goteborgs recommendation on education for sustainable development

8/14/2019 Goteborgs Recommendation on Education for Sustainable Development

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The Gothenburg

Recommendations

on Education or

SustainableDevelopment

Adopted November 12, 2008


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CONTENTS

Introduction 3

General recommendations 5

1. Access or all to a process o lielong learning 6

2. Gender 8

3. Learning or change 10

4. Networs, arenas and partnerships 12

5. Proessional development to strengthen

ESD across all sectors 14

6. ESD in curriculum 167. Sustainable development in practise 18

8. Research 20

Speciic recommendations 23

Early Childhood Education 25

Schools and Teacher Education Institutions 35

Higher Education 43

Inormal and Non-ormal Education 49

Bacground to the Gothenburg Recommendations

on Education or Sustainable Development 55


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Adopted November 12, 2008

This boolet is produced with fnancial support romthe Swedish Ministry o Education and Research,

the Swedish National Commission or UNESCO

and the Swedish International Centre o Education

or Sustainable Development (SWEDESD).

The Gothenburg

Recommendations

on Education or

SustainableDevelopment

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Tis document calls ongovernments, civil society and inparticular educators to prioritize processes that develop and strengtheneducation or sustainable development (ESD).

Te world has changed since the UN World Summit on Sustainable

Development in 2002. While there have been signicant initiatives and

progress has been made, the scale o eort is still overshadowed by the scope

o the problem. For instance, human-induced climate change is creating a

long-lasting ecological crisis with severe economic and social consequences.

Recently the global economic crisis has drawn attention to the problem

o borrowing rom resources that do not exist. Poverty, conict and social

injustice remain critical issues on the global agenda.

A renewed sense o commitment to the UN Decade o Education or

Sustainable Development 2005-2014 is required. Formal, inormal and

non-ormal education and learning processes or sustainability must be

strengthened and prioritized. Tis document supports and builds on the

concepts and values that are put orward within UNESCOs International

Implementation Scheme or Education or Sustainable Development and inthe Earth Charter.

Te purpose o ESD is to reorient education in order to contribute to a

sustainable uture or the common good o present and uture generations.

ESD recognizes the interdependence o environmental, social and economic

perspectives and the dependence o humanity on a healthy biosphere.

Participation and involvement are necessary components o ESD, with an

emphasis on empowerment and agency or active citizenship, human rights

and societal change. Re-orientation is necessary at all levels and in all phases

o education, and encompasses community learning, thus making ESD a

wider process challenging the orm and purpose o education itsel.

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General

Recommendations

The Gothenburg recommendations have been

produced during a broad international process between

the years o 2001-2008, see the document

Learning or Sustainable Development

The Gothenburg Story page 55.

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Access or allto a process

o lielonglearning

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Early childhood is a natural starting point or ESD in order topromote educational access or all people within a process o lie

long learning. Education has the enormous challenge o reorienting

curricula and learning processes towards sustainability and ensuring

proessional development o educators to take up these new chal-

lenges. Such a process should be a dialogic and participatory process

o learning which values the knowledge and experience that people

bring to education. Access or all to education is a necessary, but in-

sufcient condition or ESD. ESD needs to transcend understand-

ings o access or all, and be o a quality and orm that helps society

to reorient and transorm towards sustainability.

G E N E R A L R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S l 7


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Gender

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ESD should actively promote critical engagement with normsthat dene gendered ways o being, doing and living together, and

should particularly value the role and contribution o women in

bringing about social change and ensuring human well-being.

G E N E R A L R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S l 9


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Learningor change

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Learning or change is based on relating multiple perspectives toeach other at all times.

Tese perspectives include: space, time, culture and dierent

disciplines, as well as a non-anthropogenic perspective. ESD

development is based on principles and values as well as a holistic

and interdisciplinary approach. Tis involves learning to know,

learning to do and learning to be, and learning to live together

and should involve translation o knowledge into real lie con-

texts. It should include empowerment or acting or social change,

examining identities, perspectives and power relations, and should

include critical media literacy and action competence. Working

with multiple perspectives will require acknowledgement o, and

respect or, contested views and interests, and recognition that

these are a valuable source or intercultural dialogue, learning andreexivity.

