By: Luísa Carolina

Registered by: Jéssica Rodrigues

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has turned into a key element of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development goals. Besides that, the growing need to give greater attention to sustainability demands a major comprehensive elaboration of the role of ALE and also the contributions and support that adult learning and education has the capacity to make in this context.

According to its activities at the interface of adult education and development, DVV International framed its comprehension of ESD from a global point of view based on their involvement and regular monitoring at the global level on how different partner countries have engaged with the process.

The text is composed of a summary of the evolution and development of international policy on Education for Sustainable Development, a thematic classification, the principal target groups, key educational strategies and competences which teachers and learners need in order to become agents of change for sustainable development.

Below, you can read a summary of the paper.

The Role of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) - (summary):

ESD - Education for Sustainable Development is an essential part of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals and the Education Agenda 2030 from UNESCO (SDG 4) that comprises the period 2015 - 2030. ESD can be found at SDG sub-goal 4.7, which is additionally called the “brand essence of the education agenda.”

1. Historically, the development of ESD looks back to the report about “The Limits to Growth - A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind.” This report called for “a way of life that preserves livelihood and ensures the basic living needs of all people.” The Brundtlandt Report of 1987 enlightened the need for “a global approach to development that meets the needs of the present and those of future generations.”  In 1992, during the UNCED - UN Conference on Environment and Development that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Agenda 21 was adopted by the United Nations. The Agenda “set out guidelines for sustainable development in the 21st century” and recognized education “as one of the key areas for action.” At the Rio+10 World Summit in Johannesburg, ten years later, the central importance of education was reiterated. For the years 2005 to 2014, the United Nations embraced the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, in which national governments should introduce the “approach of sustainability into their respective education systems and strategies.”
2. In 2015, the GAP - UNESCO Global Action Program on “Education for Sustainable Development” - was introduced. The aim was to enhance “the change of education systems towards more sustainability and to bring ESD even more from theory to practice.” According to this, five priority fields of action have been defined with the aim to make sustainable thinking and actions in all educational areas stronger. In summary, these fields cover expanded political support, the holistic transformation of teaching and learning environments, competence development through teachers and multipliers, empowerment and also the mobilization of young people and, to finish, the building of sustainable development at the local level.

United Nations Education Agenda (SDG-4 of the 2030 Agenda):

In general, the 2030 Agenda, the education goal (SDG 4) and the ESD-related sub-goal 4.7, open up newly arrived scopes and fields of action for adult education in the present debate about sustainability. SDG 4.7 can be comprehended as a key goal for the totality of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a result of its cross-cutting nature. It is crucial for the communication and the acceptance of the 2030 Agenda and essential to promote competencies that make possible the solid execution of the aims. This is even more illustrated by the thematic classification of ESD, which will be detailed below, and additional explanations that can be found in the paper.

1. ESD is, in the Education Agenda 2030, explicitly addressed by the Sustainable Development Goal 4.7, but works as a cross-cutting issue in relation to the achievement of all SDGs. In addition, Education for Sustainable Development covers various topics, includes ecological responsibility, environmental protection, climate change and addresses the promotion of political development and economical and social sustainability. It also makes solid contributions to education for climate and environment, responsible consumption and the empowerment of solidarity and socially acceptable living conditions. ESD is closely connected with the concept of global citizenship education (GCED) and helps to affirm through its measures: Respect for human rights, peacekeeping, tolerance, active citizenship and also the empowerment of democracy and addresses issues that are connected to present-day challenges facing the global community in local, national and global contexts.

1. The broad range of ESD topics is cross-generational and, in regard to lifelong learning, it is crucial for all people. On that note, adult education is of particular importance, because it not only transmits knowledge, but also stimulates students to act on their own accord and question critically, denoting a transformative education. People are qualified to enhance their comprehension of the connections and effects that their lifestyle causes on climate and on the environment and to reflect and decide upon their political actions and consumption in the future. As regards to the professional qualifications and further education procedures, adult educators propagate knowledge, competences and approaches to sustainable production and also local economic practices, besides promoting sustainable management of the immediate environment, whether private or professional.

1. Civic education, as a central support of adult education, builds up critical citizen participation and emancipation and also a confrontation with social power relations with the ambition of making society inclusive and fairer. ESD instructs people about their rights and freedoms and motivates them to think about related interactions with their fellow human beings. Adult education can be applied specifically in environments and circumstances where inequality is present, makes disadvantaged groups stronger in their participation, promotes a critical analysis of gender roles and power relations and raises awareness of discrimination and racial prejudice, plays a central role in the provision of skills that develop social responsibility and stimulates civic engagement. It is of a high importance, since students are not only role models for younger people, but the ones that make political decisions in the present. Due to its non-formal approach, interdisciplinarity and activating a variety of methods, this teaching modality is more qualified than any other educational sector to spread interrelationships across topics, to provide orientation for action and to promote sustainable development.

Target groups:

The goal set by SDG 4.7 is that, by the year 2030, all students should obtain knowledge and skills that are essential for the promotion of sustainable development. This elucidates that the transfer of knowledge, skills and abilities about ESD is a task of formal education, but not only formal education. It is also a task of adult education and non-formal education and of your vast group of actors and institutions.

Among the target groups are included

:

• Governmental actors and political decision makers;
• Civil society organizations, networks and adult education associations;
• Community Learning Centers and supporting structures of adult education;
• Multipliers, teachers and administrative/management staff working in Community Learning Centers;
• Learners, learning groups, local communities.

Educational approaches:

With the aim of reaching sustainable global change, it is also essential to change educational organizations, systems and content, both in formal education and non-formal education. Adult education has an important role to play because of its interdisciplinary orientation, diversity of content and methods, focus on the interests and needs of the core audience and inclusion, on the path to converting to a world that is more sustainable and fair. Not only children and young people are impacted by Education for Sustainable Development measures, but also adults, because they are role models, are able to drive the transformation of society in the present and are in decision-making positions.

To conclude, ESD - Education for Sustainable Development, concentrates on a holistic and global view of our elaborated world. ESD learning processes ought to inspire people to look at a topic from a diversity of points of view, that there can be distinctive ways of thinking, technical approaches and narratives, references, areas (local to global) and temporal viewpoints and interests. Its aim is not to dictate values, but to engage in a discourse on values that makes the multiplicity of knowledge, ideas, views and beliefs that exist together, visible.

You can access the news and the paper at these links, respectively:

https://www.dvv-international.de/en/our-work/news/detail/adult-learning-and-education-in-the-context-of-education-for-sustainable-development

 https://www.dvv-international.de/fileadmin/files/Inhalte_Bilder_und_Dokumente/News/2021/10_The_Role_of_ale_in_ESD_-_final.pdf