ESD

Workshop 21: ESD and lifelong learning

Workshop 22: ESD and TVET – developing skills and labor force competencies

Workshop 18: Synergies and differences between EFA and ESD

Time: 2 April, 9.00-13.00h
Place:
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Nelson Mandela Hall (No. 8 on map)
Organizer
: UNESCO and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

EFA-ESD Dialogue: Creating Synergies and Linkages for
Educating for a Sustainable World

Documents: Background Document; Workshop Report

The objective of the workshop was to highlight the potential synergies and linkages between Education for All (EFA) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which are imperative for the effective promotion and achievement of EFA and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Education seeks to empower people of all ages to assume responsibility for creating and enjoying a sustainable future. It is itself a basic human right but is also a vehicle for fulfilling other human rights and freedoms which must be protected, promoted and respected. Moreover, ESD has close affinities with the human rights agenda by making connections at local, national and global levels on such issues as peace, democracy, the right to development and citizenship. Raising public awareness of these issues and linking the efforts of both initiatives and their agendas, perspectives and goals, notably with respect to programme implementation at the country level, will contribute to reducing poverty and the impact of climate change, broadening access to primary education for all and enhancing health-care provision.

According to UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development Policy Dialogue publication, EFA-ESD Dialogue: Educating for a sustainable world (2008), the EFA and ESD constituencies both aim “to create an inspirational movement, with which a wide range of people can identify, for learning and developing with others.” Separate strategies on how best to achieve this goal were developed by each constituency, with some nuances about how each defines itself and carries out its agenda.  EFA is largely concerned with advocating for access to quality basic education and literacy for all learners, particularly those who are most excluded, and remains an essential element in addressing broader social challenges such as HIV and AIDS, conflicts and crises, poverty and for promoting democratic values and intercultural dialogue. ESD also places emphasis on the basic values, processes and behaviours necessary to strengthen educational capacities, address poverty reduction and build sustainable livelihoods, but reaches out not only to those most in need of education but also to those in more privileged positions in society who are often seen to have a disproportionate impact on global sustainability. This broader outreach is conducive towards generating a more widespread understanding of the importance of both universal education and engaging in sustainable practices for a common global future and towards concrete lifestyle changes and more active engagement that will have lasting benefits for all individuals and communities.

The EFA goals of lifelong learning and adult literacy can benefit from the methodology and work of Paulo Friere, a well-known educator and author who also served as an advisor to UNESCO in the late 1960s and early 70s. In his work, Fiore recognized the overlaps and linkages that exist between the EFA and ESD agendas, decades in advance of the formal adoption of their frameworks in 2000 and 2005, respectively. In particular, he noted their common commitment to quality education and endorsement of education as a human right.  Similar to his work and to that of “cultural animators” who worked with illiterate peasants and oppressed persons, the EFA and ESD agendas strive to promote human rights - predominately with respect to gender equality and the rights of marginalized populations - with the overarching aim of improving health, reducing poverty and enhancing the quality of life. In other words, liberating individuals by proposing a “humanistic and libratory conception of education.” (Education for Social Transformations. n.a. Approach: action-research related to education and training. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved March 10, 2009.)

Both the EFA and ESD agendas call on the participation of all stakeholders and constituencies, including governments, bilateral and multilateral organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs), the private sector, communities and individuals. It is also important to note that certain challenges and tensions exist between EFA and ESD, such as EFA’s strong focus on basic education, ESD’s broader purpose beyond education, and various social and geographical differences, which limit collaboration and integration. Moreover, although the EFA goals are closely related to the MDGs, ESD’s role in the achievement of the MDGs lies largely in its ability to develop educational initiatives that bring together economic, social and environmental concerns in order to effectively address such challenges as poverty and climate change. Because ESD seeks to go “beyond education and also address the social and institutional components that inhibit sustainable development,” its role is essential in the integration of both agendas.

This workshop addressed the mutual ESD and EFA aim of providing quality education for all via shared understanding, joint learning and multi-disciplinary approaches to meet the developmental and environmental concerns embedded in the MDGs. Creating a strong collaboration and synergy between the two constituencies will also support and strengthen efforts to promote the types of education and learning that are needed to ensure sustainability. This workshop also addressed the challenges that have thus far limited the integration of the EFA and ESD agendas, such as their differing priorities, and drew attention to the strategies ESD has put in place to address these tensions and move towards a clearer, more fully conceptualized and integrated form of sustainable development (SD) whose foundation is quality education for all. 