G E N E R A L R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S l 1 1


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Networs,arenas and

partnerships

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ESD should promote relationships between dierent educationallevels, sites and perspectives, and recognize that they are inter-

dependent in the wider context o social reorientation towards sus-

tainability. Networks and partnerships that strengthen international

and intercultural cooperation and knowledge exchange should be

extended and supported. Tis should oster dialogue, and create

new arenas or local and global interaction and change, and dier-

ent ways o sharing and using resources. At a community level new

arenas or dialogue and interchange should also be oriented towards

the local/global interace, and social change. Further, emphasizing

relationships and interdependencies in ESD involves integrating

research and practice.



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Proessionaldevelopment

to strengthenESD across all

sectors

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In order to strengthen ESD, proessional development must includeteacher education, proessional education or educational leaders,

and community educators. Education o extension ofcers, business

trainers, journalists and others involved in education in its widest

sense are equally important.

Proessional development should be participatory in orientation

and should empower educators involved in ESD to share their

knowledge and experience widely. Participation, building on exist-

ing knowledge and experience in such proessional development, is

important in learning and democracy.



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ESD incurriculum

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ESD should be embedded in curricula, steering documents, andlearning materials. Tis includes curriculum review and develop-

ment o new curricula.

Reorientation o education requires that multi-, inter- and trans-

disciplinary curriculum approaches be developed to extend beyond

current disciplinary approaches to working with knowledge. Tis

should involve bringing in other orms o knowledge that exist into

ormal curriculum.



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Sustainabledevelopment

in practise

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Educational settings should practice values and principles osustainable development to provide learners to participate in and

model solutions to sustainable development issues.

Tis would expand the space or ESD to allow or the development

o new behaviour norms in educational settings.



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Research

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Tere is a need to promote research, evaluation and practitionerenquiry in order to strengthen and extend education or sustainable

development. Research must embrace the multiple sites and oci

o ESD, include community participatory research, and mobilize

indigenous and local knowledge.

Further, it is necessary to support transdisciplinary research and

engage civil society in creating solutions to sustainability problems

and social change.



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Speciic

Recommendations

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Early Childhood Education

Authors: Julie Davies, Ingrid Engdahl, Lorraine Otieno,

Ingrid Pramling-Samuelsson, John Siraj-Blatchford, Priya Vallabh

Tese recommendations are grounded on notions that children

are competent, active agents in their own lives. Tey are aected

by, and capable o, engaging with complex environmental and

social issues. Tey steer away rom romanticized notions o child-

hood as an arena o innocent play that positions all children as

leading exclusively sheltered, sae and happy lives untouched by

events around them.

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ACCESS FOR ALL O A PROCESS OF LIFELONG

LEARNING

It is imperative that Early Childhood Education (ECE) is recognized asthe starting point or lielong learning within education or sustainability.Tere are still a large proportion o children who do not have access to

ECE. As ECE oers such a valuable starting point or Early ChildhoodEducation or Sustainability (ECES), is thereore o highest priority thataccess to all ECE services is also enabled or all children.

As emphasized in the preamble, it is within these early years that childrenpresent the greatest ability to learn and develop. ECES has the potentialto oster socio-environmental resilience based on interdependenceand critical thinking, setting oundations or lives characterised by selrespect, respect or others, and respect or the environment. All eorts todevelop education or sustainability at every level should thereore con-sider the relevance o their work to, and the quality o their engagementwith, young children and the early childhood community.

ACION POIN: PrioritiseaccesstoECEforallchildrenasimperativetotheirhealthydevelopment and lie-long learning towards a sustainable uture.

