Education
for Sustainable Development
Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) seeks to integrate the tenets, values and practices of
sustainable development into all aspects of education and
learning. ESD aims at providing every individual with the opportunity
to acquire the values, competencies, knowledge and skills that enable him or
her to contribute to a humane, socially just, economically viable and
ecologically sustainable future. Among other things, ESD promotes a
sense of both local and global responsibility, encourages future-oriented,
anticipatory thinking, builds recognition of global interdependence and
emphasizes cultural changes that embrace the values of sustainable development.
Rather than remaining passive in the face of the above-mentioned
challenges, ESDseeks to empower societies, communities and individuals
everywhere to shape their future actively and responsibly. ESD raises
interesting questions, for example, about learning how to generate creative
solutions to current global challenges; about reflecting on new lifestyles
which combine well-being, quality of life and respect for nature and other
people; and about considering the viewpoints of people from different countries
about what sustainability means in practice.
ESD is relevant not only
to formal education settings, training and workplace learning but also to
public awareness-raising and non-formal and informal learning of many kinds.
Thus, ESD should not be seen narrowly as another subject or concern
to be added onto the formal education system or a workplace training programme.
Rather,ESD is a teaching and learning process through which understanding
of and orientation towards sustainable development become embedded in the core
education and learning processes to be found in societies everywhere.
In whatever
setting, ESD encourages an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to
teaching and learning and promotes critical and creative thinking in the
educational process. It therefore implies new ways of teaching and learning.
The aim of ESD - for individuals to act responsibly in a globalized
world - must be integrated into the manner in which all learning occurs:
life-long and life-wide, in the workplace, the home and throughout society in
general. To holistically address the development ofESD initiatives, four
main thrusts have been identified: access to quality education, the reorienting
of existing education systems to address sustainability concerns, public
awareness and understanding initiatives, and training programmes to address
specific social, environmental and economic sustainability issues.
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