The benefits of strategically integrating ESD viewpoints into the EFA agenda was also examined during this workshop. ESD’s focus on promoting such values as peace, gender equality, and respect for human rights, the environment and cultural diversity, along with its determination to challenge established models of education, will encourage the achievement of the EFA goals in a sustainable manner. Concurrently, EFA’s comparative advantage of in-depth knowledge about specific issues such as strengthening cooperation between formal, non-formal and informal education, HIV and AIDS and gender empowerment can help inform and further ESD’s agenda. Moreover, EFA has an array of established connections with bilateral and multilateral partners as well as mechanisms for resource mobilization and increasing public awareness that ESD could tap into.

Policy recommendations on how best to integrate the EFA and ESD agendas were discussed during the workshop, including the following:

  • Create effective synergy between ESD and EFA. Mechanisms that promote leadership development in both constituencies can be established, with strategies that aim to unify the ESD and EFA agendas and move towards a concept of Education for Sustainable Development for All (ESDFA). It will be important for both constituencies to maintain ownership over specific issues for which they have a comparative advantage, while focusing on collaborative contributions toward achieving the MDGs and the EFA goals.
  • Alliances must be built with bilateral, emerging/new and multilateral donors. Multi-dimensional approaches and new partnerships must be actively promoted at the international, regional and national levels in order to develop more comprehensive responses and holistic approaches to meet all of the internationally-agreed development goals.
  • ESD and EFA can move toward joint monitoring and assessment. Establishing practices focused on joint monitoring will allow for more thorough analyses of the approaches and programmes that are most efficiently addressing both ESD and EFA priorities. Regional events and workshops focused on joint reporting practices will help move more quickly toward a shared concept of providing quality education for all.

Khawla Shaheen
Senior Programme Specialist, International Coordination Team, Office of the Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO

Khawla Shaheen holds a B.Sc. in Physical Education from Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt (1970), a Diploma in Education from An-Najah National University, Nablus (1980) , a M.Sc. in Higher Education and a Ph.D. in Education from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA (1982 and 1987), and a diploma in Educational Planning from the UNESCO International Institute of Educational Planning, Paris, France (1990). Before joining UNESCO in 1993, Ms Shaheen worked for several years as Inspector General of Girls’ Schools in the District of Nablus, Palestinian Authority, and as teacher of Physical Education at An-Najah National University in Nablus. In 1982 she hold the post of o Coordinator of Student Affairs (1982) and then Vice-President for Cultural Affairs and University Relations (1987). She also taught statistics, measurement and education courses for undergraduate and graduate students at the An-Najah National University Faculty of Education.

Ms Shaheen has held various positions at UNESCO and, she has served as a Programme Specialist for Education Programme for Palestinian People and Head of the Arab States Desk in the Education Sector, and, in 2003, was appointed as Senior Programme Specialist in the Division of International Coordination and Monitoring for Education for All, a Chief of the Section of Education for All in the Division of UN Priorities in Education, and a Coordinator in the International Coordination Team on Education for All. Ms Shaheen has extensive experience of education in general, and in particular in the Arab Region, and is active in promoting Arab-European dialogue. She has been a prime contributor to many educational and curricula reform developments in the Arab Region and regularly attends international academic and political meetings.

Nadja Bleiber

Nadja Bleiber is Education Advisor in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the framework of the supraregional GTZ sector project „Sector Policy Advice and Promotion of Girls in Education” (GTZ: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit). She is responsible for questions related to basic education, in particular Education for All (EFA) and the EFA-Fast Track Initiative. Ms Bleiber has also been working for the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin and the United Nations’ Country Team/ UNDP in Sierra Leone.

Ms Bleiber holds a Master’s degree of the Free University of Berlin in Political Sciences and French and a postgraduate degree in European Political and Administrative Studies of the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) develops the guidelines and fundamental concepts on which German development policy is based. Its policy is based on international agreements and commitments, particularly the Millennium Declaration, the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

The BMZ considers Germany's development policy is an element of global structural and peace policy in order to drive forward sustainable development worldwide and safeguard global public goods such as the climate and health.

