1. Education, Development and Sustainability
Learning, Education and Development: Concepts and Issues
5th February, 2008
Dr Tristan McCowan

2. A world in meltdown? Deforestation, Bolivia
[stats on env destruction etc.]
Climate change / GMOs / biodiversity
Deforestation, Bolivia

3. Favela Morumbi, Sao Paulo, Brazil

4. People, planet and profit? Compatible interests?

5. Evolution of a concept
UN Conference on Human Environment, Stockholm – 1972 International Workshop on Environmental Education, Belgrade – 1975 First Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education, Tbilisi, Georgia – 1977 World Conservation Strategy – 1980 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (The Earth Summit or Rio Summit) – June 1992 Rio +10, Johannesburg – 2002 UN DESD –
This is often presented with a graphic timeline of all the key dates and key international agreements / policies that inform current thinking on ESD. This is a selection of what can be included.

6. Defining sustainable development
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Brundtland Report, 1987 “Sustainable development is …improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems” Caring For the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living, 1991 “Sustainable development means inspiring people in all parts of the world to find solutions that improve their quality of life without storing up problems for the future, or impacting unfairly on other people’s lives.” (DfES 2006)
Report of the Brundtland Commission (1987) Our Common Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
UCN, UNEP, WWF (1991): Caring for the Earth. A Strategy for Sustainable Living. Gland, Switzerland.
Department for Children, Schools and Families, (2006 ) Sustainable schools for pupils, communities and the environment. DfES : London

7. MDG7
Target 1: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Target 2: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
Target 3: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
Target 4: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
These are the Millenium Development Goals.

8. Radical environmentalist
Key critiques
Radical environmentalist
Socialist

9. Rich world problem, poor world solution?
Nelson and the forests of England
The ‘bottom billion’: a right to unsustainable development?
The prisoner’s dilemma
Questions of sovereignty
The role of indigenous peoples / knowledge
International /global action
In last point discuss multiple forms of activity: inter-governmental, grassroots CSO etc.

10. Development education Education for global citizenship
Education for sustainable development
Environmental education

11. Promoting and improving quality education
Aims
Action
Fostering peace Fighting against global warming Reducing North/South inequalities and fighting against poverty Fighting against the marginalization of women and girls A different vision of the world
Promoting and improving quality education
Reorienting educational programmes
Building public understanding and awareness
Providing practical training
(UNESCO 2005)
United Nations Decade of Sustainable Development – see
Mention: UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development , Bonn, Germany, March/April 2009

12. Pedagogical approaches
Discrete subject
Key subjects
Cross-curricular / transdisciplinary (UNESCO 2005b)
Sustainable schools
Holistic approach (Orr 1994)
Teacher education (Shallcross et al. 2006; Ravindranath 2007)
Learning in the community
Education or campaigning?
Orr, D (1994) Environmental literacy : education as if the earth mattered. Nr Bath : Human Scale Education,
Shallcross, T et al (eds) (2006) Creating sustainable environments in our schools. Stoke on Trent : Trentham Books,
Ravindranath, M. J. (2007). Environmental education in teacher education in India:experiences and challenges in the United Nation‟s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Journal of education for teaching, 33, (2),

13. Model 1
Education about sustainable development Education for sustainable development Education through sustainable development

14. Model 2 Separation Harmony Unification ‘Proximity’ of ends and means:
(McCowan 2008)
McCowan, T (2008) Enacting citizenship : a study of three educational initiatives in Brazil Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education,

15. Model 3 Jickling and Wals 2007
Wals, Arjen E. J. (Ed) (2007) Social learning towards a sustainable world : principles, perspectives, and praxis. Wageningen, The Netherlands : Wageningen Academic,
Jickling and Wals 2007

16. Case study: Costa Rica
¿‘Desarrollo sostenible’?: Latin American doubts about SD
CR as environmental trailblazer
Transversal themes in the formal
curriculum
Education in conservation areas
The role of the media
Transferring the experience
(Blum 2008a; 2008b)
Blum, N. (2007) 'Environmental education in Costa Rica: building a framework for sustainable development?', International Journal of Educational Development 28(3), Blum, N. (2008) 'Ethnography and environmental education: understanding the relationships between schools and communities in Costa Rica', Ethnography and Education 3(1), Blum, N. (2009) 'Teaching science or cultivating values? Conservation NGOs and environmental', Environmental Education Research 15(6),
Cloud forest, Costa Rica