GENDER

ECE is a highly gendered eld. It is a potential starting point or identiy-ing, critically analysing and engaging with the important contributionsthat women rom diverse contexts oer to educational practice broadlyand to child development and Education or Sustainability (ES). It alsooers the opportunity to critically engage with the roles o men withinthe eld, especially in terms o their impact as role-models or youngboys. Tese same gendered issues and opportunities also relate to ECES.

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Tere are strong reasons why we should take gender into consideration not least among them is the ongoing challenge o all girls into education.Girls education is a special global priority as they are currently greatlyunder-represented in terms o educational enrolment and their educationprovides sustainable benets to societies in terms o amily income, latermarriage and reduced ertility rates, reduced inant and maternal mortal-

ity (including HIV/AIDS).

ACION POINS:

Criticalresearchintogenderedapproachesofteachingandlearningembedded within the ECES eld needs to be conducted and shared.

ereisaneedtocriticallyengagewiththewaysinwhichwomenandmen contribute dierently to laying oundations o lie-long learningwithin a broad variety o educational contexts.

ereisaneedtorecognizeandcelebratearelationalapproachoftendemonstrated by women, in particular, within the ECES eld, and toadopt or translate this approach to other elds and disciplines.

Commitresourcesspecicallytoencouragetheearlyandcontinuingeducation o girls.

LEARNING FOR CHANGE

ECE has strong traditions o curriculum integration, engagement withthe lived environment and child participation, which align well withES. ECES can thus readily build on these oundations and embrace thecomplexities o transormative learning.



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We know rom experience and research that even very young childrenare capable o sophisticated thinking in relation to socio-environmentalissues and that the earlier ES ideas are introduced the greater the impactcan be. o reiterate, ECE is a key step or all ES. Furthermore, childrenare potential agents or change, and oten inuence their amilies andgrandparents to change towards more sustainable thinking and be-

haviours.

Tere is, thereore, a need to urther develop existing ECE approachesthat lean on the experiences that children bring rom their everyday livesand where problem-solving and solution seeking are relevant to sustain-able living.

ACION POINS:

PrioritizeECEasarststepinlearningtolivesustainably.isincludes international educational and social development resourceallocation, policy prioritization and cross-sectoral support (includingwith social and community workers, ormal and higher education, andother community support structures).

Buildcapacityofcommunitiesandfamilies,tostrengthentheirroleswithin learning, doing and being, with an emphasis on inter-genera-tional learning.

NEWORKS, ARENAS AND PARNERSHIPS:

We are aware that good practices that integrate indigenous knowledge,sustainable living practices, basic human rights and learning throughexperience and doing already do exist in many community ECESprovisions. However, these practices remain largely undocumented andun-promoted.



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Children live dierent childhoods. Tere is a need not to romanticise,but to critically engage in the varied contextualised approaches, and todocument and share successul practices.

ACION POINS:

DevelopandpromoteECEfSframeworks,approachesandpractices

that are strong on amily and community participation, indigenouscommunity knowledge, and every day and immediate issues related tosustainability.

AsfaraspossibleECEfSprojectsshould:a)contributetowardsinter-cultural understanding and a wider recognition o mutual interdepend-ency, and, b) involve local collaborations that provide access to, and a

greater visibility o, community contributions and cultural heritage.

Developabroad-basedglobalallianceandinternationalcommunityofECES practitioners, inormal and ormal teacher educators, policy-makers and researchers to collaborate in eorts to raising the prole oECE, improve its development and implementation o ECES and tobuild communities o practice.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMEN O

SRENGHEN ESD ACROSS ALL

As ECE is oundational or lielong learning, there is an urgent need or

capacity building within practitioners and other members o society toorm strong saety nets and communities or young children, includingstrengthening the capabilities o their primary caregivers in a traditionthat embraces sustainability.




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ACION POINS:

ExplicitprofessionaldevelopmentinEfSforECEpractitionersandthose in the extended community who work with young children isneeded. Similarly, the broader ES community needs explicit proes-sional development in ECE.

ESD IN CURRICULUM

ECE has a tradition o integrated curriculum approaches embedded inchildrens everyday lives, even i not always ully enacted. Such approach-es need to be more widely adopted into the ormal curricula o schoolingand into inormal and non-ormal learning approaches.