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Workshop 19: Better schools at preschool, primary and secondary levels through ESD

Time: 2 April, 9.00-13.00h
Place:
Deutsche Welle, Rooms Trincomalee and Antigua (No. 3 on map)
Organizer
: Moacir Gadotti, Paulo Freire Institute and member of the International Advisory Group of the World Conference; Jeannette Larue, Ministry of Education in the Seychelles

Documents: Background Document; Workshop Report

Abstract to follow shortly

Moacir Gadotti

Moacir Gadotti, doctor in Educational Sciences by the University of Geneva, is professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of São Paulo and Director of Paulo Freire Institute. During the 92 Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he took part in the Global Forum, in which he worked in the elaboration of the Earth Charter's first draft and also on the Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibilities. He is author of many widely-read and translated books, among others: Invitation to Read Paulo Freire (1988), History of Pedagogical Ideas (1993), Pedagogy of Praxis (1994), Pedagogy of the Earth (2001), The Masters of Rousseau (2004), and To Educate for Another Possible World (2007), where he develops an educational proposal, oriented by the paradigm of the sustainability.

 

Jeanette Larue

Ms Jeanette Larue is Coordinator in Environmental Education at the Environmental Education Unit of the Ministry of Education and Youth in Seychelles. She is responsible for questions related to education policies for schools as well as for the programs of training institutions. Her work focuses on creating an inclusive learning environment which challenges every individual to achieve their highest potential by ensuring teaching excellence, establishing standards for assessing student achievement and evaluating and approving textbooks and other learning materials for use in schools.
Ms Jeanette holds a Bachelor in Education from the University of Sussex and is presently preparing a Masters in Sustainable Development at the Staffordshire University, UK.

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Workshop 20: The role of Higher Education and research in ESD

Time: 2 April, 9.00-13.00h
Place:
Deutsche Post Tower (No. 4 on map)
Organizer
: Yoko Mochizuki, United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies; Rosalyn McKeown, Portland State University

Documents: Background Document; Workshop Report

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) educate or “train” many of the professionals in our societies.  Because these professionals work in or manage people who work in every economic sector both private and public, it is important that higher education incorporate sustainability into all of its academic programs.  Students should graduate with the knowledge, skills, perspectives, and values to shape a more sustainable future.  Furthermore, to demonstrate sustainability to students and the public, IHEs should include sustainable practices in major administrative activities, such as creating and implementing policy, recruiting and retaining a diverse staff, and managing the physical plant of campuses.

IHEs are traditionally thought of as being active in three realms:  teaching, research, and outreach/community service.  The balance of these three depends on the institution.  Some institutions are primarily teaching institutions while other also incorporate large portions of research.  Some specialize in bridging theory with practice, giving student the opportunity to apply their learning in the surrounding communities.  Regardless of the emphasis with in the three, the UNDESD calls IHEs to envision and incorporate sustainability into the programs, practices, and policies in each institution.

This workshop focused on:

  • Discussing the relevance of ESD to higher education and research.
  • Sharing successes and challenges for IHEs to weave sustainability into course work (e.g., assessing learning outcomes and defining core competencies), research, and outreach as well as using sustainability to guide institutional practices (e.g., gender and ethnic equity in hiring) and policies (e.g., retrofitting buildings for energy conservation).
  • Creating a vision for higher education and research for the remainder of the Decade.
  • Discussing the levels of institutional, provincial, national, and international support necessary to accomplish the vision.
  • Identifying next steps for making progress during the second half of the UNDESD.

Concept Paper: The Role of Higher Education and Research in ESD
(Teacher Training, Multidisciplinary Research, Innovation and Critical Reflection)

Introduction

Higher education and research have much to contribute to the global effort for education for sustainable development (ESD). The vast majority of today’s leaders attended institutions of higher education (IHEs) and the leaders of tomorrow will also. IHEs educate or “train” many of the professionals in our societies. Because these professionals work in or manage people who work in every economic sector both private and public, it is important that higher education incorporate sustainability into all of its programs.

IHEs are traditionally thought of as being active in three realms:  teaching, research, and outreach/community service. The balance of these three depends on the institution. Some institutions are primarily teaching institutions while other also incorporate large portions of research. Some specialize in bridging theory with practice, giving students the opportunity to apply their learning in the surrounding communities. Regardless of the emphasis within the three, the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) calls IHEs to envision and incorporate sustainability into the programs, practices, and policies of each institution.

Challenges to IHEs and research institutions related to ESD include providing professional development opportunities for administrators and staff so they can become aware of and have respect for the value of incorporating sustainability into the activities of the IHE. Faculty members also need professional development to describe their course content, research, and service in terms of sustainability. The next challenge is to incorporate and implement sustainability in all institutional activities. It is not enough to weave sustainability into current coursework or create additional courses related to sustainability. IHEs must also incorporate sustainability into all of their activities, buildings, policies, etc. so that the institution models sustainability in addition to teaching sustainability. 

