The Role of Higher Education in the
Search for a More Sustainable Future
Lüneburg, 2011
Charles Hopkins
UNESCO Chair
York University, Toronto
3 Main Sections
1. ESD progress to Date
2. The Role of Higher Ed
3. Moving Forward to 2014 and Beyond in
a Systemic Approach
Many Paths Necessary to SD
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Good legislation/governance
Economic incentives
Overcoming corruption
Environmental protection
Human rights/security
Infrastructure (roads to banking)
40 issues identified in Agenda 21
• Education, Public Awareness
and Training (Ch 36) are key
Education FOR Sustainable
Development (ESD)
• Definition
ESD is the contribution of the
world’s education, public
awareness, and training systems to
learning our way towards a more
sustainable future
The Four Major Thrusts of
ESD
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Access to quality basic education
Reorienting existing education
Public awareness and understanding
Training programs for all sectors
Agenda 21 -92, UNESCO-96, UNCSD -98, JPOI-2002
Clarity
In sustainable development we speak of three
dimensions:
– environmental
– social and
– economic
In ESD we speak of the four thrusts:
– access and retention to quality education
– reorienting current education
– public awareness and understanding
– training
Activity/Implementation
Emergence of a new idea
14
12
10
EXISTING Education
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6
4
2
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Time
ESD and Non-formal Ed
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Much has been accomplished by:
NGO’s
Faith-based groups
The arts community
Media
Institutions- Zoos, Botanical Gardens etc.
Private and public sector training
Approaches to ESD in Formal Ed.
1 Create and add Sustainability Education
Or
Cluster existing adjectival educations to
address “sustainability issues”
Adding ESD
Environmental Education, Population Education, Development
Education, Energy Education, HIV/AIDS Education, Permaculture
Education, Citizenship Education, Democracy Education, Consumer
Education, Media Education, Outdoor Education, Experiential
Education, Workplace Education, Conservation Education, AntiRacist Education, Religious Education, Equity Education, Gender
Education, Holocaust Education, Entrepreneurship Education,
Horticulture Education, Water Education, Global Education, Drug
Education, Sex Education, International Studies, Family Studies,
Human Rights Education, Women's Studies, Native Studies, Values
Education, Natural History Education, Vocational Education,
Economic Education, Anti-smoking Education, Conflict Resolution
Education, Workplace education, Disaster Prevention Education,
Computer Studies, Life-Skills Education, Recycling Education, Civics
Education, Heritage Education, Community Studies, Multicultural
Education, Anti-Violence Education, Systems Thinking Education,
Futures Education, Biodiversity Education, Pioneer Studies,
Nutrition Education, Resource Management Education, Self-Image
Education, Peace Education, Leadership Education, Cooperative
Education, Character Education, Sexual orientation
Education…………….(100 plus)
2 Embed ESD in Existing
Disciplines
This is the goal of most adjectival
education
But usually resisted by the system unless
needed by the system to respond to a
perceived current/urgent societal need.
3 Whole System Reorientation
The intent of Chapter 36
Very difficult to do without a crisis but
possible and underway
A Question for All Societies:
What should our students:
• know,
• be able to do,
• and value enough to act upon,
when they graduate?
The Purpose of Education
Learning:
to know
to do
to be
to live together
Perhaps we can alter this last purpose slightly to:
Learning:
to live together with “others” and “sustainably”?
-Jacques Delors – Learning the Treasure Within: UNESCO
Reorienting Existing Formal Education
Means Addressing:
Not only
• Buildings
• Curriculum
• Practices and actions
But also
• What we value
• What we evaluate
• Monitor and report upon
• Modeling sustainability
Manitoba K-12 Mission Statement
“To ensure that all Manitoba’s children and youth
have access to an array of educational
opportunities such that every learner experiences
success through relevant engaging and high
quality education that prepares
them for lifelong learning and
citizenship in a democratic, socially
just and sustainable society.”
Manitoba Ed Goal
“To ensure education in Manitoba
supports students experiencing and
learning about what it means to
live in a sustainable
manner.”
Initial ESD Interventions in Formal
Education
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Curriculum modification
Energy, Water, Waste Management
Food services
Social programs – racism, equity etc.
Site development
Youth Engagement (CEA)
UNESCO World Conference ESD 2009
• 31 March – 2 April 2009,
• 900 participants from 150
countries, 48 ministers and
vice-ministers
• Objectives: to highlight the
contribution of ESD to quality
education; to promote
international exchange on
ESD; to take stock of
Decade activities; to develop
strategies for the way ahead
3 Main Sections
1. ESD progress to Date
2. The Role of Higher Ed
3. Moving Forward to 2014 and Beyond in a
Systemic Approach
Bonn Declaration-ESD
Recommends:
Engage higher education
• Teacher education institutions
• Work with senior education leaders
• Indigenous/traditional knowledge
Approaches to ESD in IHE
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Student organizations
Individual professors
Department reform and inclusion
Institutes
Systemic reform including
– Mission, practice, monitoring, rewards, etc.
Initial IHE Reorienting
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Greening the campus (savings)
Reputation management
Recruiting strategy
Fund raising
Emerging IHE Reorienting
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Greening the “mind”
Research opportunities
Moving to social sciences
Embedded in practice as well as policy
“Climate change is as much about change
as it is climate”
SD, ESD and Complexity
"The only problems that have simple solutions are
simple problems. The only managers that have simple
problems have simple minds. Problems that arise in
organizations are almost always the products of
interactions of parts (of a system), never the action of
a single part.