ACION POINS:

ReworkthetraditionalECEapproachestobetterservetheneedsofsustainability including stronger support ro the implementation ointegrated curricula.

Buildcollaborationwithformal,informalandnon-formaleducationalservices and systems that build on the oundations developed withinECES. Tese include: primary and secondary schools; higher educa-tion; inormal learning programmes; local, national and internationaldecision makers and curriculum developers.

erearechallengesintheimplementationofidealECEcurricula.

Stronger support or the implementation o integrated curricula stillneeds to be realized in many contexts.

Curriculumdevelopmentandre-orientationshouldincludechildrenasactive participants, as well as adults (teachers, parents and others), thushelping to ensure the relevance o content to childrens everyday livesand their development as active citizens o sustainability.




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SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENTINPRACTICE

Te group recognises that you live as you teach is very important. ECEsettings and services need to be places where sustainability is practiced. Tismeans that all early childhood education settings should examine their ownecological ootprints and work towards reducing waste in energy, water

and materials. Tey should aim to live out democratic and participatorysocial practices. Tey should practice what they teach.

ACION POINS:

SupportthedevelopmentofwholeofsettingsapproachestoEduca-tion or Sustainable Development where the goal is to create a cultureo sustainability.

CreatenewtraditionsthatcelebrategoodpracticesinECEfS,includ-ing awards, estivals, exhibitions and prizes.

RESEARCH

As an emerging eld o practice, ECES is seriously under-researched.Tis must be remedied in order to build the eld on an evidence-base ocritique, reection and creativity.

ACION POINS:

IncreasetheallocationofresourcesforresearchinECEfS.

Initiateresearchstudiesthatareparticipatoryandaction-centered,through transdiciplinary collaboration with proessionals rom allsectors and disciplines.

EnablestructuresandprocessesthatsupportECEfSpractitionerstoconduct their own research studies.




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Providegreaterresearchmentoringandcapacitybuilding.Whileim-portant everywhere, this is especially important in industrially develop-ing countries where signicant portions o research are still conductedby researchers who have no experience in teaching ECE in the sector.



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Schools and TeacherEducation Institutions

Authors: Inger Bjrneloo, David Chapman,

Charles Hopkins, Mark Rickinson

While school systems cannot reorient societies on their own, the

proound societal change that is needed will not occur without

engaging the worlds 60,000,000 teachers and the systems that

support and direct them. Engaging these systems will not be

easy as many causes and initiatives are currently seeking entry

into the curriculum. Furthermore, the ESD initiative is relatively

unknown to many o the worlds ormal education systems. o

make matters even more difcult the perspectives and values that

underpin current schooling are possibly the antithesis o what isneeded to mold a sustainable uture.



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In spite o these challenges, all ministries o education are

encouraged to consider their social responsibilities and to develop

plans o action, collaboratively, with schools and teacher educa-

tion institutions as ull partners, in order to maximize the impact

they can have with their available capability. Tis system-wideapproach will require the reorientation o pedagogy, learning

materials, assessment systems and even teacher education. It

requires a re-examination o how schools relate to, connect with,

and draw upon resources rom the wider community.

o actualize the proound reorientation o schools and teacher

education institutions that is required to address ESD in a

meaningul way, Member States need to acknowledge that

addressing ESD is a core priority.



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LEARNING

Strengthen Teacher Education Institutions to address the need formillions of additional teachers that will be needed globally.

Tere are currently approximately 90 million students between the ageso 6 and 11 years who are not enrolled in schools. In addition, this goalo six years o basic education (6 to 11 years) is not sufcient to equipone to live ully and ignores the benets o schooling in the adolescentyears. Hundreds o millions o students are not receiving any secondaryschooling and less than 1 percent o the population has access to a uni-versity. Te UNESCO gure o 80 million additional teachers currently

required to meet the Millennium Development Goals, Education For Alland the Literacy Decade does not address the additional need or a largeteacher replacement programme. Te current salary levels in many count-ries and the impact o HIV results in a massive loss o teachers that mustbe addressed. o urther compound the problem, the issue o the millionso under-educated youth in all societies is also an ESD issue.