Access to and Retention in Quality Higher Education

The first thrust of ESD for the UNDESD is access and retention in quality basic education. Although higher education is not technically basic education, higher education is foundational to the creation of sustainable societies. The issue of access to higher education is pervasive around the world. Can students, who merit entrance on an academic basis, gain equal access to higher education regardless of social class and ethnicity? Unfortunately, economic, social, and geographic barriers prevent enrollment. The same barriers also lower student retention in IHEs. Without additional support underprivileged students too often do not complete their degree programs. Sustainability is so important to all geographic regions, social classes, and ethnic groups within our respective nations that we need to strive to assure equity in access to and retention in higher education. Only through such equity can the next generation of leadership understand and implement sustainability across our nations. 

The first thrust of ESD emphasizes quality. Defining quality education for primary, secondary, or higher education is difficult. In the new millennium, however, one key characteristic of quality in higher education is sustainability is part of the curriculum.

Reorienting Higher Education to Address Sustainability

Reorienting existing education to address sustainability is another of the four thrusts of the UNDESD. What does it mean to reorient education to address sustainability? It means incorporating more knowledge, skills, issues, values, and perspectives related to sustainability into existing coursework and programs.  Several disciplines and professions have taken the lead in defining what should be taught within their fields to address sustainability. For example, engineers in Australia and teacher educators around the globe have created recommendations for reorienting education provided through IHEs. 

IHEs around the world are challenged to answer “what to teach” related to sustainability.  It is easy to generate a long list of environmental, social, and economic concepts, paradigms, facts, issues, ideologies, theories, conceptual frameworks, etc. related to sustainability.  Such a list rapidly grows cumbersome - too long to teach. IHEs and other organizations are attempting to identify “core competencies” or understandings that every student should have when they graduate. However, the list of such competencies is also long given the complexity of sustainability. In addition, given that all ESD must be locally relevant and culturally appropriate a list must be created to address the environmental, social and economic contexts of each IHE. 

Another effort to define what students should know, do and value when they graduate is to identify learning outcomes. Many IHEs seek to find answers to core questions about what really matters in college or university. Portland State University has worked for 18 months on identifying campus-wide learning outcomes, which will be implemented by the various academic departments on campus to reflect disciplinary differences. PSU learning outcomes include:  creative and critical thinking, communication, diversity, ethics and social responsibility, internationalization, engagement, and sustainability. All of these contribute to ESD

Addressing Sustainability beyond the Classroom

IHEs also have unique opportunities to model sustainability throughout their campuses by changing practices and policies. Some large IHEs are like miniature cities providing housing, food services, employment, transportation, utilities, entertainment, shopping, etc. to the thousands of people who visit campus each day. IHEs can demonstrate sustainability through purchasing practices, green construction and renovation, water and energy conservation, equitable hiring practices by gender and ethnicity, payment of a livable wage, etc. In this way the human-built environment and the human and economic interactions all reflect sustainability. IHEs can be leaders in communities where perhaps few other sustainable practices are evident. In this way students become accustomed to seeing sustainability and will carry those expectations with them to their future places of employment.

Research to Support ESD

Research Institutions and IHEs can do much to support ESD for the remainder of the DESD. The UNESCO Roadmap for Creating a Research Foundation to Support the UNDESD identifies research as a means to advance progress in ESD. A need exists f

  • Analysis of policy (e.g., which educational policies promote or thwart ESD).
  • Analysis of curriculum (e.g., identify current threads of sustainability in the curriculum and make recommendations for filling the gaps).
  • Evaluation of practices (e.g., identify good practices and develop case studies).
  • A need also exists for other avenues of research including:
  • Measurement of increasing competencies related to sustainability.
  • Documenting the extent of changes in IHEs related to ESD
  • Many IHEs carry out research that if guided appropriately could greatly enhance ESD in IHEs and other educational settings.

Objectives of the Workshop

  1. To learn the current status of ESD in IHEs around the world.
  2. To analyze current activities in IHEs related to ESD and distill lessons learned.
  3. To create a vision for IHEs related to ESD
  4. To identify next steps to help create the vision in the remainder of the UNDESD.

