Education for Sustainable Development: The Path of Future Learning
In 2010, based on the experience of Beijing and Shanghai, the China National Outline for Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) explicitly called on the country’s educational sector to “attach great importance to Education for Sustainable Education.” Since then the ESD concept has been widely and continuously promoted nationwide. In Beijing, for example, many schools have increased ESD content in the curriculum and improved students’ sustainable learning ability. It teaches students how to collect information, prepare lessons, write reports, evaluate their peers’ reports, cooperate, and work out solutions.
ESD ideas and practices have helped students explore their potential, and have also changed the habits of many teachers. Dai E is a senior teacher of geography at the Middle School affiliated to Beijing Jiaotong University. In the course of introducing ESD to her class, she found her previous teaching model overturned. “Compared with the conventional teaching method, I see changes happening. It’s important to help students master knowledge effectively, but also critical to nurture sustainable learning ability. This enables them to adapt to lifelong study and sustainable development. When calling for sustainable development, we also need to change teaching and study methods!”
Challenges Confronted
However, there are still schools less motivated to join this new trend of education. Many headmasters and teachers still concentrate on exams and scores, and regard ESD as extra-curricular. Local education administrations also fail to give effective guidance on policy and teaching. Furthermore, some education research institutes and experts, due to professional barriers and academic bias, equate ESD with environmental promotion. Lack of media attention contributes to the current situation.
In the last decade, the Chinese National Working Committee for UNESCO Project on ESD has made continuous and all-around efforts. It held training sessions respectively for education officials, headmasters, teachers and researchers. Its expert team went to hundreds of schools to give on-site guidance to teaching and study experiments, encouraging tens of thousands of students to participate in activities relating to climate change, clean energy, sustainable urban development, and cultural diversity. The committee also held 11 large-scale workshops and six sessions of the Beijing International Forum on ESD, which is becoming a platform for Chinese educators to exchange views with their foreign counterparts. Meanwhile, at international conferences the experience of China’s ESD practice, and educational reforms and innovations in China were also introduced to the rest of the world.
This November the Second UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development will be held in Japan. With the theme “Learning Today for a Sustainable Future,” the forum is seen as a conclusion to the last decade and start of the next five years. ESD is expected to be ushered into a new stage featuring state-of-the-art conceptual design and operating strategy. ESD carries the dream of humans achieving balanced development between society, economy, environment and culture, and sustainable development of humanity itself. Let’s work hard together to make the dream come true!
Dr. SHI GENDONG is executive director of China National Working Committee for UNESCO Project on ESD, and research fellow at Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences.