GENDER AND EQUIY

Support educational policy-makers and practitioners in developingESD programmes and approaches that respond to gender equality.

Gender and equity issues must be mainstreamed throughout educationalplanning rom inrastructure planning to material development topedagogical processes. ESD provides a powerul stimulus and context orcritically examining and challenging gender inequities.



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LEARNING FOR CHANGE

Support teacher educators, teachers and students in developing moreparticipatory approaches to learning and teaching through ESD.

Developing ESD capability also involves pedagogical development.

Collaborative approaches to learning, action competence development,the ability to think critically about inormation and to reect criticallyon behavior are complex skills required by teachers and learners. Manysustainability issues are global in scale and scope making them difcultor school age learners to comprehend. eachers need to be supportedin interpreting these wider environmental, social, and economic issuesin ways that relate to national curricula, and that engage the classroom

learners in ways that are relevant and comprehensible.

NEWORKS, ARENAS AND PARNERSHIPS

Support system-wide capacity development for all professionalgroups and stakeholders involved in education systems.

o date, much o the ESD progress has been at the individual schoollevel. In many regions, ESD advances in developing Sustainable Schools,Green Schools, SAR Schools (Students and eachers Against Racism)etc. have pioneered the way. However, these initiatives have demon-strated that proound change requires a coordinated systemic approach

on a number o ronts. Tose who control the directional and enablingsystemic instruments such as policy ormation, curriculum develop-ment, school construction, examination procedures etc. are crucial to thereorientation. So is also the positive political involvement o unions andother proessional bodies. Underlying all o this is the need or proes-sional development and training to build an inormed and collaborativesystem working with a common purpose.



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ESD IN CURRICULUM

Continue to develop a comprehensive approach to ESD by engaging allcurriculum subject areas and beyond-school learning opportunities.

ESDisnottobetreatedasaseparatesubjectinthecurriculumbutratherawayofdealingwithallthecurriculumsubjects.Involvingmorethan content alone, it should encourage critical dialogue in the classroombyrelatingcurriculumsubjectstowiderenvironmental,economicandsocial issues. Tinking globally is also an important component o ESDand opportunities or international exchange (both actual and virtual)need careul examination.

SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENTINEDUCATIONAL

PRACICE

Support schools in becoming working models of sustainability inpractice.Schools themselves need to reect the values that are inherent in ESD.Te ways in which schools use energy, manage waste, conserve resourcessuch as water and care or their campuses are critical or successul ESD.So too are the social and economic maniestations o ESD. Te ways inwhich gender and other equity issues are modelled are equally signicant.Te reorientations o all o these institutional practices are powerul

learning opportunities or schools, teachers, students and communities.



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RESEARCH

Engage schools, teachers and teacher educators in the creation,communication and utilization of ESD research.

Tere is a clear need or more and better evidence on the nature anddynamics o learning or sustainable development. Te task o genera-ting such evidence is not one that can be carried out by researchers alone.Investments in school-based ESD must encompass strategic support or:practitionerresearchandcurriculumdevelopmentprojectsinESD;thecommunication o ESD research through networks and resources; newresearch collaborations between schools, universities and teacher educa-tion institutions; and research and evaluation training amongst ESD

practitioners and students.



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Higher Education

Authors: John Holmberg, Heila Lotz-Sistka, Bo Samuelsson,

Arjen Wals, Tarah Wright

Higher Education Institutions are in the position to address sus-

tainability in at least ve areas: learning & instruction, content &

curriculum, research, university as an institution and community

linkages. Te principles identied below each relate to these ve

distinct but related areas.