Questions to Guide the Discussion

  1. What are the current successes and challenges for IHEs to weave sustainability into the course work (e.g., assessing learning outcomes and defining core competencies), research, and outreach as well as using sustainability to guide institutional practices (e.g., gender and ethnic equity in hiring) and policies (e.g., retrofitting buildings for energy conservation).
  2. What are the lessons learned from the activities related to ESD, which we have heard about so far in this session? 
  3. What support (e.g., financial and other resources, a supportive legislative framework, enlightened policy at ministry level, opportunities for professional development) is needed beyond institutions of higher education to support efforts within IHEs to integrate sustainability into the curriculum, programs, practices, and policies of campuses? 
  4. Let’s create a vision of an ideal IHE in terms of ESD
  5. What are the next steps for making progress toward this vision for IHEs during the second half of the UNDESD?

References

UNESCO (2005) United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: Draft International Implementation Scheme 2005-2015, Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO (2007). Roadmap for Creating a Research Foundation to Support the    UNDESD. Paris: UNESCO.

United Nations University - Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS)

The United Nations University - Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) is part of the network of research and training centres within the UNU system, an agency, which in its role as the think-tank for the UN, aims to contribute, through research and capacity building, to efforts to resolve pressing global problems.

UNU-IAS conducts research, postgraduate education and capacity development, both in-house and in cooperation with an interactive network of academic institutions and international organisations.

The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programme of UNU-IAS aims to develop the capacity of the public at large, and decision makers in particular, to integrate components of ESD into national development planning and implementation. The programme focuses on advocacy and dissemination of ESD principles, promotion of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCEs), and strengthening ESD activities of higher education institutions, particularly through ProSPER.Net (Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research Network).

Rosalyn McKeown

Rosalyn McKeown is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University in the USA. Rosalyn's current research focuses on assessing university student understanding of sustainability. She is also interested in creating a conceptual framework for education for a more sustainable future in both the formal and nonformal sectors of the education community. Rosalyn is Secretariat for the UNESCO Chair and associated International Network of Teacher Education Institutions, which authored the Guidelines and Recommendation for Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability. She is also the primary author of the Education for Sustainability Toolkit, http://www.esdtoolkit.org.

Yoko Mochizuki

Yoko Mochizuki is an Education for Sustainable Development Specialist for the Education for Sustainable Development Programme at the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). She holds a BA from Keio University (Tokyo, Japan) and a MA from the University of Chicago. Mochizuki received her PhD in Comparative and International Education from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Columbia University. Prior to joining UNU-IAS, she was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, and taught courses in Comparative Sociology of Education. At UNU-IAS, Mochizuki works on the UNU initiatives to contribute to the UN Decade of ESD, especially on Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCEs).

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Workshop 21: Lifelong Learning and Education for Sustainable Development

Time: 2 April, 9.00-13.00h
Place:
UN-Campus, Room 2712 (No. 2 on map)
Organizer
: Adama Ouane, Director UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL); Liu Yunhua, Shangri-la Institute, China, and member of the International Advisory Group of the World Conference

Documents: Background Document; Workshop Report

Globalisation should...lead to the promotion of shared understanding, values and cooperative actions on a transnational and trans-societal level. It would be a movement that recognizes and respects the diversity, variety and richness of local discourses, codes and practices, while developing viewpoints and the understanding that facilitates cooperation and coordination at a global and totally inclusive level. (Catherine Odora, 2003, p. 14)

Learning for sustainable development is a process that continues life long and therefore takes place in a whole range of learning environments that may be formal, non-formal and informal in nature; the ultimate objective is ‘a better future for all’. (Heideveld & Cornelissen, 2008, p. 15)

One of the challenges of lifelong learning for sustainable development is how to put global solidarity, rather than international competitiveness at the heart of learning. (Scandrett, 2008, p. 7)

Introduction

There have been a number of recent initiatives designed to foster dialogue between those working in the fields of lifelong learning and education for sustainable development (ESD). These include a South-South policy forum on lifelong learning, held in Jakarta (UIL, 2008), that produced a strategy paper calling for a clear conceptualization of lifelong learning and vision of sustainable development; essential competences for social, cultural, environmental and economic development; learning strategies conducive to sustainable development; and institutional mechanisms to support lifelong learning for sustainable development (LLLSD). In June 2008 the national commission for Unesco in the Netherlands held a conference that recognized two priorities: establishing North/South dialogue, and clarifying terminology.
This workshop has been planned to reflect the strategies and priorities established at those conferences. We recognize that the theory and practice of the related fields of sustainable development, lifelong learning and ESD is diverse and contested and that it is unrealistic to expect agreement on those concepts, visions, competences, learning strategies, and institutional support mechanisms that should guide LLLSD. Any attempt to survey the constituent fields of LLLSD in this background paper would be counter productive as it might shape or limit the views expressed in the workshop. Instead we have used this paper to outline the objectives, activities, and key questions of a workshop that should enable diverse theory and practice to be shared, celebrated in a future collection of case studies, and serve as a pointer to necessary institutional reforms.
What follows outlines the five stages of the workshop and associates each with one or more of the objectives, key questions and outcomes listed in the table on page two. Like all workshop outlines this one is provisional. What happens on the day partly depends on your responses.