Complex problems do not have simple solutions.”
Professor Russell L Ackoff, management thinker, organizational theorist and
Professor Emeritus at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Complexity and Changing Behaviour
There is no simple relationship between
attitudes, engagement and behaviour change.
A very wide range of contextual factors
influence attitudes and constrain behaviour;
habit and routine are also important.
If engagement is undertaken for the purpose
of changing attitudes and/or encouraging
behaviour change, then these wider factors
will also need to be addressed.
WELL-BEING, FOR ALL,
FOREVER.
These simple concepts provide a
starting definition for the complexity of
sustainable development and help
frame the global search for solutions
to the social, economic, and
environmental issues that threaten
the planet.
Key Drivers of Subjective Well-being
RESOURCES AND
CAPABILITIES
Income & wealth
- Knowledge & skills
- Psychological
resources
- Physical health
- Social capital
- Information
- Time
- Political power
ENVIRONMENT
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Natural environment
Infrastructure
Technologies
Product markets
Organizations
Culture (values & norms)
Institutions
laws & regulations
Public policies
Media & marketing
MEANINGFULNESS
- Exceeding self-interest
- Serving others
- Higher purpose
EVERYDAY
ACTIVITIES
AND ROLES
- Worker
- Consumer
- Family member
- Relative
- Friend
- Hobbyist
- Citizen
SUBJECTIVE
WELL-BEING
& HAPPINESS
MENTAL COHERENCE
- Comprehensibility of life
- Manageability of life
MASLOWIAN NEEDS
- Self-actualization
- Self- and social esteem
- Love and belonging
- Security
- Physiological needs
(thirst, hunger,…)
FEEDBACK
Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre:
Métis Holistic Lifelong Learning Model
HE Restructuring Step 1
• Restructure the curriculum, beginning
with graduate programs and proceeding
as quickly as possible to undergraduate
programs. The division-of-labor model
of separate departments is obsolete and
must be replaced with a curriculum
structured like a web or complex
adaptive network. Responsible teaching
and scholarship must become crossdisciplinary and cross-cultural.
HE Sustainability Funding
• Sustainability advocates in the ranks of
higher education are circulating a letter
among college presidents, asking for
their support for a plan to set aside 1
percent of the proceeds from carbonemissions allowances - or up to $1
billion - for such education, reports the
Chronicle of Higher Education.
3 Main Sections
1. ESD progress to Date
2. The Role of Higher Ed
3. Moving Forward to 2014 and
Beyond in a Systemic
Approach
Presenting ESD
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Awareness
Understandable
A “must-have/do”, popular choice but ethical
Seen as “Do-able”
Exemplars from prestigious sources
Cost saving or affordable or prestigious
An opportunity verses a problem
Digestible and manageable
Tony Piggott – CEO J.W. Thompson
Premises of the “Strengths” Model:
a starting point for reorienting ESD
• No single discipline/leader/teacher/employee can do it all
• Every discipline/leader/teacher/employee can contribute
something
• Some individuals or sectors can take lead roles in
directing/managing the reorientation
• Inter-institutional leadership and coordination of these
“strengths/initiatives” are key elements as we “learn” our
way forward
• “Train the trainers” becomes “learn with
the learners”
Ongoing Government Support
IHE and ESD Variables
• Variables
1- How HE is perceived:
Societal good or for the benefit of the individual?
2- Sources of funding
3- Emphasis (teaching, research, service)
The United Nations Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development
(2005 – 2014)
The Objectives for the DESD
• 􀂃 facilitate networking, linkages, exchange
and interaction among stakeholders in ESD;
• 􀂃 foster an increased quality of teaching
and learning in ESD;
• 􀂃 help countries make progress towards
and attain the millennium development goals
through ESD efforts;
• 􀂃 provide countries with new opportunities
to incorporate ESD into education reform
efforts.
Addressing the “HOW”
The global M&E framework involves:
 M&E
Expert Group (MEEG)
 UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
 UNESCO’s Bureau of Strategic Planning (BSP)
 Global Monitoring Report (GMR) for EFA
 Programme Team leaders (UNESCO’s Plan)
 DESD Reference Group
 DESD Secretariat
Tracking the Reorienting Process
•Natural sciences
•Teaching about SD
•Environmental studies
•Individuals at IHE
•Climate change research
•Water
•Eco-school
•Green Economics
Handprints
Today
•Recycling
•Energy savings
•Water/waste reduction
•Green purchasing
•Cafeteria composting
•Water bottle bans
•Food source and handling
•Green buildings
•Transportation
Exploratory &
assessment
Action &
embedded
Greening &
cost saving
Useful to all of
society
•Natural and social sciences
•Teaching for SD
• Overarching principle at IHE
•Transdisciplinary approach
•Focus on informed action
•Assessment and reporting
•Values /Ethics embedded (EC)
Tomorrow
•Exemplary models
•Embedded throughout
•Community partnership
•Greening all school design
•Corporate Citizenship
•Full Cost Accounting
•Tracking and reporting
Footprints
(Enviromental, social, economic)
DESD 2014 and Beyond
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Celebrations Japan and around the world
Formal meeting plus related satellite events
Building the next phase – global work program
Widening partnerships-Private/public sectors
Creating synergy with EFA, MDGs, Rio+20
Synergy with UN Agencies, INGOs and NGOs
• Higher education
• Institutions
Radical Hope
www.handsforchange.org