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LEARNING

Higher Education Institutions need to become open ESD centres andhubs.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can become an ESD interacebetween the local and the global community: addressing local sustain-ability issues but also using its global tentacles and networks to takeadvantage o perspectives and expertise grounded in contexts elsewhere.HEI expertise in both ESD and Sustainable Development (SD) needsto be easily accessible to all members o society. Tis expertise needs tobe globally and openly accessible, through or instance, open-source

internet-based platorms to allow or scientists, community groups andindividual citizens rom around the world to contribute to and benetrom this new kind o research. Mechanisms need to be in place thatallow all members o society to contribute to the continuous advance-ment o (E)SD-expertise.

GENDER AND EQUIY

In order to become a sustainable organization Higher EducationInstitutions need to embrace diversity and inclusivity.

HEIs seeking to incorporate sustainability cannot do so without actively

bringing in marginalized and underrepresented groups into all sectors othe university system.

ESD bring an important and oten missing platorm to the universitiesor consider and discuss issues related to diversity and inclusivity, thisinclude such undamental aspects as: gender, equity, power and norms.



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LEARNING FOR CHANGE

Higher Education Institutions need to develop knowledge and educa-tion that penetrates through and transcends disciplines, space, timeand cultures.

Our search or a more sustainable world requires a spirit o innovationand cutting-edge knowledge which can deal with the kind o complexity,uncertainty and risks that characterize sustainable development chal-lenges. HEIs should be challenged to advance systemic thinking by exam-ining connections, relationships and interdependencies. Simultaneously,HEIs should research, develop, and introduce new orms o learningthat can help people understand and engage in sustainable development.

Hence, adequate and robust theories as well as practises o learning andchange need to be developed, researched and shared by multidisciplinaryteams.


PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMEN OSRENGHEN ESD ACROSS ALL SECORS

Higher Education Institutions need to contribute to the develop-ment of (E)SD-competence in all both within and outside the highereducation community.

HEIs have a key role to play in capacity-building and competence de-velopment or (E)SD through its courses, proessional development pro-grammes, community outreach activities, and post-initial education andtraining in both the public and private sector. Developing this role couldhelp various groups in society become more competent in exploring the



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sustainability dimensions o their personal and proessional lives. HEIsshould provide resources or all members o the university communitywho can be considered SD-change agents and or those who wish topursue careers in ESD within or outside the university structure.

ESD IN CURRICULUM

Higher Education Institutions must incorporate sustainabilityconcepts and the implications of sustainability into curricula.

Te use o topics, contexts, examples and case studies that allow sustain-ability to enter even the most disciplinary-oriented programmes and

courses should be encouraged. At the same time new teaching and learn-ing tools, methods and orms o evaluation and assessment need to bedeveloped, introduced and shared that can support such incorporation.

SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENTINPRACTICE

Higher Education Institutions must model sustainability in practice.

HEIs need to consider the repercussions o including sustainability intheir research, teaching and community outreach or their own opera-tions (democratic governance, energy use, waste management, greenbuilding design, ood services, campus mobility, contracting and purchas-

ing policy).



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RESEARCH

Support Sustainability Research.National and transnational research programmes on SD should besupported with structural unding that is not dependent upon private

unding. Such structural unding should be tailored towards research pro-grammes that explicitly emphasize transdisciplinary research ocusing onSD related issues. Tis research, supported by a wide range o method-ologies both old and new, would not only ocus on a better understand-ing o sustainability but also on orms o governance, management,community engagement and citizen participation Researchers seeking tomake a career in this emerging eld need to be supported by their home

institutions.Suchsupportalsomeansthatpublishinginnichejournalsthat may not have ISI (Institute or Scientic Inormation) status butprovide a platorm or integrated research on SD-issues and ESD-issuesshould be actively supported. HEIs should create special appointmentsor those who specialize in sustainability-oriented research.

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Inormal andnon-ormal education

Authors: John Grayson, Mats Havstrm, Karl Magnusson,

Merritt Polk, Birgitta Rang

Inormal and non-ormal learning and education are concepts

which taken together describe the collective learning that takes

place outside o ormal educational systems. Inormal learning

is the learning that takes place in everyday lie in amilies, work

places, clubs, communities on the internet, etc. Non-ormal learn-

ing can be more or less structured and range rom the learning

occurring in study groups, non-governmental organizations, social

movements, youth clubs, churches, olk high schools etc.