Activity 1: Meeting other practitioners (Objective 1, Key question 1)

First we did an activity to give everyone an understanding of who is represented/not represented in the whole group.  Then in twos, you introduced yourself to a person you have not met before. Then both the perticipants shared their knowledge of each other with another pair of participants. In this way they got to know a little more about three people, their backgrounds, and why they were at the workshop.

Objectives

  1. Appreciate and understand the diversity of approaches to lifelong learning for sustainable development (LLLSD) practiced in different contexts around the world.
  2. Reflect on different meanings of lifelong learning and sustainable development and thereby better understand the range of theoretical and political principles underpinning LLLSD.
  3. Evaluate two case studies of LLLSD in terms of their potential to draw on local knowledge and contribute to the alleviation of poverty and the improvement of social, economic and educational outcomes for disadvantaged groups.
  4. Explain institutional changes that may be necessary to increase the connections between formal, informal and non-formal ESD and to shift the policy agenda from basic education for all to basic ESD for all.

Key Questions

  1. How is LLLSD best conceptualised and what principles should inform its practice? Are there ways to differentiate along cultural or North-South lines? Is there a coherent approach at the national level?
  2. How should LLLSD engage with people’s existing knowledge, skills, ways of viewing the world, and learning agendas? How should it equip them to recognize and potentially transcend social norms, group thinking and personal biases? What competences (knowledge, skills and values) will they need to cope with new natural, social, political and economic conditions, and to give shape and meaning to their lives?
  3. What learning strategies may enable people to become more sensitive to and learn from alternative ways of knowing, valuing and doing? How can LLLSD close theory/practice (values/action) gaps and develop new forms of (environmental, ecological, global) citizenship?
  4. How should we create formal, non-formal and informal settings that are conducive to the emergence of LLLSD and what institutional changes would enable basic ESD for all? (with acknowledgement to Wals (ed.), 2007, p. 19)

Outcomes

  1. A systematic synopsis of the different positions and ways to differentiate them
  2. A wall display that illustrates the participants’ understandings of sustainable development, lifelong learning, and LLSD.
  3. A briefing document that will allow participants to submit case studies of LLLSD to a standard format following the workshop. Short case studies are likely to focus on the principles of LLLSD guiding practice, the inputs provided by local people, the knowledge, skills and competences developed, and the learning strategies employed.
  4. Recommendations regarding those  institutional issues that  would increase the connections between formal, informal and non-formal ESD; and to shift the policy agenda from basic education for all to basic ESD for all

Activity 2: Analyzing and discussing statements about LLSD (Objective 2, Key question 1 and 2, Outcome 1 and 2)

This activity was planned in a way to deepen and systematize further the different positions and approaches with regard to LLLESD. Each participant were given an activity sheet on which there are five short statements about those competences (knowledge, skills and values) that LLLSD should develop (see below, page 3). The participants were invited to write their own sixth statement that better reflects their own conceptualization of LLLSD. The aim of Activity one was to highlight the different perspectives and interests in the field of LLLSD.

Five statements about Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development:

  • LLLSD should develop those competences that people require to develop appropriate technologies and sustainable livelihoods within the informal economy.
  • LLLSD should develop those competencies that would improve the labour market for environmentally friendly technologies, and thus LLLSDs relevance for employment.
  • LLLSD should not develop pre-determined competences. Those that people require will only emerge as they address issues facing their community and learn alongside others.
  • LLLSD should develop those competences that people require to resist the further dispossession and privatisation of environmental knowledge and resources and work with others to realize environmental justice.
  • LLLSD should develop those competences that people require to understand their relations with one another and the rest of nature and realise forms of citizenship that enable the continued co-evolution of human and non-human nature.

