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Contributing to sustainable development
Suzanne Benn and Jessica North, The Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability
E
ducation has always been vital to equipping people for
change. Over countless generations we have learned to
find food, to build shelter, to use tools and to express
our creativity in myriad ways. Indeed, our education has been
so successful that now we need to learn something new: how to
meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs.
1
The Ahmedabad Declaration
2
states: “We must reconsider our tools,
methods and approaches, our politics and economics, our relation-
ships and partnerships, and the very foundations and purpose of
education and how it relates to the lives we lead.” To address this
challenge, our entire education system needs to have at its core
the sustainability principles of both intergenerational and intra-
generational equity. In addition, the skills associated with change
for sustainability, such as envisioning a better future, critical and
systems thinking, participation and collaboration also need to be
mainstreamed. These skills are helpful in the following ways:
•
Envisioning a better future
creates a mental and emotional link
between our immediate actions and our long-term goals
•
Critical thinking
challenges us to question the symptoms of
unsustainable practice
•
Systems thinking
allows us to appreciate that
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and
provides a way of understanding complex situations
•
Participation
involves us in joint analysis and
planning, and puts the decision-making and respon-
sibility for outcomes in the hands of the participants
•
Participation and collaboration
help to build a shared
vision amongst a diverse range of stakeholders, and to
strengthen ownership and commitment to action.
“We need a shared commitment to education that
empowers people for change. Such education should be
of a quality that provides the values, knowledge, skills
and competencies for sustainable living and participa-
tion in society.”
The Bonn Declaration
3
As a contribution to the United Nations Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), the
Australian Government produced a National Action
Plan for Education for Sustainability,
4
a key theme of
which is to foster sustainability across community, busi-
ness and government, as well as across the traditional
education system. The Australian Research Institute in
Education for Sustainability (ARIES)
5
has been imple-
menting the following innovative ideas to foster and
support education for sustainable development across
this range of sectors in Australia.
Teaching teachers
Supported by national and state education policies and
professional development programmes such as the
Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative,
6
Australia
is taking a whole-of-school, system-wide approach
to embed sustainability in educational policies,
programmes, procedures and systems. As part of this
approach, ARIES has focused on that most fundamental
education: the teaching of teachers. Through the main-
streaming of education for sustainable development
(ESD) in pre-service teacher education, future teach-
ers are enabled to provide their future students with
the knowledge and skills to respond to the complex
sustainability issues they will encounter throughout
their lives.
In Stage 1 of this programme,
7
effective models of
change were compared. A whole-systems approach
combined with action research was identified as the
approach most likely to deliver the required levels
of change. In Stage 2 the model was piloted and key
agents of change within the education system were
Students are encouraged to develop their understanding of ESD
Image: Katy Tomkins