Inormal and non-ormal education in all their orms arecharacterized by being voluntary, by active participation and by

the reciprocal exchange o ideas. Tey are an important part o

the concept o lie long learning and occur everywhere, even at

times within ormal education and school systems.



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LEARNING

Promoting a sense o ownership and active citizenship through voluntaryparticipation is the oundation or Sustainable Development (SD), a coreelement in non-ormal and inormal education and should receive the

necessary support.

In order to improve public awareness, all groups o citizens and residentsmust have access to knowledge and inormation about SD, which shouldbe ensured by creating learning arenas or public discussion and action.

Develop and und programs raising awareness o the need or empowered

and educated active citizens and a ree and sel regulated civil society.Also, equal access to ormal democratic processes o voting and politicalorganization should be guaranteed.

GENDER

Promote the use and dissemination o research that deals with dierencesin womens and mens experiences, interests and values, aecting SD.

Make womens contributions, priorities and responsibilities or daily lieand inormal learning, equally visible and acknowledged in inormal andnon-ormal learning processes or SD.

LEARNING FOR CHANGE

In order to meet the need or individuals to take control over their lives,and to change their worlds develop and promote new and more open



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learning environments or inormal and non-ormal learning, such asexperiential learning and go visiting that oster an encompassing andembodied sense o understanding o other places, times, cultures, worldviews, backgrounds and values which promote SD.

Develop inormal and non-ormal learning contexts which are especial-

ly suited or ESD empowerment and political understanding by, orexample, connecting daily actions, interests and needs to wider spheres oactivity and inuence.

Support inormal and non-ormal learning arenas to train skills or con-ict resolution and to combat racism and promote multiculturalism.

Incorporate learners own experiences and needs to sustain daily lieactivities within strategies or SD.


Builduponexistingspacessuchassmallergroupsandorganizations

in NGOs and diverse social movements, libraries, museums, olk highschools, etc, or raising awareness o SD and ESD.

Create places or intercultural and cross sector meetings, which arecrucial ingredients or promoting sustainable societies.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMEN O SRENGHEN

ESD ACROSS ALL SECORS

Acknowledge experience rom inormal or non-ormal learning as animportant skill or career development.


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RESEARCH

Recognize the importance o inormal and non-ormal learning intransdisciplinary and community participatory research contexts whichis oten overlooked and disregarded as a potential contributor to SD andcapacity building. Special eorts should be made to undertake action-oriented research, the results o which can inorm learners, educational

practitioners and policy makers alike.

Use inormal learning processes that are promoted through trans-disciplinary research to more eectively develop the interpersonal andinter-proessional relationships that are necessary to coordinate multi-stakeholder and community actions towards SD.

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Bacground to the

Gothenburg Recommendations

on Education or Sustainable

Development

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Shortly beore the EU summit in Gothenburg in 2001, the University o

Gothenburg and Chalmers University o echnology arranged an inter-national conerence entitled Knowledge and Learning or a SustainableSociety.One conclusion o the conerence was that learning in a broad sense is oundamental importance to the achievement o sustainable development.At the end o the conerence the two vice-chancellors o the University oGothenburg and Chalmers University o echnology delivered a joint oerto the then EU President, Mr Gran Persson, and to Ms Margot Wallstrm,the then EU Environment Commissioner, to create a university networkintended to serve as an independent reviewer on issues concerning sustain-able development. Te Gothenburg Centre or Environment and Sustain-ability (GMV), co-owned by the two universities, was proposed as the lead

actor. Te tasks o the university network also included the arrangement oconerences and seminars.