Next they were asked to discuss in groups the statements they had been given and those they had written. Who was likely to support each statement and what conceptualizations of sustainable development and lifelong learning do they reflect? In what ways were any two or more of the statements complementary or contradictory?
Then each group was asked to select one of the statements. It may be the one that claimed most support from group members or the one about which group members showed most interest. Then a group member wrote this statement at the top of a poster and below listed the principles (beliefs and values) that, in the group’s opinion, informed it. Also on this poster the group members no more than four key texts or articles were lised that enabled group members to increase their understanding of different conceptualisations of education and lifelong learning for sustainable development.

The posters were displayed on the wall for the participants to compare and then Antoine Heideveld from the Netherlands reflected upon them the different interests and perspectives in the light of his research on LLLSD. He provided a systematic synopsis of the different positions and ways to differentiate them.

Activity 3: Case studies of LLLSD (Objective 3, Key question 1 and 2, Outcome 3)

The focus then shifted to key question 2 and the ways in which this was answered by practitioners working in varied contexts across the world. Lui Yunhua from China, and Muhammad Ibrahim from Bangladesh presented case studies of current practice and the participants had the opportunity to ask questions.
Your attention was then drawn to outcome 2 and Unesco’s intention of publishing a collection of such case studies. Working in small groups the participants wrote the outline of a briefing paper to guide the authors of these studies. A number of groups reported back explaining the outline they proposed before the processes whereby the actual briefing is prepared, case studies submitted, and the publication compiled and edited, were discussed.

Activity 4: Making recommendations about institutional changes to enable LLLSD (Objective 4, Key question 4, Outcome 4)

Ms Koumba Bolly Barry from Burkina Faso addressed key question 4 by outlining those institutional changes in her country that would in her view encourage greater synergy: between formal and informal ESD; and  shift the policy agenda towards basic ESD for all. She then was followed by two or three participants who also outlined institutional changes in her/his country. The aim is to highlight the different ways to solve the problems with regard to  interrelationships between formal, non-formal and informal ESD.
The participant then was asked to recommend the two institutional changes that, in his view, would best enable these goals to be realized in his own country. These recommendations will be taken to a conference in Brazil (Adult Education for viable and sustainable futures) in May 2009.

 

Workshop coordinators and facilitators:

Mr Adama Ouane & Ms Madhu Singh, Unesco Institute of Lifelong Learning
Ms Liu Yunhua & Mr John HuckleShangri-La Institute for Sustainable Communities   

References:

Indigenous Knowledge and the Integration of Knowledge Systems, C. A. Odura (ed.), 2003, 
Learning for Sustainable Development, Exploring Learning Strategies Across the Lifespan, A. Heideveld & S. Cornelissen, Cinop/Unesco, 2008
Lifelong learning for ecological sustainability and environmental justice, E. Scandrett, 2008
Strategy paper resulting from South-South Policy Forum on Lifelong Learning as the key to Sustainable Development help in Jakarta, UIL, 2008
Learning for Sustainability
Social Learning, towards a sustainable world, A. Wals (ed.), Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2007

Liu Yunhua

Ms. Liu Yunhua has been working in environmental education and education for sustainability for more than 15 years in both formal and non-formal education sectors in China. She is the Director of Shangri-la Institute for Sustainable Communities, which is a non-government organization currently focusing its work in two areas: community-based education for sustainable development on the Tibetan Plateau and education for sustainable water resource management in the Yangtze basin. In the community education area, the Shangri-la Institute works to create and provide opportunities to empower local communities to improve their livelihood, preserve their natural and cultural heritage, and embed the education and empowerment process into the broader social and institutional framework. The Shangri-la Institute also works to promote restoration of ecological integrity of Yangtze through effective public participation by schools and communities in sustainable water resource management.

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Workshop 22: ESD and TVET – developing skills and labor force competencies

Time: 2 April, 9.00-13.00h
Place:
UN-Campus, Room 2705 (No. 2 on map)
Organizer
: Rupert Maclean, Director UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training; Harry Stolte, InWEnt Capacity Building International; Dagmar Winzier, German Federal Agency for Vocational Training

Documents: Background Document; Workshop Report

Dagmar Winzier

Dagmar Winzier is a research fellow at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), a centre of excellence for vocational research and for the progressive development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Germany. With more than 15 years of experience in the field of TVET she is experinced in the development of standards and curricula in vocational education and training (VET) on national and international basis.   Ms. Winzier works in the department “Promotion and Further Development of the VET System”, section “Development Programmes / Pilot projects” with a special focus on ESD and is active in various committees and working groups within the UN Decade for ESD (German National Committee, Round Table, Federal Working Group for VET and continuing training).

Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training 

The Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) is recognised as a centre of excellence for vocational research and for the progressive development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Germany.  The BIBB works to identify future challenges in VET, stimulate innovation in national and international vocational systems, and develop new, practice‐oriented solutions for both initial and continuing VET.  The work done by the BIBB currently revolves around five focal areas:

  • the vocational training market and the employment system;
  • updating vocational training and improving the quality of vocational training;
  • life‐long learning, the permeability and equivalence of training paths;
  • vocational training for specific target groups;
  • the internationality of vocational training.

Since 2003, the BIBB has had a special focus on VET for sustainable development: pilot projects for sustainable development in initial and continual training, research programmes, expert conferences, symposia, internet presence including best‐practice examples, representatives in various UN Decade committees and working groups (German National Committee, Round Table, Working Group for VET and continuing Training).

Dr. Harry Stolte

Dr. Harry Stolte is currently a Head of Division at InWEnt, Capacity Building International in Germany, a worldwide nonprofit organization dedicated to human resource development, advanced training and dialogue. He has been working in the field of TVET for 20 years and specializes in the areas of Curriculum Development, Development of Teaching and Learning Media, as well as TVET Teacher Training. Dr. Stolte is very familiar with projects funded both by the German government and other sources of funding such as fund raising and resource mobilization activities. He also led his institution to have partnership and collaboration with international and regional organization such as ILO and UNESCO.

InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany

InWEnt Capacity Building International is active worldwide in human resource development, advanced training and dialogue. InWEnt works together with people in key positions, assisting them in shaping processes of change in their own countries. Their capacity building programmes are designed for experts and executives from politics, administrations, the business community and civil society. InWEnt qualifies people to pass on their knowledge to others and effect long term structural changes. Their objective is to shape globalisation fairly and encourage sustainable development.

Clients

As an organisation of international cooperation, InWEnt makes an important contribution to fair and sustainable development on behalf of the federal government and the federal states and in cooperation with the German business community.   60 percent of all their programmes are commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). They also work for other federal ministries. InWEnt`s international clients include the European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, and the United Nations.

Range

Their programmes are especially tailored to meet the needs of our partners in developing, transition, and industrialised countries. InWEnt offers job‐specific and practice‐oriented continuing education and training programmes, dialogue events and online courses on their Global Campus 21® e‐learning platform.

InWEnt advises the German business community on its commitment to developing and transition countries. They promote public private partnership projects that unify economic, social and ecological objectives.  InWEnt also prepares international cooperation experts for a stay abroad. They offer young people from Germany the chance to gather work experience worldwide via exchange programmes and help them find scholarships.

Rupert Maclean

Rupert Maclean is Director (Foundation) of the UNESCO‐UNEVOC International Centre for Education in Bonn, and UNESCO Representative to Germany, since May 2001.   Prior to joining UNESCO‐UNEVOC he was Director, Section for Secondary Education at UNESCO Headquarters Paris; Director a.i. of the UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok; Chief of the Asia‐Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development (ACEID) at UNESCO Bangkok; and, the UNESCO Chief Technical Advisor for a United Nations project to strengthen and upgrade teacher education throughout Myanmar.

UNESCO‐UNEVOC International Centre for Education, Germany

The UNESCO‐UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO‐UNEVOC) assists UNESCO's 193 member states strengthen and upgrade their TVET systems. The acquisition of skills for work, and for citizenship, is crucial for economic and social development. It is important for individuals, for communities and, at the aggregate level, for nations. Ideally, TVET is relevant to the needs of the labour market, of high quality, and broadly accessible. This ideal is a far cry from reality for many UNESCO member states and hence UNESCO‐UNEVOC gives priority in its work to those with the greatest need: developing nations, economies in transition and those in a post‐conflict situation. UNESCO‐UNEVOC particularly focuses on contributing to the overarching UNESCO goals in TVET. These are to assist member states improve and integrate TVET as part of the global Education for All Campaign, and also to assist the alignment of TVET with the tenets of sustainable development.

UNESCO‐UNEVOC is also the hub of a world‐wide network of key organisations and institutions specialising in TVET in UNESCO Member States worldwide. This UNEVOC Network includes government ministries, research facilities, planning and training institutions. The UNEVOC Network serves as a platform for information sharing and bringing people together in meetings and workshops as a means to improve TVET in different regions of the world. The UNESCO‐UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training was established in 2000 and was inaugurated in Bonn in 2002. It currently has 10 full‐time staff. In addition, UNEVOC regularly involves experts from various fields as well as interns to contribute to the work.

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