The Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit Rosalyn McKeown, Ph.D. University of Tennessee

The Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit Funded by The Waste Management Research and Education Institute

ESD Toolkit: is an easy-to-use manual that will help educators and community leaders create education for sustainable development programs. Is based on the ideas that communities and educational systems within those communities could dovetail their efforts to achieve community sustainability goals.

ESD Toolkit: Is designed to help schools and communities develop a process to create locally relevant and culturally appropriate education. Promotes creating a process for designing your own sustainability education program. Available in HTML or PDF on WWW at no charge to the user.

ESD Toolkit create for USA, but Written for a North American audience. To my surprise, it is used around the world. 100,000+ hits on WWW. Request for permission to translate into 17+ languages. Used by teacher education programs, universities, NGOS, governmental agencies, community development, private sector, etc.

ESD Toolkit contains: An introduction to sustainability. A description of the major thrusts and components of education for sustainable development. A discussion of 12 major issues that have slowed the progress of ESD.

ESD Toolkit contains: A case study of the Toronto Board of Education's community consultation and subsequent curriculum revision that indirectly addressed ESD as a result of the citizens' visions and desires. A description of management techniques for initiating change in schools.

ESD Toolkit contains: A brief description of public participation methods for including the citizenry in community decisions regarding sustainability and ESD. Exercises to help schools and communities to: understand sustainability, create sustainability goals, reorient the curriculum to address sustainability, and initiate change within an educational system.

ESD Toolkit contains: Links to other Web sites on sustainability, education for sustainability, historic United Nations documents, and communities that have developed sustainability plans.

Design criteria for ESD Toolkit be locally relevant and culturally appropriate. be based on local needs, perception, and conditions. engage formal, nonformal, and informal education. be a life-long endeavor. accommodate the evolving nature of the concept of sustainability. address content, context, pedagogy, global issues, and local priorities.

Warning: ESD Toolkit should not promote: imported from another cultural, economic, or geographic region. one size fits all. developed by people who are unfamiliar with local environmental, cultural, or economic conditions.

ESD Toolkit is based on design criteria and the “Strengths Model.”

The Strengths Model ESD is such a large task that efforts from many people and disciplines are needed to make progress. Elements of the Strengths Model: Every discipline can contribute to ESD. Every teacher can contribute to ESD. Every administrator can contribute to ESD. No one discipline should claim ownership of ESD.

Strengths Model cont. Each discipline contributes knowledge and skills. Each discipline contributes pedagogical methods. Someone needs to pull together the disciplinary and pedagogical pieces to form a comprehensive ESD program.

Strengths Model Examples Mathematics helps students understand extremely small numbers (e.g., parts per hundred, thousand, or million), which allows them to interpret pollution data. Language Arts, especially media literacy, creates knowledgeable consumers who can analyze the messages of corporate advertisers and see beyond "green wash." History teaches the concept of global change, while helping students to recognize that change has occurred for centuries.

Strengths Model Examples cont. Reading develops the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion and helps students become critical readers of political campaign literature. Social Studies helps students to understand ethnocentrism, racism, and gender inequity as well as to recognize how these are expressed in the surrounding community and nations worldwide.

Note the difference Education about sustainable development is an awareness lesson or theoretical discussion. Education for sustainable development is the use of education as a tool to transform our societies to achieve sustainability.

Education: Promise and Paradox Education is conceptualized as a great hope for a more sustainable world. However, we know that the most educated nations leave the deepest ecological footprints. Clearly, simply education citizenry to higher levels is not sufficient.

The ESD Toolkit gives users a process for creating their own locally relevant and culturally appropriate ESD programs.

Exercises to Introduce the Concept of Sustainable Development

Exercises to Create Community Sustainability Goals.

Exercises to Reorient Education to Address Sustainability

What is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)? Improving access to quality basic education, Reorienting existing education, Improving public understanding and awareness, and Providing training.

Reorienting Education: A beginning step is to complete the matrix

Exercises on Managing Change

Managing Change: Reorienting education to address sustainability will require change at every level. Change in curriculum, programs, practices, and policies. All this change will require planning and skill to implement.

Main themes from ESD Toolkit ESD must be locally relevant and culturally appropriate, reflecting the environmental, economic, and social conditions of your community. ESD should be created through a process of public participation in which stakeholders from across the community can express their visions for a sustainable community and what an education reoriented to address sustainability should include.

Main themes from ESD Toolkit cont. Each discipline, teacher, and administrator can contribute to ESD according to the strengths model. Communities and school systems should work together to achieve community sustainability goals.

Education is our great hope for a sustainable future. By taking on the important task of implementing ESD you are bringing the possibility of a more sustainable future to your community and nation.

Reference Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit By Rosalyn McKeown, Charles Hopkins, Regina Rizzi, and Marianne Chrystalbridge. Funded by the Waste Management Research and Education Institute.

Contact Information Dr. Rosalyn McKeown, Director Center for Geography and Environmental Education University of Tennessee 311 Conference Center Bldg. Knoxville TN USA Telephone Fax