Tis was the point o departure when the Swedish Prime Minister GranPersson oered at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development inJohannesburg 2002 that Sweden would arrange an international coner-ence on learning or sustainable development. Te conerence was held

Learning or sustainabledevelopment

the Gothenburg story

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in Gothenburg on May 4-7, 2004 and was entitled Learning to ChangeOur World the Gothenburg Consultation or Sustainable Development.Some 350 delegates rom more than 70 countries took part. In connectionwith the closing ceremony o the consultation, the vice-chancellors o thetwo universities oered to jointly host a urther conerence on the samesubject within three years.

o preserve the knowledge and experience gathered at the consultation in2004 and to prepare or the next international conerence in Gothenburg,the GMV initiated our international workshops on learning or sustainabledevelopment in higher education, in school, in preschool and in inormallearning.

Drivers and Barriers for Implementing Learning for Sustainable Develop-ment in Higher Education, December 7-9, 2005

Drivers and Barriers for Implementing Learning for Sustainable Develop-ment in Pre-School through Upper Secondary and eacher Education,March 27-29, 2006

Te Contribution of Early Childhood Education to a Sustainable Society,

May 2-4, 2007 Te Right to Knowledge Public Learning for Sustainable Development.

Laboratory or Democratic Learning, October 11-13, 2007

All the workshops took place in Gothenburg and each produced a report,three o which were published by UNESCO. Te aim and hope was thatthese reports would provide valuable source material or the coming inter-national workshop.

Te nal workshop, Visions and Preparations for a Common Blueprinton Education or Sustainable Development took place in Gothenburg,November 10-12, 2008, at the invitation o the two UNESCO Chairs,Proessor Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, University o Gothenburg, and

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Proessor John Holmberg, Chalmers University o echnology. Some 50delegates rom more than 15 countries took part in the workshop, whichbrought together ESD experts as well as policy-makers and decision-makers. Te Swedish Government contributed to the event through theSwedish International Centre o Education or Sustainable Development(SWEDESD), the Ministry o Education and Research and the SwedishNational Commission or UNESCO. Te purpose o the workshop, basedon the previous work, was to generate recommendations or learning orsustainable development that could be used in many dierent uture pro-cesses, or instance through the UNESCO.

Four groups o experts, one rom each o the earlier workshops (highereducation, school, preschool, and inormal learning), were ormed to

prepare the workshop. Te groups were given the task o preparing specicrecommendations or each educational eld and general recommendationsapplicable to all areas o education. Te groups were asked to build onthe earlier reports. Teir working methods included advanced blogging,e-mailing and internet telephony. Te group recommendations were thennally compiled and ormed the starting point or the nal workshop, No-vember 10-12, 2008. During the rst one and a hal days, the our groups

thoroughly trimmed the specic and general recommendations. In theclosing one and a hal days the our groups were joined by specially invitedpolicy-makers and decision-makers rom all over the world, whose task wasto scrutinise the recommendations rom their perspectives. Tey were alsoto give advice on urther action.

At the end o the workshop, a specially invited proessional negotiator,Mr Svante Bodin from the Swedish Ministry of the Environment, assistedthe group in nalising the document in a consensus-based process. Te naldocument is called Te Gothenburg Recommendations on Education orSustainable Development and calls on governments, civil society, and, inparticular, educators to prioritise processes that develop and strengtheneducation or sustainable development.


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Produced by the Centre or Environment and Sustainability (GMV) with fnancial support rom

the Swedish Ministry o Education and Research, the Swedish National Commission or

UNESCO and the Swedish International Centre o Education or Sustainable Development

(SWEDESD).

Editors: Pernilla Ottosson and Bo Samuelsson, GMV

Photos: StocXpert (page 1, 4, 22, 24, 34), GettyImages (page 42)and Boel erm (page 48)

Design: ormera relam

Print: Esils Tryceri, Bors 2009

ISBN 978-91-976561-6-0

All rights reserved. Reproduction o text and images, in whole or in part, only by written

permission o the publisher.

The Centre or Environment and Sustainability (GMV)

Chalmers University o Technology/University o Gothenburg

SE 412 96 Gteborg, Sweden

www.chalmers.se/gmv

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