Journal of Education for Sustainable Development

Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable development (ESD). In this paper, we explore the ideas behind ESD and, building on work by Foster and by Scott and Gough, we argue that it is necessary now to think of two complementary approaches: ESD 1 and ESD 2. We see ESD 1 as the promotion of informed, skilled behaviours and ways of thinking, useful in the short-term where the need is clearly identified and agreed, and ESD 2 as building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living. We note the prevalence of ESD 1 approaches, especially from policy makers; this is a concern because people rarely change their behaviour in response to a rational call to do so, and more importantly, too much successful ESD 1 in isolation would reduce our capacity to manage change ourselves and therefore make us less sustainable. We argue that ESD 2 is a necessary complement to ESD 1, making it meaningful in a learning sense. In this way we avoid an either-or debate in favour of a yes-and approach that constantly challenges us to understand what we are communicating, how we are going about it and, crucially, why we are doing it in the first place.

This article presents an overview of a community development service learning programme operating in the Greek Ionian Island community of Farsa Village. The philosophical approach of the Kefalonia Program is one of ‘threading the past with the future’. It seeks to combine traditional knowledge with contemporary technologies in order to create a sustainable future for a community that was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1953. The village provides a case study for collaboration, research and community education for students, teachers, researchers, nonprofit organisations, island governments and, in particular, the local Farsan Village community. As a catalyst, the programme has engaged the local community in an active planning process, which both reawakens the dream of village restoration and provides a common vision for the future.

This article argues that food issues are an appropriate, if not necessary, topic for education for sustainable development (ESD) both in terms of teaching and institutional practice. The first section summarises critical topics for a school or university course on food. The second section cites two examples of university efforts—at the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of New Hampshire—to create more humane and sustainable campus food systems.

Research on education for sustainable development (ESD) is not a unified body of work and, much like the literature for environmental education (EE), research is published in many arenas. The trends, however, capture some of the major foci of the research that is emerging on ESD, especially in the early years of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). This article attempts to frame some of the themes in which ESD research is emerging in the United States.

The concept of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been enthusiastically embraced by a diverse array of actors since it was first introduced by the United Nations University (UNU) in 2004. An RCE is conceived of as a ‘network’ of existing organisations of formal, nonformal and informal education, mobilised to promote ESD at the local-regional level. Derived from experiences of mobilising RCEs around the globe, this article offers a range of strategic concepts to explain and facilitate the transformation of RCEs into value-adding localised networks constituting a global network—an emerging ‘Global Learning Space for Sustainable Development’.

Monitoring and evaluation has been identified as one of seven key strategies for advancing the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). The UN International Implementation Scheme for the Decade has called for the development of relevant and suitable indicators at all levels. Choosing appropriate education for sustainable development (ESD) indicators requires clearly articulated goals for DESD and an understanding of what indicators can and cannot assess. Recent experiences with ESD indicators can help us navigate our way through what can be complex territory. This paper reviews current ESD indicator initiatives worldwide and focuses on the UNECE and UNESCO-IUCN Asia-Pacific efforts. These initiatives help identify relevant indicator frameworks and valuable learnings about engaging stakeholders in the development and implementation of indicators. Work on ESD indicators is positioned within the UNESCO Global Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, to be released in mid 2008.